The Chronicle of Philanthropy quoted senior fellow David Roodman on the impact of the Gates Foundation and helping the poor to save.
From the article:
With the new money, the foundation seeks to find ways to reduce costs associated with savings programs for the poor. One promising strategy is a service in Kenya that allows people to deposit money with the same agents who sell airtime minutes for cellphones and then send money via their phones to family members or to pay bills.
Such projects will receive about three-quarters of the Gates support. The rest will go to efforts to educate lawmakers and influence policy, and for research and evaluation. To date, the Gates foundation has spent about $500-million on financial services, about half of which has gone to the savings program, Mr. Christen says.
David Roodman, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a think tank in Washington, says that while savings programs haven’t been ignored by other donors, they haven’t received the same attention as small loans. He says the Gates foundation has been successful in encouraging large microfinance nonprofits, such as Finca, Grameen Foundation, and Opportunity International, to focus more on savings.
“They are changing the narrative from one purely about credit to one that’s more diverse,” he says. “That’s a good thing.”