Jamie M. Zimmerman: All Related Content

This post originally appeared on the SPINNAKER Network.

Recently the Chief Minister of the Indian state of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, declared that at least one member of each household should now hold a bank account. Though holding a bank account is not the end goal -- Minister Chandy admitted that the State’s ultimate objective is inclusive access to a full range of banking services -- full financial access among Kerala’s 127 villages is certainly an impressive step in India’s ambitious plan to achieve financial inclusion. This is particularly true when noting that India’s village level penetration of banking services hovers around 5%.

This post originally appeared on the SPINNAKER Network

While the Savings for the Poor Innovation and Knowledge Network (SPINNAKER) lives and breathes data, collaboration is its heartbeat. While a “community-driven data platform” may sound like an oxymoron to some, we see it as a fresh approach to facilitating new ideas among a growing yet disparate and uncoordinated field.

Here is how we see the problem: though innovations in savings products for the poor and their distribution channels have been tremendous over the five or so years, the field continues to face challenges in designing, marketing and delivering savings products that reach their market potential. Even in the many cases where financial institutions offer unique, innovative and successful savings products, the particulars of the products are very often unknown outside of -- and even sometimes within -- their own market.

Here is our theory of change: through collaborative sharing on a common platform that improves the way we produce, store, discuss and share information and data, everyone in the savings for the poor field gets more access to better data more quickly, which in turns results in a field that operates more efficiently and innovates more quickly. We’re testing this theory through SPINNAKER by:

• Aggregating and cataloguing information and data that can be used to inform policies, programs and products

• Making analysis, tools, and guides on best practices and other research easily accessible

• Providing a space for experts, donors, financial institutions, practitioners and other stakeholders to engage in dialogue with one another and explore possible collaboration and ideas to overcome challenges in mobilizing savings

Our Collaborative Model so Far

During SPINNAKER’s exploratory phase, we’ve engaged frequently with experts, practitioners and researchers in the field discuss the field’s data and information needs, as well as brainstorm new and interesting ways to collectively piece together the savings landscape puzzle. One particular exercise took place in June of this year: we convened a roundtable of 10 savings for the poor experts to present a demo site and discuss our approach to and priorities for collecting and visualizing data. Unsurprisingly, their preferences for the type of product information they thought should be collected by SPINNAKER reflected the type of work their institution leads. The technical assistance providers seem to be interested in promotion and marketing methods while researchers and consulting firms were interested in product fees. Financial institutions showed interest in operational information such as costing, technology and target populations. Clearly, lots of different data are needed and useful to the various stakeholders in the field, so SPINNAKER’s aim has so far been to aggregate and standardize as many of these variables as possible.

Thanks to everyone’s contributions, the site and its functions have since been revamped. Indeed, the current alpha version of the site would not be possible without the participation and support of various partners. For example, the framework of the resource section builds on the online savings resource guide for financial institutions developed by Women's World Banking and CGAP. Many of the institutional profiles you see in the database contain information provided by the MIX Market. The pilot “deep dive” study in the Philippines, and the corresponding institution and product data, was conducted jointly with MicroSave to survey the country’s savings product landscape. While we feel like the site is off to a good start, it is far from complete. Our hope is that with everyone’s involvement, SPINNAKER will develop into a high quality, super functional data platform that encourages and nurtures collaboration, inquiry and debate and ultimately, makes us all more effective researchers, advocates, developers or providers of savings for poor populations.

Ways to Get Involved Today

• Include your (or your affiliates’) product data in our global savings mapping exercise by completing the data entry form (all sources of information and data are attributed prominently on the site)

• Share your videos, blogs, questions and research with the larger field

• Explore our product comparison and graphing tools

• Sign up to join the network and receive updates

• Participate in our current discussion forum on innovation

• Get in touch to explore how SPINNAKER can be of service to you

• Answer our brief survey to help shape SPINNAKER’s design and offerings

“We need data. We need to have a way to know what is working and what is not. There are no common indicators. There are no benchmarks for success.

The New America Foundation this week launched a new Global Innovations Showcase series on CNN.com's Global Public Square (GPS).

As development analysts and practitioners increasingly look to savings as a potential tool to spur development and financial inclusion among low-income youth in developing countries, this FAQ is meant to provide a basic overview of a relatively new area of inquiry and practice: youth savings accounts (YSAs).

Can Conditional Cash Transfers linked to Savings Help End Global Poverty? In the fight against global poverty, conditional cash transfers (CCTs) programs are finally getting their dues. These programs—recognized in January by the New York Times as “likely the most important government anti-poverty program[s] the world has ever seen”—direct funds toward qualified households or individuals if they fulfill certain requirements like visiting health clinics or making sure their children attend school regularly.

The notoriously inefficient development-assistance complex is under siege. Two trillion dollars have flowed from north to south in the last half century, with decidedly mixed results. Current political and budgetary trends threaten the continuation of such flows. At the same time, however, technology offers a means of escape from present bureaucratic bottlenecks, and a means to revolutionize how aid is delivered.

Take mobile technology, point-of-sale devices, and biometric IDs.

Earlier this year, the $21.7 billion Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was forced to retract or suspend millions of dollars in aid after rampant corruption was discovered. An audit of a modest portion of selected programs found staggering percentages of money misspent or unaccounted for: 67 percent in Mauritania; 36 percent in Mali; and 30 percent in Djibouti. There were also serious concerns involving millions of dollars sent to Zambia.

For Immediate Release
December 1, 2010

The purpose of this report is to outline a public policy agenda to broaden savings and asset ownership opportunities for people who have limited resources at their disposal. In developing our thinking on the subject, we have drawn on the research and expert analysis of many others in the field. The agenda we present here includes calls for new structures and policies at the federal level, as well as changes to existing tax systems, government programs, and financial products.

After almost three years of planning, the Global Assets Project, in close collaboration with Columbia University Professor Fred Ssewamala, and the World Bank’s Nigeria Chief Economist Volker Treichel, has hired a consultant – Alena Tansey – to coordinate the launch a three-year Child Development Account project with the Bayelsa State Government in Nigeria. Below is the first of a series of weekly posts from the field that Alena will share with

Mobile banking is revolutionizing microfinance. In oversimplified terms: millions of economically-vulnerable and otherwise financially-excluded people around the world are now able to manage their scarce resources, through payment and transfer services in large part, via m-banking. Clients are no longer thwarted by lack of access to brick and mortar branches and banks benefit from the lower transaction costs associated with the same. Both factors combine to facilitate participation on a large scale.