From conditional cash transfers to fintech adoption

This paper looks at the impact of introducing debit cards for conditional cash transfers in urban areas of Mexico.

25 years since Beijing – Spotlight on women!

Newsletter

Digital Wages in Bangladesh Benefit Women

Cote d'Ivoire: Protection sociale et numérique - Mariatou Koné présente les avancées du pays, en Inde

Véronique Tognifodé conduit la délégation béninoise en Inde

Expandiendo los pagos digitales en los programas sociales del Perú

Mobile Coverage and its Impact on Digital Financial Services

"The study finds that the type of mobile coverage provided has a significant effect on the DFS UI and type of mobile phone that can be used for DFS access.Feature phones and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data transactions continue to be the choice for the vast majority users."

Informal Sector and Mobile Financial Services in Developing Countries: Does Financial Innovation Matter?

This paper investigates the impact of mobile financial services - MFS (mobile money, and mobile credit and savings) on the informal sector using data from 101 emerging and developing countries over the period 2000-15.

Inclusive Growth: The Global Challenges of Social Inequality and Financial Inclusion

The book outlines a journey from enabling models of government and business to strategies for creating both financial and social inclusion and entrepreneurism as mechanisms for sustainable and inclusive growth.

Improving Financial Inclusion through the Delivery of Cash Transfer Programmes: The Case of Mexico's Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera Programme

This paper follows a quasi-experimental research design to assess the impact of the electronic payment system of Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera (POP) programme.

Country Diagnostic: The Philippines (2019 edition)

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Government recognize digital payments as a policy priority to enable Filipinos to seize the opportunities of the digital revolution.

In Bangladesh, key public and private sector actors commit to scaling digital wages across garment sector

Call to action: Digitizing workers’ payments in the garment sector in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit

Closing gender gap through fintech

This ADBI brief discusses policy interventions that can help governments in the Asia Pacific region leverage fintech to close the gender gap in financial inclusion. It calls for ensuring tailored services that promote ease of use, flexible regulation to promote access and active coordination among relevant government ministries to enhance financial education. 

The state of social assistance in Africa

The UNDP report analyzes the recent growth across three foundational dimensions of social assistance in the continent - legal frameworks, institutions and financing.

The mobile gender gap: Asia

The top barriers to mobile ownership in Asia are literacy and skills and affordability, with family disapproval also featuring as a major barrier in parts of South Asia.

How greater financial control impacts gender norms

New NBER paper finds that transferring money directly into women's accounts and providing them financial training led to their increased participation in the labor force.

New blockchain for social impact report

The new Stanford Business "Blockchain for Social Impact" report is out! The most common use case among its sample of organizations is records and verification, whereas the challenges cited most often are regulatory. The interviewees reported that launching the project was harder than anticipated.

How to create modern G2P payment systems

New CGAP focus note explores the core idea behind future-ready G2P payments, lays out its advantages and challenges, and describes how governments can create modern G2P payments systems. It draws heavily from ongoing efforts in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.