Savings as a Tool for International Development

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?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Savings
• Microfinance
• Loans
• Credit
• Developing
• Countries
• Developed
• Accounts
• Assets
• Health