Week of September 7, 2015

1. Migration and Finance: We wanted to include a story on how refugees are financing their migration *and managing payments* but we couldn't find any. Do you know of one?  Tweet it to us - @financialaccess.

2. Cash Transfers: Data from The Cash Atlas, an online platform that tracks cash transfers, suggests transfers are a growing (but still small) component of humanitarian interventions but are mostly conditional and/or mixed with in-kind transfers. Center for Global Development

3. US Financial Diaries: "Six months a year the [USFD] households we tracked had income that was either 20 percent above or below their average. So even the concept of average [income] is meaningless.” Next City

4. Investing in SMEs: David McKenzie shares the results from an evaluation of a Nigerian business plan competition that awarded $50,000 in cash grants--more than half of winners were randomly chosen from semi-finalists. Winners not only had higher profits but were more likely to hire several works and stay in business.  The World Bank

5. Asset Building: A new report reviews the counterproductive nature of many US financial assistance programs - essentially, households have to remain poor to avoid becoming even poorer. American Progress