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Week of June 10, 2013

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This week’s “New & Noteworthy” includes a report on rising income and demand for financial services, the impact of “big data” on poverty measurements, and responses to the G8 meeting on impact investing.

  • The Center for Financial Inclusion released Growing Income, Growing Inclusion, its second report from its Mapping the Invisible Market initiative. This report proposes that over the next decade, worldwide income growth will propel millions out of poverty and into the “vulnerable class” of $4-$10 a day income levels and increase demand for formal financial services.
  • Emma Samman, a research fellow at ODI, responded in The Guardian to the release of a report by the UN high level panel on the post-2015 development agenda, which endorses new data-collection methods in development. The author advises that governments, researchers, and practitioners should combine new technologies with traditional, in-depth household surveys to increase the robustness and accuracy of data collection.
  • In another response piece by ODI, Emmanuel Letouzé discusses the potential (and challenges) of using “big data” for monitoring and measuring poverty.
  • Researchers from the IFPRI published an update to a 2012 working paper that shows Brazil’s Bolsa Famillia conditional cash transfer program significant increases urban women’s decision-making power regarding contraception use, children’s school attendance, and health expenses.
  • This report from EUFFI summarizes results from a survey implemented in France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom showing that new means of payment that require a bank account (debit cards, internet banking, etc.) are not as accessible as cash and usually have additional requirements like ID cards and good credit history.
     
  • Ben Thornley offers his “five takeaways” from the recent G8 meeting on social impact investing.
  • A new study from the Microinsurance Network seeks to address the role of microinsurance within social protection systems and notes that very few countries are having these conversations.

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