Actuaries Helping Social and Financial Development: An Introduction to Actuaires du Monde
By Renata De Leers
International News, July 2024
Created in November 2020, Actuaires du Monde (Actuaries of the World in English) is a non-profit organization registered in France founded to continue the activities of the “Actuaries without Borders” Section of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) after the section’s dissolution on Dec. 31, 2020.
Our association's primary goal is to catalyze the social and financial development of emerging and developing countries, thereby humbly supporting the achievement of sustainable development goals for the benefit of the public interest. How? By promoting financial education, organizing seminars/webinars on actuarial techniques and risk management tailored to local contexts, offering remote mentoring, and fostering financial inclusion, microfinance and inclusive insurance.
It’s a community of the global actuarial profession, whose mission is to promote the public good globally, focusing on countries that lack the actuarial resources and often also financial resources needed to create productive, sustainable, and stable markets for insurance and other risk mitigation.
Members of Actuaires du Monde (AdM) have many opportunities to network with a socially engaged group of actuaries during our various activities. Activities include off-site and on-site AdM projects.
In 2022, we organized a successful congress in Skopje. The 2nd congress took place in Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina), May 30–31, 2024 for members and interested persons from the financial services industry, supervisors and actuaries from and outside the Balkan. The co-hosts of the congress were the Actuarial Association in Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Supervisory Agency of the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Actuaires du Monde will also participate the JoCo2024 in Brussels, more specifically through three sessions on Sept. 25, 2024.
For the adventurous volunteering members, there may be opportunities for a field trip—like the month members spent contributing on a financial inclusion project (see example below) or only for a couple of days teaching in a faraway country where electricity, internet and water are luxury. It is an opportunity to share our members' acquired experiences and expertise with young professionals in low- or middle-income countries eager to become members of our global actuarial community.
When teaching a subject, we tailor the material to the local environment considering insurance regulations, jurisdiction, socio-economic factors, culture and the insurance environment. This is different from tutoring for a professional exam of the big actuarial associations or teaching a CPD class in a mature market. Such an in-person volunteering opportunity may be an occasion to see the actuarial world differently and to understand that the needs in our target countries are different from high-income countries.
Example of a Financial Inclusion Project: Development of Health Microinsurance Program
The Order of Malta Hospital, located in the small town of Elavagon in Togo, is deeply committed to the well-being of the local population. However, significant challenges persist in ensuring access to health care services:
- Many individuals struggle to afford hospital expenses, leading to financial barriers to care.
- A substantial portion of the population refrains from seeking medical treatment due to financial constraints.
Consequently, the hospital faces both moral and financial dilemmas in providing essential health care services. In response to these challenges, the hospital has sought the expertise of Actuaires du Monde to collaborate on the development of a health microinsurance plan. This plan aims to address the financial burdens associated with hospitalization by providing accessible and affordable coverage to the community. The ultimate goal is to ensure that all individuals in Elavagon have equitable access to quality health care services.
For those of our members who cannot travel because of professional or personal reasons, there are opportunities to manage an on-site project at a distance. We ask our members to be very communicative and upfront of any hurdle imaginable in a project in a distant country and consider providing help to the AdM volunteers to prepare for their mission—such as assisting with review of prepared materials and other logistics. Most of the time our members may need to “pilot” the requestor in the field. There are opportunities for creative work at a distance where our members can learn more about the projects without flying around the world.
Finally, we also have a mentorship program with actuarial mentees residing mainly in Africa and looking for a mentor to guide them in their work and or eventual future path to become a qualified actuary. As for the workshops and seminars, volunteer mentors need to get well prepared. The environment of the mentee is simply not comparable with the one of the mentor sitting in an office in North America. These mentee-mentor sessions aim to lay the groundwork properly for success of young actuarial professionals, who may be leaving their home country without actuarial and STEM skills, hindering further development.
You can find press releases of our past activities on the AdM website.
We firmly believe being a member of Actuaires du Monde and supporting its volunteer opportunities can help progress access to finance and insurance to countries in need and make a better world. It is an important time to be involved in financial inclusion and capacity building in low- and intermediate-income countries.
We welcome ideas about potential opportunities for AdM volunteer work or about sponsors willing to assist us.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.
Renata De Leers is a member of the Institute of Actuaries in Belgium and co-founder & managing director of Actuaires du Monde. She can be reached at contact@actuairesdumonde.org.