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

Dhaka, November 20, 2019 - Media release by Government of Bangladesh: Building on what has been achieved so far, the government and the private sector have committed to working together to solve the challenges in ensuring all garment factories pay their workers digitally. The decision came from the Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit, which convened on 20 November in Dhaka.

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

Leading brands call on other companies and suppliers in Bangladesh to grasp the opportunity to drive inclusion, efficiency, and transparency through wage digitization

Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit

Scaling Digital Wages: An Opportunity for Garment Employees and Manufacturers

The state of social assistance in Africa

New UNDP report titled "State of Social Assistance in Africa" analyzes the recent growth across three foundational dimensions of social assistance in the continent - legal frameworks, institutions and financing. It also discusses why governments are moving away from cash for delivery of social transfers.

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.

Blockchain for Social Business: Principles and Applications

This paper investigates the application of Blockchain technology to address some of the key challenges in the domain of Social Business (SB).

Did you see my tweet?  

#KOT or Kenyans on Twitter community has become an important channel for public discourse on a wide range of topics, including financial services. This FSD Kenya analysis demonstrates the utility of social media (Twitter) analytics tools for monitoring discussions around consumer protection. 

The Role of Digital Financial Inclusion in Preparing for Older Age and Retirements

As populations age and birth rates decline in many parts of the world, digital solutions have an important role to play in ensuring financial well-being for older adults. Globally, the number of people aged 60 years or over has more than doubled since 1980, and the share of older adults is projected to double again by 2050.

Public Financial Management and the Digitalization of Payments

Joint report by the Better Than Cash Alliance, the Center for Global Development, and the Overseas Development Institute, building on work with the International Monetary Fund in 2017.

Do Mothers Prefer Digital Payments over Cash?

In this report, CGDev takes stock of how this move was perceived by them. Control (of finances) and digital literacy are identified as pain points.

Should graduation programmes replace the more conventional cash transfers? 

Read this blog to learn more about the debate on how to make digital government transfers more effective.

L’Agence de la Couverture Maladie Universelle du Sénégal lance une nouvelle plateforme numérique « sunucmu.com »

Communiqué de presse de l’Agence de la Couverture Maladie Universelle du Sénégal (ACMU)

Iraq’s financial inclusion drive boosted by homegrown fintech

Financial Times' special report discusses how the private sector, including Mastercard, and the government are joining forces to promote digital payments in the economy, especially by digitizing welfare payments.

Responding to conflict: Does “Cash Plus” work for preventing malnutrition?

New evidence from "Cash for Nutrition Program" in Yemen suggests that "soft conditionality" (encouraging to attend nutritional education) and effective targeting can play an important role in making cash transfer programs successful. This IFPRI study could be relevant for our humanitarian work. 

Pushing the Limits of Innovation, Improving Social Protection and Livelihoods in Cote d'Ivoire

World Bank joined hands with IFC on a project for digitizing and modernizing Côte d’Ivoire's social protection payments. Results show a reduction in administrative costs and better targeting of beneficiaries. Gender impact was high with 51% of 300K beneficiaries being women. Read more.

Balancing financial inclusion and data protection in South Africa: Black Sash Trust v Minister of Social Development

The article advances the argument that effective participation of social grant beneficiaries in the financial services sector can be realized if personal data protection measures are taken seriously.

Testing the Waters: Digital Payments for Water and Sanitation

Water providers are shifting to digital payments to reduce expenses and streamline delivery. In this report, CGAP and GSMA share lessons learned from 25 organizations, including the challenges they encountered while digitizing payments.

Cash Digitization: UN Collaboration, Coordination, and Harmonization Opportunities