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New Key to Help Unlock the Power of Digital Payments
Across the global policy community, the jury is now in about the power of digital payments to drive financial inclusion, particularly for women and the poor; improve efficiency and transparency in business and government; and support new economic opportunities. However, there is no consensus around the specific policy mix that will enable this potential to be fully realized.
Blog Post
Factories paying workers digitally are five times more likely to provide good social and labor practices
New data gathered from the Higg Index from 3,000 factories in 58 countries
Blogs & stories
Dollars and Change-Podcast
Wharton Business Radio hosts Better Than Cash Alliance on the “Dollars and Change” podcast.
Resource
Digital Health Report 2018
The Promise of Digital Health: Addressing Non-communicable Diseases to Accelerate Universal Health Coverage in LMICs
Blog Post
Ethiopia: “Mobile money doubled my number of customers in just three years”
By Oswell Kahonde and Angela Corbalan
Blog Post
The Digital Payments Opportunity: A Conversation
This blog was originally published on BSR.org
Blog Post
Why cash is a problem for businesses around the globe
This blog was originally published on The Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business
Blog Post
Why having less cash can mean a better life
A third of adults struggle to get by without basic financial services to protect against hardship and save for the future. Ruth Goodwin-Groen, of the UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance, explains why moving from cash to digital payments can help reduce poverty and drive inclusive growth.
Report
The Future of Supply Chains: Why Companies are Digitizing Payments
New report underscores benefits of shifting from cash to digital payments in corporate supply chains
Case Study
Increasing factory worker well-being through digital payroll
Leading apparel companies have collaborated with each other on the BSR Herfinance program to improve worker well-being through payroll digitization.
Report
10 reasons to be optimistic that full financial inclusion is possible through digital payments
The past decade has seen great strides in building awareness of the global financial inclusion agenda, and very positive steps in achieving tangible change.
Media Release
Gap Inc. Sets New Goal For Apparel Suppliers To Pay Garment Workers Digitally By 2020
Joins UN-based Better than Cash Alliance to Promote Financial Inclusion and Greater Supply Chain Transparency and Efficiency
Blog Post
In India, digital payments are changing the game for women entrepreneurs
This blog post was originally published in the Huffington Post
Media Release
Unilever raises the bar on private sector leadership to achieve the SDGs through digital payments
In a significant step towards integrating social benefits into business strategy, the UN-based Better Than Cash Alliance announced its newest member: Unilever.
Resource
Digitizing Value Chain Finance for Smallholder Farmers
This brief examines three key use cases for digital financial services in agricultural value chains.
Media Release
UN report: Social network payments now reach nearly US $3 trillion in China
Payments on messaging and e-commerce platforms set to increase China’s GDP by $236 billion by 2025, unlocking new economic opportunities for people and small businesses
Blog Post
Why Women Workers and Managers Prefer Electronic Wage Payments in Bangladesh
Payday can be an ordeal for women garment workers in Bangladesh. Often, they must wait in long lines, carry wads of cash through crowded streets, or encounter a mother-in-law demanding money.
Blog Post
How Digital Payments Are Connecting People With Opportunities To Improve Their Lives
This blog post was originally published in the Huffington Post
Resource
The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money (Science)
This article shows how the increased access to mobile money has increased long term consumption in Kenya and reduced the number of households in extreme poverty.
Report
Accelerators to an Inclusive Digital Payments Ecosystem
Many governments have already realized major benefits by digitizing payments. Yet these successes also raise important questions. Why are so many developing and emerging countries only in the early stages of their journey to cashless? Why haven’t successes been rolled out more widely?
Resource
G20 High Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion
G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion
Blog Post
Responsible Digital Payments: Reducing the risks that come with new opportunities
It’s all at our fingertips. The possibility to make a payment. The delight of receiving one. From Peru to Rwanda to India, people, governments and businesses are increasingly making their payment transactions digitally, whether by mobile phone, by card or online.
