Showing results for "savings"
Based on experiences drawn from Bangladesh, this essay puts forward a case for voluntary, open-access savings schemes as a profitable alternative to compulsory, locked-in savings schemes.
The Indian government increased its expenditure on the social sector from USD 108 billion to USD 253 billion between FY 2016-2023. However, the achievement of actual outcomes is crippled by challenges in fund release and payment processing. MSC designed the smart payments system to resolve some of the challenges and reduce friction in payments, while also reducing significant administrative burden. Implementation of the smart payments solution can streamline all government payments. Read the blog to learn more.
Access to markets is crucial for small and growing businesses to effectively meet consumer demand for their products and services. However, India’s 13.5 million women-led businesses face challenges due to lack of experience, smaller business sizes, and discriminatory social norms. MSC’s partner, the SEWA Cooperative Federation, addresses these obstacles through its digital platform, SEWA Saamarth, which helps women-led collective enterprises sell their products online. Learn more about how they support women-led collective enterprises on our blog.
Africa has the highest rate of women’s entrepreneurship, at 24%, ahead of South-East Asia Pacific and Europe at 11% and 9%, respectively. Moreover, women’s entrepreneurship in Africa contributes to 7% to 9% of its GDP or some 150 to 200 billion dollars. However, women still face many barriers when they attempt to develop their businesses. Access to finance is one of the major issues. What are the possible solutions to this challenge? Read this blog to find out.
Did you know why women comprise of only 30% of the tech workforce and only 10% in leadership? In the previous blog of this series, we discussed that most designs in the digital world center around men. The digital world’s design is often gender-biased and, excludes women’s needs and experiences. In this part, we analyze the reasons behind the gender gap and discuss the impact of including more women in design teams where use cases are conceptualized and developed.
With government-to-person (G2P) payments, governments increasingly disburse welfare benefits directly to individuals or households. While promising, digital G2P payments remain in their early stages, and face challenges, such as friction in payments, information gaps, and contextual barriers. The MUKTA program in Odisha, India, is an example of a multi-stakeholder collaboration to reengineer digital systems and government policies and processes to operationalize digitally-enabled Smart Contracting and Just-in-Time funding systems (JiT-FS).