People living on less than US$2.50 a day urgently need reliable financial services. They need to be able to safely save, borrow, make payments and use insurance. But two billion people have no access to such services.
We develop solutions to meet the needs of very poor people, with special attention to including women. Our solutions help people build assets, weather crisis and manage risk. Integrated solutions link financial services to informational, health and agricultural services.
We use mobile phones to connect people to formal financial services and work with women’s savings groups to provide informal, but powerful, financial services. Our solutions provide affordable loans for smallholder farmers and equip local agent networks to better serve the rural poor.
Every innovation is designed to be sustainable for our partners--banks, microfinance institutions, mobile network operators, and agribusinesses--which continue to make them widely available.
We innovate in five main areas:
Digital Products and Services
Digital technology and mobile phones offer unprecedented opportunity to connect millions of poor people to financial services such as savings, loans, insurance and payment programs.
Financial Agent Networks
When there are no bank branches or ATMs, alternatives are needed to deliver financial services. Grameen Foundation develops networks of female agents that can better relate to and connect poor, rural women and households to essential financial services.
Agricultural Finance
Smallholder farmers need access to financial services to improve their food security and incomes, but only a small minority of rural adults in poor countries have bank accounts.
Health Finance
A health crisis can easily plunge a poor family into extreme poverty. Digital health solutions can provide millions of people with health information and improve rural healthcare delivery.
Integrated Solutions
Microfinance is a powerful self-help tool for the poor that is made stronger when coupled with complementary services that improve health, nutrition and food security, and connect smallholder farmers’ to training, information and markets.