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
Volatility and illiquidity are a central - and growing -- problem in many families' financial lives, particularly those living on low incomes. When the problem is not having the right money at the right time, many families turn to payday lenders, pawn shops, and other alternative financial services.
