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> Posted by Meghan Greene, Manager, CFI
The Center for Financial Inclusion works with teams of volunteers from Credit Suisse, one group of whom investigated programs that have features in common with the Financial Access at Birth concept. In this post, the group explores Mexico’s path-breaking Oportunidades program.
Government leadership in child finance programs can be both a blessing and a curse, as we outlined in another post. While governments can catalyze rapid scaling, they are also under constant pressure to reduce costs, and thereby may cut corners on key components, such as adequate marketing and advertising. Further, programs that receive their funding from the government are subject to the whims of budget decision making, as evidenced by the abrupt end to the UK’s Child Trust Funds.
Is it possible to design a program that can incorporate the advantages of government engagement while also minimizing potential pitfalls? Many turn to the Oportunidades conditional cash transfer program in Mexico for an example of the best-case scenario. In fact, Oportunidades seems to have come up in many CFI blog discussions in the last few months (see here, here, and here!). In this post we briefly explain what the Oportunidades program is and what makes it so successful.
> Posted by Meghan Greene, Manager, CFI
In the run up to this year’s U.S. presidential election, there has been much controversy over the topic of voter IDs. Seeking to curb voter fraud, numerous states have sought to implement stronger voting ID laws that would require prospective voters to present government-issued photo identification such as a drivers license or non-driver state ID. Additionally, last week the Supreme Court agreed to review Arizona’s law, which would require voters to demonstrate citizenship (via a document such as a passport or birth certificate).
Do many Americans really lack ID? As it turns out, yes. In a 2006 study , the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law found that 11 percent of American adults – or more than 21 million people – do not have a government-issued photo ID. This group is composed disproportionately of elderly, minorities, and low income persons: Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Meghan Greene, Manager, CFI
FAB (Financial Access at Birth) has been working with volunteers from Credit Suisse who helped dig deeper into the assumptions behind FAB and identify cutting-edge research on child and youth finance.
The Financial Access at Birth initiative (FAB) aims to equip every child in the world with a funded savings account at birth – an ambitious goal that would certainly require input and support from government entities. With that in mind, we set out to examine and learn from government-led examples of child and youth finance.
Governments have approached child and youth finance in many different ways. Some regions are testing universal funded savings accounts, and others are testing conditional cash transfers (CCTs) that provide incentives for educational achievement. Some programs are led by city or state governments in partnership with private entities, while others are fully implemented and funded by national governments. With such a diversity of approaches, are any overarching lessons emerging? The Credit Suisse volunteers studied examples from the United States to Colombia to South Africa to find a cross-section of the various asset-transfer or asset-building programs. They found the following takeaways:
> Posted by Meghan Greene
Today marks the first annual celebration of International ChildFinance Day, an initiative launched by Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI). Child & Youth Finance International is a collaborative effort among banking networks, NGOs, multilaterals, private sector partners, and academics to build a movement toward appropriate financial products and services that help children and youth build assets and more secure futures. The organization is in its infancy itself, having been founded only in July of last year. Despite its young age, though, CYFI has big ambitions: by 2015 it hopes to extend to 100 million children and youth in 100 countries access to quality financial products and services, as well as financial education.
Having worked on the Financial Access at Birth (FAB) program, we’re quite familiar with ambitious goals that are at once daunting and exhilarating. FAB’s concept is to extend financial inclusion by offering every child born a unique identification number and a $100 savings account, accessible via mobile and electronic branchless banking. It’s an exciting idea that would build on the power of incentives to achieve scale, sustainability, and impact, and it’s founded on many of the same ideals and ideas that motivate CYFI’s leaders and collaborators. Over the past several months, FAB has explored partnerships with a variety of experts who have the knowledge and skill sets to make this big idea a reality, and we continue to be impressed by the breadth of knowledge and generous spirit of our peers. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Holly Padgett
Can financial access and citizenship feasibly begin at birth? According to the Financial Access at Birth (FAB) initiative, with the right resources and momentum, it can. Bhagwan Chowdhry, FAB’s founder, recently published an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) that highlights the main ideas behind FAB and addresses some of the tough questions raised by supporters of the program.
The aim of FAB is to provide an initial deposit – say $100 – in an electronic savings account for every child at the time of birth. The bank account would be paired with a universal ID and mobile technology, creating a powerful system of incentives that would foster financial inclusion and possibly access to other services. Ultimately this system would lay the “plumbing” for numerous social, financial, and health services. According to Chowdhry, “it is an investment for an economically democratic society”. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Rosita Najmi
Ólafur R. Grímsson (President of Iceland), Rajendra Pachauri (Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and Bhaghwan Chowdhry (Founder, Financial Access at Birth) (l-r) present at PopTech 2011.
Planning a vacation or how to spend your professional development budget? I could not more highly recommend an investment of time and resources than PopTech’s next gathering. You can think of it as a luxurious intellectual cruise, where you consume delicious visions for the future, innovations to improve lives, arts to stimulate the mind and heart, and fellow passengers with whom to dream — and more importantly, take on future adventures and paths of service.
