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Philippines WomenLink report

WomenLink Phase 1 pilot tested a digital literacy and financial education program based on SMS (short message system). Messages delivered to women’s phones were designed to deliver simple but actionable information to deepen women’s understanding of Digital Financial Services in an effort to galvanize uptake by new customers and drive greater usage by current ones.

Infographic: WomenLink Phase 1 in the Philippines

From vision and strategy to end results, view this snapshot of the WomenLink project and how it has helped to expand financial inclusion of poor and low-income women in the Philippines.

Women’s Savings Groups for Better Reproductive Health in Bénin

The Grameen Foundation program, “Women’s Savings Groups for Better Reproductive Health in Bénin” advanced opportunities for rural women and their husbands to make choices about reproductive health that best fit their individual and family needs. It built on “Healthy Savings,” an earlier program by Freedom from Hunger (now part of Grameen Foundation). The Reproductive Health program worked with women’s savings groups to combine health savings with access to family planning education and linkages to health providers. The program served 11,590 women in 516 savings groups. Gender Dialogues--facilitated conversations about family planning—engaged husbands and partners in discussion, leading to greater joint decision-making among women and men in planning families and choosing birth control.

Building Resilience of Coconut Smallholder Farmers in the Philippines: Final Evaluation Report of the FarmerLink Program

This paper highlights the research findings from a quasi-experimental evaluation conducted with coconut smallholder farmers and an activity-based costing evaluation conducted with partners of Grameen Foundation’s FarmerLink program that was implemented in the Philippines in collaboration with the Philippine Coconut Authority (government agency), Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines (coconut buyer), and People’s Bank of Caraga (financial services provider). Combining the power of mobile technology and trusted human intermediaries, FarmerLink was conceived with the primary goal of increasing coconut farming households’ incomes by improving productivity, providing access to appropriate financial services, linking farmers directly to markets, and reducing their losses to pests, diseases and weather calamities. Results from the evaluation suggest improved adoption of good agricultural practices among smallholder farmers and cost-savings through digitizing famer support services among the implementing partners.

Mother and Child Health Program, India (MASS)

In 2015, Freedom from Hunger India Trust, Grameen Foundation and RESULTS Educational Fund launched the Maa aur Shishu Swasthya (MASS) (Mother and Child Health) program in India. Integrating the delivery of health education, financial services, and linkages to health care providers, the program reached more than half a million Indian women. Key components were implemented in West Bengal and Jharkhand with financial service partners Aikyatan Development Society (ADS) and Bandhan Konnagar. This comprehensive report highlights the key findings and learnings, and contains links to related resources developed by the program’s Community of Practice for Health and Microfinance (COPHAM).

Digital Farmer Profiles: Reimagining Smallholder Agriculture

Mobile technology, remote-sensing data, and big data are opening opportunities to integrate the world’s 500 million smallholder farmers into the broader agri-food system. In this report, Grameen Foundation, on behalf of Digital Development for Feed the Future analyzes current practices and new opportunities to bring fragmented data, technology, resources, and service providers together to support the farmer ecosystem—with the potential of bringing about another agricultural revolution.

Impact: Digital loan for Kenya's Smallholder Farmers

Use of Dental Health Services in Urban India

Grameen Foundation research among low-income urban residents in India finds a gaping need for dental health financing and services. Nearly half of those surveyed had experienced an dental ailment in the last year, and nearly half of those did not seek care. Lack of dental health awareness, financing and access to services were major obstacles.

Integrated Health and Microfinance in India, Volume III: Banking on Health

This report shows how integration between the robust, pro-poor microfinance sector and the health sector can drive progress on two of the factors most critical to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) in India: 1) ensuring the poorest and most vulnerable households are effectively reached, enrolled and actively use the coverage and 2) public, private or civil society actors delivering support services that fill the gaps in services and financing.

Usability of Digital Financial Services in the Philippines

In the Philippines, where women have the role of managing household finances and allocating budget among family needs, digital financial services (DFS) represent a huge opportunity for expanding financial inclusion among low-income women. This new study from Grameen Foundation examines why DFS use continues at low levels among poor Filipino women, the challenges they face, and strategies to overcome them.