Behavioral reminders for beneficiaries of the SWAPNO program, Bangladesh

• Nov 1, 2018
• 1 min

MSC engaged in an initiative for the Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO) project. Our task was to nudge financial behavior among SWAPNO beneficiaries who receive payments through the mobile financial services channel. MSC’s intervention helped UNDP to identify and incorporate behavioral change indicators for its digital channel for distributing social security cash benefits.

This assignment required MSC to nudge financial behavior among the beneficiaries of the Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities (SWAPNO) project in Bangladesh, who receive payments through the mobile financial services (MFS) channel. MSC’s engagement was in the context of UNDP’s tests on a digital payments platform that would replace the physical delivery of social security cash benefits to SWAPNO participants. We assessed behavioral aspects of digital cash transfers to identify opportunities to change financial behavior.

MSC devised program design elements that can induce behavior change and identified behavioral change indicators for a randomized control trial (RCT). Our intervention helped UNDP to identify and incorporate behavioral change indicators in the overall design of the RCT. At the time of writing, the SWAPNO program was in the second phase of its implementation, with 1,296 women receiving payments through MFS and DFS channels as a pilot project.