Savings as a Tool for International Development

Can savings-led programs ensure poverty reduction?

Policymakers, researchers and development practitioners around the world are examining new products and methods for saving in order to build assets at the bottom of the pyramid.

The experience with Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and other matched savings programs, from the US to Uganda, have successfully benefitted the poor and brought them into the formal financial system.

Preliminary results from World Council of Credit Unions' (WOCCU) MatchSavings.org program in Mexico, where online donations are used to match the first savings accounts of the poor, reveal a promising approach in the developing country context. Can lessons from this program be applied elsewhere?

Join us for an expert panel discussion on WOCCU's new program and the launch of a Global Assets Project issue brief, "Promoting Savings as a Tool for International Development: Spotlight on WOCCU's MatchSavings.org." The panel will discuss WOCCU's model as it relates to savings promotion, financial inclusion and asset building. The brief examines the relevance of matched savings programs in the developing country context, highlighting results from WOCCU's program, and opportunities and questions that arise in replicating and sustaining the model. 

Lunch will be served.

See map: Google Maps

Participants

Introductory Remarks
Jamie M. Zimmerman
Deputy Director, Global Assets Project
New America Foundation

Featured Presentation
Brian Branch
Executive Vice President & COO
WOCCU

Panelists
JD Von Pischke
Former Chairman
Frontier Finance International

Evelyn Stark
Senior Program Officer, Financial Services for the Poor
Global Development Program, Gates Foundation

Daryl Collins
Senior Associate, Bankable Frontier Associates
Co-author, Portfolios of the Poor

Reid Cramer
Director, Asset Building Program
New America Foundation