Recent Blogs
Blog
myAgro, HCD, and Supporting Smallholder Savings in Senegal
myAgro, CGAP, and IDEO.org are partnering to use human-centered design to further align product offerings in Senegal with smallholders’ behaviors, needs, and aspirations.Blog
India Digitizes its Merchants in Partnership with the U.S.
A partnership between the U.S. and India will focus on commercial and policy solutions to spur India’s nearly 10 million merchants to accept electronic payments.Blog
Designing Digital Financial Services for Cambodian Smallholders
As Cambodian providers continue to develop innovative new digital financial products and services, tailoring them to the unique needs of smallholder households remains a significant challenge.Blog
Pathways to Self-Reliance for Urban Refugees in Egypt
UNHCR and its Graduation partners Trickle Up and BRAC University decided to test the Graduation Approach with the aim of helping urban refugees in Egypt progress from vulnerability to self-sustainability.Blog
The Good News about the Graduation Approach and What’s Next
At an event on June 4 hosted by CGAP, Ford Foundation, J-PAL and IPA, leading researchers presented findings from their evaluations of the Graduation Approach that show enormous promise.Blog
Why Open APIs Matter: Tech Partnerships Power Development
The potential for open APIs to drive innovation in the mobile money space is tremendous. There are several key elements crucial to the success of any open API ecosystem.Blog
What’s Undermining India’s Financial Inclusion Progress?
The success of India's financial inclusion efforts hinges on one factor above all: the quality of the last-mile banking agent networks that will disburse payments and enable customers to access their bank accounts.Blog
Three Questions for Determining if a New Product is a Deposit
This first post in a new series on deposit insurance and digital financial inclusion focuses on the basic, but not easy question, of how to define a “deposit.”Blog
A December Bonus for Mozambican Farmers
In the Smallholder Financial Diaries, currently underway in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Pakistan, a detailed view of the seasonal cycles that govern smallholder farmer’s lives is becoming clearer.Blog
Can Open APIs Accelerate the Digital Finance Ecosystem?
Open APIs have the potential to provide more opportunities to the financially excluded, allowing users to make and receive secure, convenient, and affordable payments.Blog
Smartphones and Mobile Money: Is the Conventional Wisdom Wrong?
There is a wide consensus that smartphones will change how financial services reach poor people. However, there are three components of conventional wisdom that call for more critical examination.Blog
Cocoa Producers in Côte d’Ivoire: Cash vs. Digital
Branchless banking presents an enormous opportunity for smallholder cocoa producers in Côte d’Ivoire, a client segment that contributes to up to 10% of the countries GDP.Blog
Savings Groups Fuel Digital Design for Smallholders in Rwanda
Interviews with over 75 farmers, banking officials, traders, co-ops, and savings groups in Rwanda offer key insights to drive the design of new digital financial services and products.Blog
Four Ways Energy Access Can Propel Financial Inclusion
Now that mobile money platforms have become widespread, the private sector is using these services to power the delivery of additional services, such as pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar energy.Blog
New Accounts in China Drive Global Financial Inclusion Figures
The 2014 Findex found that of the world’s 500 million newly banked adults, more than one third (180 million) live in China. Three positive trends emerge from this data.Blog
Financial Innovation and Solar Power: Conquering Energy Poverty
Early evidence suggests that more people can get electricity with the help of financial innovation. There are two key ways financial innovation is expanding access to electricity around the world.Blog
Five Things Any Youth Savings Program Needs
Women’s World Banking and Banco ADOPEM present five key lessons about serving youth with financial services.Blog
India’s List of Financial Inclusion Efforts Grows
Since India's Prime Minister announced in February that accounts opened under his national scheme exceeded targets and 41 payments banks applications were submitted, the list of centrally-driven policy interventions has continued to stack up.Blog
Focusing on the Poorest: What Does the Research Tell Us?
A new article in Science explains that the Graduation Approach is not only impressive, but has a lasting impact on the lives of the poorest.Blog