Philippines

Dr. Dean Karlan, Dr. Nava Ashrad, and Dr. Wesley Yin conducted an experiment in Philippines, where they offered commitment savings products to a subset of 710 randomly selected clients of a Phillipine bank. Since after 12 months the average savings balances increased, this study demonstrated that commitment savings products can result in lasting change in savings beyond the initial, positive short-term response to the new product.

Supported by USAID’s Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information Communication Technologies (FACET) project under the FIELD-Support LWA, this profile features Nutrient Manager for Rice (NMR). NMR is a decision support tool that includes both web-based and mobile applications providing personalized fertilizer guidelines for small-scale rice farmers or extension workers. This profile outlines how it works, the implementer/funder, the technology used, fees, primary markets, users, business model, and impact.

The FACET project aims to help USAID missions and their implementing partners in sub-Saharan Africa use information and communications technology in sustainable and scalable approaches to improve the impact of their agriculture related development projects.

USAID commissioned a series of case studies to examine interventions and approaches to creating pathways out of poverty that either “pushed” the very poor towards productive engagement in markets and/or “pulled” the poor into markets. This case study, written by Strategic Development Cooperation - Asia, examines an approach to integrate poor women in the Philippines into mariculture activities. It highlights the challenges of promoting the participation of the very poor and identifying win-win employment opportunities.

Are clients benefiting from microinsurance? How do we measure those benefits? How do we improve the value proposition for the clients? This paper contributes to this discussion by focusing on improving client value rather than proving it. It presents results from the analysis of 15 microinsurance schemes in Kenya, India and the Philippines using the ILO's client value assessment tool called PACE (Product, Access, Cost and Experience). The PACE tool looks at the added value for clients from insurance products by comparing them to each other and to alternative means of offering protection from similar risks. The results show that there is a place for microinsurance to add value on the top of informal risk-sharing practices and existing social security schemes to protect low-income populations against life and health risks. The paper also presents a menu of interventions that can further improve client value from microinsurance.

This brief video demonstrates the G-Cash product, a text-to-payment service. G-Cash is a new technology that allows microentrepreneurs to transfer funds and make payments using their mobile phones. The USAID-supported RBAP-MABS project in the Philippines is helping spread the use of G-Cash to entrepreneurs and microcredit clients throughout the country.