Mobile money clients outside an a2i center in Rajabari, Bangladesh. Photo: UNSGSA/Ismael Ferdous.
Kamala is walking home after buying food for her family with money she received through a government social...
July 07, 2021
Editor's note: This is the third in a series of posts about adapting an ongoing policy project about digital payments with Bangladesh’s government to the current COVID-19 crisis. While the characters in this article, Kamala and her daughter, are fictional, their experience is based on that of many women IPA interviewed in our latest monitoring survey.
Media Coverage
April 30, 2021
IPA founder Dean Karlan speaks alongside banking and financial inclusion experts and providers on NPR's Studio 1A program. Among the many points discussed was research showing mixed effectiveness of many well-intentioned financial inclusion efforts, including small loans designed to build credit scores for those previously outside the financial system. A randomized evaluation conducted with IPA found the average impact was zero, but that was because the loans helped some and hurt others. Karlan points out the need for more systematic testing of financial products designed to help the poor...
April 20, 2021
As part of IPA’s ongoing research around the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, we recently held a webinar with the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network highlighting key results of the second round of the RECOVR surveys in Zambia and Rwanda. This blog post summarizes the main findings of the survey in Zambia and policy recommendations. Click here for the blog for Rwanda.
In both countries, there are pockets of progress, including continued adherence to certain virus mitigation measures and promising acceptance rates for vaccinations. Education remains a key concern for parents of...
February 18, 2021
This piece was first published on the blog of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) here.
A group of women in Sierra Leone interviewed during the research process. Photo: United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
How many consumers share their PIN with someone else? Which consumers are more likely to pay more fees on their bank accounts? These are the kinds of questions that need to be asked when developing consumer protection policies. But the answers to these questions don’t appear in the reports banks submit to their regulators, or in the documents...
February 04, 2021
In July 2020, we highlighted Sierra Leone’s experience confronting COVID-19 from the vantage point of a fragile state—one that lived through civil war and, more recently, another acute public health crisis with Ebola in 2014, as well as a damaging mudslide in Freetown in 2017. Drawing on lessons learned from Ebola, Sierra Leone moved to close schools at the end of March, instituted a series of lockdowns in April and May, closed land borders for several months, and instituted a national mask mandate beginning in June. The government also prioritized more community-focused, tailored...
Media Coverage
January 05, 2021
La República covers the impact of an IPA-valued VAT cash assistance program on building household financial resilience during the pandemic.
December 29, 2020
Editor’s Note: this is the second in a series of posts about adapting an ongoing policy project about digital payments with Bangladesh’s government to the current COVID-19 crisis.
In the first blog post of this series published in May, IPA was newly transitioning to phone surveys during the pandemic. IPA has been working with A2i, a branch of the Bangladesh government which helps to ensure access to public services, to help monitor the digitization process of government social support payments to three vulnerable populations: elderly pensioners, widows, and disabled people by transitioning...
Media Coverage
September 29, 2020
Vox reviews recent updates and evidence in mobile money, including a study on the impact of providing access to mobile money accounts in Kenya. The piece reflects on how research like this can inform efforts to support the world's unbanked people.
July 10, 2020
By Charles Amoatey, Elliott Collins, and Madeleen Husselman
In March, Ghana, like much of the world, adopted social distancing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Measures included the closings of schools and universities, suspension of gatherings of over 25 people, and partial lockdowns in major urban areas.
So far, like most West African countries, Ghana has avoided the worst of the virus’s health toll. However, in low- and middle-income countries like Ghana, the pandemic’s socio-economic consequences may exceed the immediate health ones and even cost more lives....
Media Coverage
June 29, 2020
In Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, IPA's Director of Financial Inclusion Rebecca Rouse and researcher Farah Said discuss the threat that COVID-19 poses to Pakistan's microfinance sector. The op-ed draws on findings from an IPA-funded study in which Said and her co-researchers surveyed microenterprise owners soon after the pandemic's onset. More information about the study, including the full working paper, is available here.
May 22, 2020
Editor’s Note: this is the first in a series of posts about adapting an ongoing policy project about digital payments with Bangladesh’s government to the current COVID-19 crisis.
On one of many trips to Bangladesh, I met Rohima, whose story stuck with me. At the age of 22, Rohima moved from a rural village, leaving behind her two young children under the care of their grandparents, so she could work in one of the many Dhaka garment factories. The list of challenges she had to immediately figure out (and with no formal education) was staggering—how to get around, her new...
April 23, 2020
Across IPA’s 22 country offices, we partner with several dozen government ministries. In recent weeks, a new policy priority has arrived on most every policymaker’s agenda: responding to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis.
Many of the countries where we work are still bracing for the worst of the pandemic’s impacts, and early action is critical for saving lives and livelihoods. Our partnerships with policymakers have allowed us to see how the impacts of the pandemic will be interpreted and addressed by decision-makers globally—from strains on health systems to...
Media Coverage
March 17, 2020
Kenya's The Standard reports on a new IPA-funded study with the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) and Financial Sector Deepening (FSD-Kenya) to address common digital credit market and consumer protection issues.
March 05, 2020
Sunday, March 8 is International Women’s Day. To mark the occasion, staff members from IPA’s Financial Inclusion and Small & Medium Enterprise programs are highlighting some readings they find insightful, especially as they pertain to new thinking about women’s entrepreneurship and access to finance in low- and middle-income countries.
Elizabeth Koshy, Program Manager, Small & Medium Enterprises
I really like the Household Matters paper by Arielle Bernhardt, Erica Field, Rohini Pande, and Natalia Rigol. Previous studies from Ghana and Sri Lanka had shown that...
Media Coverage
February 25, 2020
IPA's Director of Consumer Protection, Rafe Mazer speaks in African Business Magazine on the importance of ensuring that Kenya's fast-growing financial technology sector provides inclusive products and services. Mazer also explains on IPA's blog how the new $5.4 Million initiative he directs aims to help protect consumers in four countries from poor or predatory digital financial services.
