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Adapting to or Just Muddling Through Climate Change?

The second blog in our series with Decodis and MSC explores our research finding that many poor households are just muddling through climate events rather than strategically adapting to long-term climate change in ways that enhance their resilience.

Climate Resilience Through Financial Services: Farzana’s Story

Women, especially those in low-income countries, are faced with higher risk, greater vulnerability, and fewer tools to cope with the impacts of climate change. Financial services can empower women to manage climate risks and build resilience.

Maximizing the Impact of Financial Inclusion for Young Women

Among which segments of young women could investments in improved financial services make the most impact? We highlight findings from a recent CGAP segmentation exercise.

Bangladesh’s COVID-19 Response Is Taking Digital Finance to New Levels

Bangladesh’s policies in response to COVID-19 have enabled more low-income people to benefit from digital financial services.

Cool in Crisis: How Bangladeshi MFIs Stay Resilient

Through flood, drought and famine, Bangladesh's microfinance industry has survived over the decades and continued to serve low-income customers in times of crisis. What has made Bangladeshi microfinance institutions so resilient?

Has Microcredit Empowered Women in Bangladesh? Yes, But Not by Itself

Microfinance has contributed to women’s empowerment, but to understand the impact you have to look beyond where many observers have assumed they would find it.

How Bangladesh Democratized Its Savings Culture

Bangladesh may be best known within financial inclusion circles as the birthplace of modern microcredit. But it has also democratized savings by developing formal savings instruments that are used today by many of the country’s poorest households.

Bangladesh’s 50 Years: Taking the Long View of Financial Inclusion

Bangladesh turned 50 this year. What does the country's decades-long journey with financial inclusion reveal about how financial inclusion connects to wider development? This post kicks off a new series exploring this question.

Hiding in Plain Site: Informal E-Commerce Among Women in Asia

Millions of women are buying and selling goods online across Asia — but, at least in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, they’re not transacting on e-commerce platforms. They’re using social platforms instead, often without digital payments.

A New Generation of Government-to-Person Payments Is Emerging

Advances in payment infrastructure are enabling governments to channel payments through multiple providers, giving people greater choice over how to receive payments. This is an important shift with implications for financial services providers, recipients of government payments and financial inclusion.

Could e-Commerce Bring Women’s Financial Inclusion in Bangladesh?

Closing the financial inclusion gender gap is about more than account access. It’s about making sure accounts unlock real opportunities for women. In Bangladesh, linking mobile money to informal e-commerce could meaningfully advance women’s financial inclusion.

How Bangladesh Digitized Education Aid for 10 Million Families

In just months, Bangladesh digitized financial aid payments for education to millions of families. What can other countries learn from this rapid transition to digital payments?

2017 Global Findex: Behind the Numbers on Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made great strides toward financial inclusion, but many challenges remain -- including one of the largest gender gaps in the world.

Bank-Led Digital Finance: Who’s Really Leading?

In countries where regulators favor “bank-led” digital finance models, nonbanks are playing important – even dominant – roles in digital finance.

When Savings Aren’t Enough: How Low-Income Bangladeshis Use Loans

Today, some 25 million Bangladeshis borrow from microfinance institutions. Financial diaries from central Bangladesh show how poor people are using their loans, from coping with emergencies to on-lending to others.

A Digital Finance Prescription for Universal Health Coverage

Digital finance is just beginning to realize its potential in the health care sector. Take a look at some early examples of how digital financial services are contributing to the goal of universal health coverage.

Ending Extreme Poverty: New Evidence on the Graduation Approach

SDG 1 is as exciting as it is daunting: End extreme poverty. The Graduation Approach has resulted in large and cost-effective impacts on ultra-poor households’ standard of living, ultimately enabling a sustainable transition to more secure livelihoods and an exit from poverty.

Paying for School: 6 Insights for Better Financial Services

The inability to pay fees and other education expenses keeps many children out of school. What is the extent of these challenges, who is affected and what kinds of financial services could help?

Daily Diaries Reveal Bangladesh’s Shifting Financial Landscape

In Bangladesh, 50 respondents are providing full daily details of all transactions in an ongoing financial diaries project. This project aims to provide insights into the money management behavior of low-income rural Bangladeshis. What have the diaries revealed so far?

Mobile Money in Bangladesh Plateaus after Fast Start

Mobile money in Bangladesh had a fast start. However, recent data show that while use is still increasing, the rate of growth in transaction value and volume is tapering off. Researchers analyzed a number of possible explanations for this trend.