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The UBI Debate: What We Know – and Don’t Know – About Universal Basic Income
Policymakers from Nairobi to Silicon Valley have lately been considering the same approach to reducing poverty: universal basic income (UBI). Evidence from ongoing randomized evaluations will be key to understanding the impact of UBI, and how this disruptive concept might fit into a broader portfolio of social policies. In the meantime, there is much we already know from impact evaluations of related interventions that can help make sense of the debate. Alison Fahey at J-PAL provides an overview.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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The Tech Revolution That’s Changing How We Measure Poverty
Countries, often in partnership with the World Bank Group and other agencies, measure poverty and wellbeing using household surveys that help give policymakers a sense of who the poor are, where they live, and what is holding back their progress. Once a paper-and-pencil exercise, technology is beginning to revolutionize the field of household data collection, and the World Bank is tapping into this potential to produce more and better poverty data.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- data, poverty, technology, World Bank
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How open data can help the Global South, from disaster relief to voter turnout
In Africa, Latin America, Asia and beyond, hopes are high that access to data can help developing economies by increasing transparency, fostering sustainable development, building climate resiliency and the like.
- Categories
- Technology
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How Flexible Financing, Solar Panels and Data Could Be Key to Financial Inclusion
With over 1 million units installed in the past four years, the PAYGo financing model is already unlocking significant growth for the off-grid solar industry. But the sector also faces formidable challenges. FIBR, a project by BFA in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, is exploring ways PAYGo solar can leverage data to make better point-of-sale decisions, customize product offerings, engage and retain agent networks, inform future follow-on products, and build linkages with other financial service providers.
- Categories
- Energy, Financial Inclusion
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Want to Know How to Properly Measure Financial Inclusion? Copy the Retailers.
To better understand and measure how people use financial services, i2i looked outside the industry to the retail sector, which is at the forefront of how to collect and analyze data on how consumers engage with their services. In particular, retailers understand key usage indicators fundamental to their business; namely recency, frequency, monetary value and duration. That led i2i to apply these indicators while studying how to improve financial services.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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It’s Time to Match Tools with Our Understanding of Consumers and Financial Inclusion
Established in 2015 as a resource centre to help find new ways to use data to assist the financial inclusion community, insight2impact recently released its "i2i Measurement Framework Note series." The document introduces a new theory and set of measurement frameworks designed to help stakeholders achieve their good intentions and is underpinned by three key insights.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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How ‘Designing Under the Mango Tree’ Can Prevent Digital Solution Hiccups
Like an off-road vehicle, when you build a digital solution, you want to build with the most challenging environments in mind. Why? So the digital solution can scale with fewer hiccups, as it grows outward. Mobile services company Dimagi calls it “designing under the mango tree,” and it requires working in partnership with a variety of end users. It's hard work, Kathryn M. Clifton writes, but worth it.
- Categories
- Technology
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Lessons Learned Using Mobile Tools to Compile Financial Diary Data
Financial diary methodology is a powerful tool for studying financial inclusion, especially if digital tools are used. Using a mobile data collection and analysis app (which also worked offline) and a cloud-hosted database, Catholic Relief Services drew household data from rural areas in real time and amassed thousands of data points generated by tracking people’s financial lives each week.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion, Technology
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