FAB was honored to be a participant in PopTech 2011. You can get a sense of what this gathering is like by viewing this recording and this follow-up written interview. Namely, PopTech convenes an eclectic mix of thought leaders and visionaries and invites them to share their ideas and progress towards realizing them through a number of activities, including 20-minute presentations. These are not the typical PowerPoint-filled plenary presentations or panels to which you’re accustomed at other conferences. The day FAB was on stage, for example, examined the themes of rebalancing, reframing, restoring and researching; presentations were made by a family historian, a Nobel Prize winner, a space suit developer, and a president. The same day, an iPad app was launched; a funky band played; and we met a slew of impressive young scientists and innovators. The experience was truly a cynicism evaporator. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Center Staff
A Freedom from Hunger Youth Savings Group in Mali.
Worth checking out at the SEEP Network Blog: a piece on savings by CFI Program Manager Rosita Najmi.
Najmi’s guest post, like the Formal Savings Track of the 2011 SEEP Annual Conference from which it emerges, tackles several questions facing the industry:
- Is there a business case?
- How do I design a savings product that is relevant and that clients will value?
- What changes do I need to manage in order to add savings to my suite of products and services?
- What do we do differently to provide savings opportunities for youth?
To read more, we invite you to click here on “Scaling Up Formal Savings: Lessons from the SEEP Annual Conference.”
Have you read?
Promoting Formal Financial Savings: Know Your Goal, Know Your Competition
What’s ‘A FAB Idea’? Financial Access at Birth, Says ‘The Economist’
At the Gates Foundation, Savings Is It
> Posted by Rosita Najmi
Financial Access at Birth (FAB) recently completed a preliminary needs assessment and feasibility study for its first pilot and is eager to introduce its findings to potential donors and implementation partners. More on that soon…
In the meantime, we write to acknowledge the rich learning and exchange of ideas we enjoyed through participating in the 2011 SEEP Network annual conference.
Day 1: FAB spent Member Day with associates of the SEEP Savings-Led Financial Services Working Group. With a focus on informal savings groups, the Working Group reported on an October 2011 gathering it organized, the Arusha Savings Groups Summit, which brought together over 250 savings groups practitioners, representing 46 countries. The format of the conference was participatory and included debates, research presentations, small group discussions, and a World Café exercise to share ideas on how better to collaborate and achieve impact. In addition to a follow-up conference in September 2012 (organized by Oxfam America, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation, and SEEP), the summit resulted in the creation of a publication with six chapters on themes of importance to the industry that were discussed at the event. These themes include the need for savings groups, related delivery channels, linkage of savings groups to formal financial services, savings-led development, development-led savings, and more. Among the contributing authors to this publication will be Jeff Ashe, Susan Johnson, Joanna Ledgerwood, Paul Rippey, Kim Wilson, and Megan Gash. We can all look forward to the publication in early 2012. In the meantime, enjoy this excellent website and blog regarding savings groups. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Rosita Najmi
Disclaimer: The following is not an official endorsement by this blog or its host organization. It is a personal reflection of the author and an unabashed promotion of an upcoming workshop on Wednesday, November 2nd, at the SEEP Network Conference.
“MONEY: a bank account parent and teen manage together” was the subject line of an email I received in late September from one of my personal banks, ING Direct. The opening line of the message that introduced me to one of its newest products was “It’s a learner’s permit for handling money.”
“Genius,” I thought. It was yet another proud moment I experienced as a customer of ING Direct. In case you are not familiar with the financial service provider represented by an orange lion, ING Direct is the ING Group’s brand for a branchless direct bank with operations in a number of countries in Western Europe and North America. It offers services over the web, phone, ATM, or by mail. Operations in the United States began in 2000, and ING Direct is a member of the FDIC. It took me a few years to sign up, but I eventually did because their business plan allowed ING Direct to provide the most competitive saving rates that I could find. Namely, they reduced costs through branchless banking among other innovations. Although I did not have a huge amount to save, every penny by which my savings could grow larger mattered. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Rosita Najmi
Every fall, PopTech convenes an eclectic mix of thought leaders and visionaries in Camden, Maine. This year, Bhagwan Chowdhry (member, CFI’s Faculty Council) and Rosita Najmi (CFI Program Manager) will be among the 700+ who join the 15th annual celebration for the intellectually engaged. You can participate from your computer and for free via simulcast.
PopTech is a unique innovation network — a global community of cutting-edge leaders, thinkers, and doers from many different disciplines, who come together to explore the social impact of new technologies, the forces of change shaping our future, and new approaches to solving the world’s most significant challenges. PopTech is known for its thriving community of thought leaders, breakthrough innovation programs, visionary annual conferences, and deep media and storytelling capabilities.
PopTech’s mission is to accelerate the positive impact of world changing people, projects, and ideas. This is achieved by creating transformational experiences that showcase the ideas, trends, challenges and opportunities that are shaping the future. PopTech fosters breakthrough, multidisciplinary collaborations that help individuals, companies and organizations work together to change the world. Participating in PopTech offers a firsthand glimpse of the future, and a chance to influence innovation. Read the rest of this entry »
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