Strategic Impact Advisors, LLC

The Financial Services for the Poor (FSP) program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to expand access to digital financial services so the poorest people around the globe can build security and prosperity for themselves, their families, and their communities. In working toward their strategic vision for 2030, the FSP team aims to prioritize and address the most significant barriers for women in order to set new priorities and make new investment, collaboration, and advocacy decisions. Working together with the FSP Team, GRID Impact and Strategic Impact Advisors launched a comprehensive analysis of the barriers women faced in FSP’s focus countries with insight into how the barriers contextualized into respective markets, and which barriers proved to be most prevalent among countries. Please visit www.gridimpact.org/wee-fi for more information and to download all of the free resources!

SIA and GRID Impact are thrilled to be part of this year's #FinclusionWeek hosted by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI)! In our on-demand session, we discuss our work to support the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in examining barriers inhibiting women’s access and usage of financial services and opportunities to address those barriers through different programmatic interventions. As part of this work, we've developed a series of tools and resources available for the wider industry to use in their work to accelerate women’s financial inclusion. For those who are familiar with this work or have used our tools before, we're excited to share that we launched several new resources this month and updated our existing work using the World Bank's 2021 Global Findex database. Join us as we walk you through these resources and explore how you can use them in your own markets! Register at https://lnkd.in/derfv3Et to access our on-demand session, "Examining Barriers and Opportunities to Women's Economic Empowerment and Financial Inclusion." #FinclusionWeek #FIW23 #financialinclusion

In our latest blog, Conor Brannan looks at the impact of regulatory changes that have allowed telecom operators to offer #mobilemoney services in #Nigeria and #Ethiopia, the two largest emerging markets for mobile money on the continent. Nigeria’s changes have spurred market entrants and subsequent mobile money growth, while Ethiopia is not far behind. Safaricom’s recent entrance into Ethiopia is a perfect example of the effect of legal reforms, as one of the largest mobile money providers on the continent is poised to roll out their services across Ethiopia. While barriers such as smartphone ownership and digital financial literacy remain, legal regulations have become a tailwind for mobile money growth in these two countries. What are these changes, and how have they affected #financialinclusion? Read the full blog here – https://lnkd.in/gavX7jCw

We are excited to share the culmination of our work supporting World Food Programme Ghana & Ghana’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection on a #digitalfinancialinclusion & women's economic empowerment project for social cash transfer beneficiaries in the Builsa South, Saboba, South Tongu, and Central Tongu districts of Ghana. Over the past few weeks, our trainers have conducted a series of trainings for Livelihood Empowerment Against Hunger (LEAP) beneficiaries across these districts in Ghana using our newly developed audio content. More than 2,000 household beneficiaries attended these trainings in smaller groups, where they learned about topics such as understanding and avoiding scams, nutrition and household budgeting, e-zwich card payments, #mobilemoney transfers and digital savings. We are working to advance digital savings options on beneficiary e-zwich cards and to promote interoperability between mobile money and e-zwich. You can find all of the open-source audio lesson here - https://lnkd.in/gX3823Zf

🔔 Applications are due October 6, 2023, at 11:59 PM EDT. Please share with your networks!

We are thrilled to share our recent work with GIZ Jordan, an adaptation of their digital financial literacy curriculum designed specifically for Syrian refugees, low-income Jordanians, and home-based business owners. Designed to increase access to and use of e-wallets, the curriculum includes 10 audio episodes that tackle basic skills, such as paying bills and sending money, and more advanced skills, such as using e-wallets to expand business sales. Along with the Arabic audio episodes, we developed facilitator guides in English and Arabic which give tips on facilitating for specific audiences, module guides, and general information about e-wallets. All of the lessons and other resources are open source and can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gdgZNqKp #jordan #digitalfinancialliteracy #opensource #ewallets #mobilemoney

In our newest blog post, Jeremiah Lwebuga explores efforts to close gender gaps in agricultural value chains. As part of the Feed the Future Inclusive Agricultural Markets (IAM) activity, SIA is working in partnership with DAI to help rural women in northern Uganda access low-cost input loans through Ensibuuko. Through our work, we have identified several key approaches for closing gender gaps: 1.     Leveraging gender disaggregated data 2.     Uplifting women as agtech champions 3.     Supporting men’s involvement in bridging the gap 4.     Bundling services How can these strategies help bridge the gap? Read the full blog to find out. https://lnkd.in/gVnE2cKX #digitalag #gendergap #genderequality #digitalfinancialservices