Transcript
PFIP's regional insurance specialist Michael Carr says the focus groups were employers and employees from private-sector jobs in Apia.
Mr Carr says two focus group sessions ran with a approximately 25 people combined surveyed.
"As part of the focus groups we gave a commitment to have findings from the focus group anonymised and aggregated, so we never reveal the particular individuals or the particular companies who were participating in the focus groups, but from the employers it did represent a good mix of small, medium and larger employers in Apia."
He says participants would consider insurance plans if it was affordable.
"When we look at funeral expenses insurance, affordability and access and comfort with the way it's been promoted, the types of messages that going to be used to explain what it's about and the types of benefits that it can deliver, these are also crucial and we'll be doing further focus groups to talk around these themes, so that when we do, if and when an insurance company does move forward to provide this product, it's targeted appropriately."
Samoa-based PFIP's Financial Inclusion Specialist Amit Kumar says that it's not a social practice in Samoa to have any form of insurance.
"In Samoa, saving for your funeral is not something that people practice. Families generally rely on the communal support system, so extended families and family members who live overseas and other members of their church and to a large extent they also rely on extra borrowing."
The organisation did a National Demand Site Survey in 2015, which showed 21 per cent of Samoan adults had some form of insurance.
Mr Kumar says the numbers are less for low income families, which is why they're looking into funeral insurance products to support them as well as avoid families turning to money lenders.
"You are anyway going through an emotionally stressful period and then once you come out of that emotional stressful period in that three months time you find yourself, 'oh I am under debt of 10,000 tala.' You do not get such loans from formal institutions. You typically get them from friends, from employers, through money lenders, so you think from that context if people have access to a product such as Funeral Expenses Insurance, it has the potential to ease at least the financial burden as well as the you know how people do the fa'alavelaves."
Our Samoan correspondent Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia says families are more inclined to be traditional when it comes to funeral costs.
Autagavaia says it'll take a few years for Samoans to catch on and consider insurance.
"When you talk about a funeral in Samoa, every Samoan living overseas knows exactly what they're going to prepare to bring to Samoa. Lots of money, lots of fine mats and lots of food because Samoan funerals are very expensive, I tell you. I believe Samoa is very very very different how they feel about their loved ones when they prepare a funeral, whether they are a low income family because in Samoa everyone contributes, everyone shows their love of the person."
A Samoan father Samuela Sefuiva says funeral insurance should be something families discuss seriously.
"Our people should consider it as a serious option, but the reality is that we're such a low wage economy in Samoa that there are other priorities that come into place and also I think that's a conversation that our individual families want to be having because at the end of the day, our loved ones who pass on, we want to make sure that they leave with dignity."
The organisations promoting the idea will conduct more focus groups to see if this type of product would receive a positive response in Samoa.
This is Sela Jane Aholelei.