Resource
Alliance featured in Anatalya outcome document
Better Than Cash Alliance featured in Anatalya Comprehensive High-level Midterm Review
Media Release
El camino de México hacia la inclusión financiera empieza con el compromiso de reducir el uso del efectivo
Una de las economías más grandes de América Latina mantiene el ritmo de crecimiento al unirse a la Alianza Better Than Cash de las Naciones Unidas para fomentar una economía de inclusión financiera
Media Release
Mexico’s route to financial inclusion begins with commitment to reduce the use of cash
One of the largest economies in Latin America keeps growth momentum going by joining the United Nations’ Better Than Cash Alliance to foster a financially inclusive economy
Resource
Digital Finance Energy
This brief explains how digital finance is enabling PAYG energy expansion, which in turn provides a gateway to a range of financial products for the financially excluded.
Blog Post
In the hands of women: A reflection on the gender gap in financial inclusion
Did you ever wonder why there is not an International Men’s Day? There actually is such a day, by the way—it’s on November 19th, but there aren’t too many people marking it with a night off from cooking or cleaning or childcare for the guys!
Resource
Guide to the Use of Digital Financial Services in Agriculture
This guide is based on four in-country assessments conducted jointly by the USAID Bureau for Food Security’s (BFS) Office of Market and Partnership Innovations (MPI), the U.S. Global Development Lab DFS team and USAID’s FHI 360-led Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR) project.
Blog Post
Ugandan farmers – majority women - devise new mobile solution
Farmers are adapting mobile technology to meet market needs and drive progress on their own terms rather than waiting for telecommunications companies to deliver solutions
Blog Post
Digital Financial Services Can Help Bring Millions of Women Into the Workforce
by Leora Klapper and Ruth Goodwin-Groen
Report
Digital Financial Solutions to Advance Women’s Economic Participation
How governments, private sector and development organizations can bring more women into the global economy through digital financial services
Resource
Investing In Girls: Opportunities for Innovation in Girl-Centered Cash Transfers
Investing In Girls: Opportunities for Innovation in Girl-Centered Cash Transfers
Resource
How advancing women’s equality can add $12 trillion to global growth
Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge.
Blog Post
UN Secretariat set to boost digital payments within UN system
On behalf of the United Nations’ Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Ms. Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Controller, announced that the UN Secretariat had just joined the Better Than Cash Alliance, committing to transitioning payments from cash to digital within the UN system.
Blog Post
Going the distance: How harnessing digital payments can help deliver on the SDGs
by Tidar Wald, Government and Corporate Relations Specialist at Better Than Cash Alliance
Media Release
Media Briefing - Making cash history
Making cash history: How digital payments can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals
Media Release
Pakistan Plans to Bring Millions More Citizens into the Economy by Digitizing Payments
Government of Pakistan joins the United Nations' Better Than Cash Alliance to create inclusive economic growth and a more efficient market structure
Blog Post
Three ways financial providers can improve digital financial services for women
by Emilia Klimiuk and Lisa Kienzle of Grameen Foundation
Video
Ruth Goodwin-Groen, MD, Better Than Cash Alliance, speaks about the social promise of digital money.
Blog Post
Closing the gender gap in mobile phone access and use
Guest post by Shireen Santosham, GSMA Connected Women
Blog Post
The Better Than Cash Journey: Mercy Corps & Women’s World Banking
This is the first in a series of articles on the achievements of several Better Than Cash Alliance members
Blog Post
Digital payments can empower women
Re-posted from the “Beyond the Transaction” Mastercard blog
Blog Post
Women’s World Banking offers lessons for creating a successful agency banking network
As we approach International Women’s Day on March 8th, Women’s World Banking reflects on a learning exchange with three African banks committed to serving low-income women.
Blog Post
Paving the Way for Responsible Digital Finance
By Beth Porter, Policy Advisor, Financial Inclusion, UNCDF, Advisor, Better Than Cash Alliance
Media Release
Women’s World Banking Joins the Better Than Cash Alliance
One Million Low-Income People to Reap Benefits of Digital Money
Blog Post
Why Women Remain an Untapped Potential in Mobile Money
It’s hard to imagine a more explosive, transformative, and empowering trend than the growth of the mobile phone sector in Africa. In 1998 there were fewer than 4 million phones on the continent; today there are around 800 million—a whopping 80 percent penetration. Compare this to the meager 24 percent of African adults with bank accounts. Experts expect there will be around 1.1 billion mobile phone subscribers by 2017.
Resource
Unlocking the Potential-Women and Mobile Financial Services in Emerging Markets
Unlocking the Potential
