The U.S. Global Development Lab at USAID is making investments to advance inclusive digital infrastructure that allows for safe, affordable, and relevant financial services for the poor. The recent 2015 Financial Inclusion Forum, led by USAID and US Treasury, reaffirmed the signifiance of these investments, and the importance of capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practice.

Building on outcomes of the 2015 Financial Inclusion Forum, USAID, through its partnership with Mobile Solutions Technical Assistance and Research (mSTAR), is collecting recent learnings and approaches by USAID implementing partners that promote or utilize digital financial services to accelerate development outcomes.

• How does digital finance support specific sectors in accelerating development outcomes? (e.g., improved lending to smallholder farmers; improvements in agriculture value chain relationships and transaction costs; improved resilience among populations recovering from conflict or natural disaster)

• How can USAID effectively engage and support digital finance service providers to offer new or better digitally-enabled, pro-poor financial services (i.e. savings, credit, payments, insurance)?

• What are some ways USAID can improve the enabling environment (policies, regulations, infrastructure development etc.) for digital financial inclusion?

• How can donor programs promote responsible design and delivery of digital financial services, whether via policy or industry-led efforts to mitigate consumer risks?

• What steps can be taken to catalyze digital services for payments to the poor, such as government-to-person payments, donor-to-person payments, or similar schemes targeted to low-income populations?

• How are women, youth, and other marginalized populations empowered with digital financial services?

• What are effective approaches to facilitating systemic change through a market-systems approach to financial inclusion?

• What programming barriers, if any, exist, to expanding digital financial services?

Submissions (500 words or less) are requested by February 15, 2016.

USAID, in partnership with mSTAR, expects engagement with practitioners to be iterative process, with any final feedback and next steps (as relevant) communicated no later than April 2016. Please contact Shailee Adinolfi with any questions: sadinolfi@fhi360.org.

Submit Your Learning Contribution Here