Encouraging Effective & Effective Savings: Lessons and Best Practices from the European Microfinance Award 2020
Encouraging Effective & Inclusive Savings is out. This e-MFP publication is the latest of an annual series of papers that condense the themes and pull together the outstanding cases and factors for success from the 2020 European Microfinance Award.
Despite the incredible challenges faced by financial service providers throughout 2020, this year’s Award onEncouraging Effective & Inclusive Savings received a record number of applicants from all regions of the world, innovating in different ways in the design, delivery and encouragement of savings among vulnerable, low-income populations.
Among the various lessons that this difficult year has shown is that saving – to set goals, manage household finances but particularly to mitigate the effects of sudden financial and economic shocks – is more important than ever.
The publication just launched starts will a tour of the subject – why savings matter, how ‘real’ people save, why savings are valuable to clients, providers and society – before profiling the ten semi-finalists (and among them, the three finalists) from this year’s Award, and places these ten organisations’ initiatives into three broad categories: ‘Designing Products for People and Purpose’; ‘Enabling Savings through Delivery Innovation’; and ‘Encouraging Clients to Save’. The paper concludes with the ‘Factors for Success’ that have emerged over this almost year-long evaluation process: what distinguishes the exceptional initiatives profiled within Encouraging Effective & Inclusive Savings, and how can other organisations replicate their success?
