You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Water’ tag.
> Posted by Ben Mandell, International Programs Manager, Water.org
Access to safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation are true necessities for healthy families. Yet, access rates for water and sanitation remain stubbornly low in most low-income countries. The negative health implications can be dire and include diarrheal disease which can result in premature mortality and childhood malnutrition and stunting. From an economic perspective, “The health consequences of poor sanitation are substantial and contribute to over US$50 billion in GDP loss annually,” according to a new India focused learning note jointly developed by Water.org and the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP).
In the learning note, Water.org and WSP, both active globally in working to expand access to water and sanitation, collaborate to share their research and findings on how household lending can help drive improved water and sanitation uptake as well as provide economic and social benefits to local financial organizations.
Water.org, through its WaterCredit program, provides capacity-building grants and technical assistance to create, pilot, and scale water and sanitation financing. Currently, WaterCredit provides funding to microfinance providers and NGOs to support the creation of programs and these partners then leverage funding from banks and capital markets to disburse loans to people in need. Accordingly, “Water.org has provided US$11.3 million in subsidies to financial institutions and NGO partners worldwide, which in turn have disbursed over US$120 million in loans reaching 2.4 million people.”
> Posted by Madeleine Dy, International Programs Manager, Water.org
More than 100 leaders from the water, sanitation, and finance sectors came together October 21-22, 2014 for the second East Africa WaterCredit Forum in Nairobi to share progress made and to brainstorm lasting solutions to the water and sanitation crisis affecting East Africa. In Kenya, for example, access to safe water supplies is 59 percent and access to improved sanitation is 32 percent.
Water.org, in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, convened the Forum, part of Water.org’s five-year collaboration with the Foundation to bring safe water and sanitation to economically challenged communities in East Africa through the WaterCredit approach. Since 2010, the WaterCredit initiative in Kenya and Uganda has empowered almost 115,000 people to obtain financing from seven financial institutions (FIs) for long‐term, sustainable water and sanitation solutions.
> Posted by Jenn Beard, Global Learning Manager, Water.org
Nearly 800 million people lack access to safe water, and 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation. As many NGOs and microfinance institutions are now discovering, the way forward will include lending to individuals for their water and sanitation (WASH) needs. WASH microfinance is making it possible for the poor to take control in instances where access is difficult. However, most providers in the position to meet this financing opportunity are not yet offering these services. One thing standing in the way is the tools to get institutions started.
The business case for financial institutions to add WASH financial products to their portfolios is significant. A study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation estimated global demand for microfinance for water and sanitation at over US$12 billion between 2004 and 2015. After all, the poor are already spending money in these areas—both directly (purchasing water from vendors/kiosks or paying to use a community toilet) and indirectly (higher healthcare costs and/or lost time and wages while looking for or collecting water). Microfinance providers have highly relevant goals, experience, processes, and outreach activities to play a key role in increasing access to WASH facilities. As financial institutions broaden their services beyond business lending and develop products to more fully address their clients’ diverse financial service needs, WASH financing emerges as a clear opportunity.
> Posted by Center Staff
This week, The Guardian Global Development Professionals Network launched its Financial Inclusion hub, featuring stories, infographics, videos, and other resources on financial inclusion issues worldwide. The hub will be updated regularly over the coming months with original content. The first collection of posts includes:
- Using mobile money to buy water and solar power in East Africa
- Funeral insurance in South Africa: counting the cost of life and death
- Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless and the making of Africa’s first cashless society
- An interactive map on ATMs worldwide
Guardian Professional Network hubs are community-focused sites, where The Guardian brings together advice, best practice, and insight from a range of professional communities. With this week’s launch, financial inclusion is sharing the stage among global development issues such as climate change, global health and nutrition, and urbanization, with the goal of promoting understanding, dialogue, and debate among those working in global development. CFI is a knowledge partner with The Guardian for the Financial Inclusion hub, sharing story and topic ideas and facilitating connections with editors.
Visit the hub at www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/financial-inclusion. You can join the conversation on Twitter using #NOunbanked
Have some ideas for issues and stories that should be investigated as part of the hub? Let us know in the comments.
The huge potential for digital finance to reach the last mile of the financially excluded
> Posted by Peer Stein, Director, IFC Access to Finance Advisory
The Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. This blog series spotlights financial inclusion efforts around the globe, shares insights from the FI2020 consultative process and highlights findings from “Mapping the Invisible Market.”
Last week’s seminar on digital finance at the 2014 World Bank Group / IMF Spring Meetings convened innovators, private sector leaders, and government representatives to discuss the potential innovative business models and new technologies have in reaching and empowering the financially excluded poor and small businesses faster and with greater scale, while contributing significantly to the World Bank Group goal of universal access to finance by year 2020. The session highlighted the diversity of business models that use technology to reach the excluded market segment, showcased by innovators from bKash in Bangladesh, Airtel Money-Africa, and Berlin-based Mobisol operating in rural East Africa.
I’d like to share three key points that emerged from the forum.
First, multi-stakeholder collaboration is a must.
None of the featured innovators is a traditional bank or financial institution but each one realizes the importance of partnering with banks and other players in this dynamic space. For example, bKash was born from a fusion of BRAC Bank and Money in Motion, and continues to operate as a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, holding 80 percent of the mobile money market in Bangladesh. With such an adoption success within two and a half years, recording 90,000 digital money agents and 11.6 million registered users, in the words of Kamal Quadir, CEO, “bKash is now a Bengali verb [synonymous with ‘to send money’].” Chidi Okpala, Director of Airtel Money-Africa, a mobile money service with an active base of 5 million customers, reinforced that one of the factors of success in this diverse market is the need to position your mobile money service for stakeholder collaboration rather than competition. The real competitor is cash. Walt Macnee, president of the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, emphasized the company’s connecting and collaborative role focused on ensuring interoperable platforms among a diversity of players.
> Posted by Danielle Piskadlo, Senior Program Specialist, CFI
Biogas toilet made possible through WaterCredit
An estimated 2.6 billion people in the world lack access to basic sanitation. This reality is a root cause of much sickness and disease throughout the developing world. Like many things, water and sanitation problems disproportionately affect women and children. According to data from WHO/UNICEF, women globally spend an estimated 200 million hours each day collecting water, a child dies every 20 seconds from a water-related illness, and girls often do not attend school during menstruation, or drop out at puberty, due to the lack of clean and private sanitation facilities.
I had never thought much about how toilets might relate to microfinance but lately water, sanitation, and toilets seem to be all I read about.
I was vaguely aware of the efforts of WaterCredit.org to put microfinance tools to work in the water and sanitation sector by connecting MFIs with communities in need of clean water and toilets. I also knew a little bit about Peepoople, the makers of Peepoo, a personal, single-use, self-sanitizing, fully biodegradable toilet that after use, turns into fertilizer that can improve livelihoods and increase food security. This product is not only improving health and livelihood but has also created a series of work opportunities, both formal and informal. Read the rest of this entry »
Facebook
Twitter
Recent Comments