What we read at the MIC this week

• Key regulator workshop to drive the development of insurance markets for the poor 
• The workshop took place 5 - 7 April and was attended by supervisors from central banks, insurance commissions and private insurance companies from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu. "A first of its kind, the workshop is focused on encouraging and inspiring insurance regulators and supervisors to design, develop and implement policies and frameworks to permit and encourage the growth of inclusive insurance markets and the supply of more affordable insurance products that are targeted at lower income people and communities".
• Insurance company drops 'discriminatory' policy on suicide attempts
• Desjardins Group sets an example for both the traditional and microinsurance industries by dropping this discriminatory exclusion from their policy. "The only ethical course is to give people who have self-harmed the same support a person would get who is harmed by any other means. If not, I hope that companies who care for all of their employees will vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere".
• Barclays, Techstars select 10 startups for Cape Town accelerator 
• Tanzanian company and microinsurance platform Edgepoint selected as one of 10 companies chosen for the accelerator program. Edgepoint projects include bimaAFYA and bimaSHAMBA, a micro-health product and agri-expert IVR product respectively. 
• Is there a business case for microinsurance in Africa?
•  A blog post which gives an in-depth overview of Module 2 of the Expert Forum Series on Microinsurance in Africa which took place on 24 March. The 3rd and final module of this series will take place on 14 April - you can register here.