Strategic Objective 4 from the IAA supports the development, the organization and promotion of the actuarial profession in areas of the world in which it is not present or is not fully developed.

A committee ‘Advice and assistance’ is dedicated to this strategic objective. Three subcommittees exist in September 2012: Africa, Asia and South America and concentrate on the continents as put in their name. The Section ‘Actuaries Without Borders’ seeks to make available actuarial services through volunteer efforts to assist as well.

Those efforts have indeed contributed to the promotion through its regular ‘(sub)continental’ congresses, regular in-person meetings between ‘locals’ and representative members of the IAA, local initiatives from actuaries. But at a distance, it sometimes looks as the pace is too low projecting ‘western’ principles. Also at a distance, one does not have access to unbiased information.

This panel, including actuarial students/actuaries from Africa, Asia and Latin America will first provide you some inside information guiding you and IAA in the future and afterwards, afterwards the floor will be given to each participant of this meeting. Each member speaks in his/ name and from his day-to-day experience. The panel does not have the pretention to generalize, should others in the audience believe their ‘case’ is in discordance with what the panel will tell. At the end, the panel will formulate concerns which may guide the various instances of the IAA while continuing the promotion and the development of the actuarial profession in developing countries.

The following topics will be dealt with:

-          Comprehension of the actuarial profession in the developing countries

-          The actuarial profession in laws, acts, regulations, etc for insurance industry and social security

-          The environment (education, socio-economical, political,…)

-          The cost of becoming an actuary

-          The local and/or distance mentoring by fully qualified actuaries

-          The job market

-          Do we need actuaries or actuarial technicians for the time being?

-          The drain brain

-          Etc – maybe other topics will come up when the panel is ‘completed’