From Haiti to China: 5 Pilots Begin to Reveal Digital Credit’s Uneven Impact
This post, written by CEGA’s Digital Credit Observatory (DCO) team, was originally published on NextBillion.
As demand for digital credit grows in the developing world, critical questions arise. How are mobile-based credit options helping (or hurting) low-income borrowers? How can available data sources be used to identify the borrowers most likely to benefit from these types of loans? How can we ensure that men and women have equal access to digital credit?
The Center for Effective Global Action is tackling these questions by way of its Digital Credit Observatory (DCO), supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In November, the DCO (our institution) awarded $1.6 million to researchers exploring the impacts of digital credit and related consumer protection measures globally. (See Caribou Digital’s “Evidence Gap Map” to better visualize the knowledge gaps that our research is addressing).
In spring 2017, the DCO awarded five short-term pilot grants to studies in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, India and China. Over the course of six months, each pilot shed light on some key aspect of digital credit, and its impact on low-income borrowers. Key takeaways, organized categorically, include…
To read the complete blog post, see here.
To read more NextBillion blog posts from CEGA, one of which was nominated as the most influential of 2017, see here and here.
