How to Innovate with Digital Finance in a Pandemic? Lessons from Bangladesh — SILverlining Episode 1

SILverlining: Tales of Innovation is a podcast from BRAC’s Social Innovation Lab on how to do frugal innovation at scale. From financial inclusion to behaviour change, this podcast brings together designers, thinkers and practitioners from the global South.

In our first episode, published May 31, 2020, we asked: how can organisations innovation with digital finance in a pandemic?

Bangladesh’s economic lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020 caused millions of households to fall back into extreme poverty. Tackling two-fold crises of health and hunger, the Government and development sector quickly reacted by engaging the growing digital finance ecosystem to serve the needs of the poorest. BRAC’s programmes shifted their focus on providing financial assistance to at-risk families, while also adapting existing programmes to the new normal.

Recorded in the early stages of the outbreak in Bangladesh in March this episode brings thoughts from the Social Innovation Lab and Communications teams who work closely with programmes and clients.

The podcast and Episode 1 is available on SoundCloud and Spotify.