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2013 Year in Review, 2014 Changes 
 
News, Analysis and Updates from New America's Global Assets Project  
Colleagues, Partners and Friends,

Season's Greetings! The end of the year is always an important time for reflection and celebration: 2013 is no exception! This year, The Global Assets Project deepened its work around social cash transfers and youth financial inclusion, finding that both fields are ripe for creativity and innovation in both policy and practice, yet are riddled with challenges that stifle progress. We also enjoyed extending beyond (though not to the neglect of) the blogosphere, Twitterverse and  op-ed pages, to find inventive ways to support global dialogue on these issues, through podcasts, animated info-graphics, a video montage, features in New America's Weekly Wonk digital magazine and more. A highlight for me: Presenting on the role of cash transfers as the future of foreign aid at the UN's 2013 Global Humanitarian Policy Forum.

 

Yet for me, this celebration of GAP's accomplishments in 2013 alone is both bittersweet and incomplete. As some of you know, this is my last newsletter as Director of Global Assets for New America. For over 7 years leading this program, I have had the privilege of working alongside and with the support of many of you to explore new possibilities for poverty reduction through the lens of financial inclusion and asset building for the marginalized and unserved. I will remain committed to global financial access both as a senior associate for Bankable Frontier Associates, and as a member of New America's and the YouthSave Initiative's extended families. 

 

I thank you all for your collaboration, support and inspiration over the last several, wonderful years. I look forward to staying in touch with all of you in 2014 and beyond.

 

Sincerely,

Jamie M. Zimmerman 
Cash Transfer Programs in the Spotlight at UNOCHA's Global Humanitarian Policy Forum

 

It's no longer business as usual for global foreign aid and humanitarian assistance. At least that is what Jamie Zimmerman argued at the UNOCHA Global Humanitarian Policy Forum. Held at the UN on December 12 and 13, Zimmerman presented on the future of cash transfer programming in aid. Check out her presentation [starting at 27:20], as well as her response to political pressure to shift from food aid to cash aid, and how increased dialogue with aid recipients would improve policy and programming [starting at 2:41:00].
Featured Policy Papers:
By Jamie M. Zimmerman, Lex Nowak, Elizabeth Carls, Julia Arnold, and Vinay Rao



Beyond the Buzz explores the opportunities for and challenges to leveraging mobile phones to achieve youth financial inclusion and capability and recommends tapping available policy levers-by enabling regulatory environments, incentives to innovate, strategic alliances, advanced data collection, and experimentation with "nudges"-that would allow proponents of youth financial access to circumvent the various barriers to youth-centered mobile financial solutions and therefore speed up the pace of exploration and innovation.
 In MIT's Innovations Journal, Jamie Zimmerman and Julia Arnold explore obstacles to mobile money innovations that could promote youth financial inclusion.
Also, from our YouthSave Partners:
Vital Videos:
Banking on a Future - Teenagers Tell How Having a Bank in Their School Changed Their Lives
 

Financial inclusion is a vital cause in developing and developed nations alike - from the countries where YouthSave works, to our own backyard here in the Washington, DC region. This video depicts what happened when Capital One Bank built a branch in a public high school in Prince George's County, Maryland - effectively increasing access to financial services for students and introducing them to financial education. Above, teen bankers share their stories.

 
The Dream of Mobile Finance for Youth in the Developing World

Youth & Mobile: Fulfilling the Promise
The mobile phone has proven capable of ushering the poor -- from city slum to remote village dwellers -- into the financial mainstream. However, can the benefits of mobile technology be fully realized among youth in necessitous communities, even as restrictive polices remain in place? What will it take for the mobile phone to fulfill its promise to financially under-served young people?


And Some Highlights from the Blogosphere...

 
 
(Yes, it is a Click-able Scrapbook!)
From New America's
 

The Shots:

The Shot - The Swipe Flu
The Swipe Flu


The Shot - The Class Banker
The Class Banker

Up For Discussion: 
Show Me The Direct Cash Transfers!

Should We Bank On It?

In the News:

Three YouthSave Blog Series




Two Poignant Podcasts:


2013 Happenings:
Let's Keep In Touch!
 
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About the Global Assets Project  

 

The Global Assets Project promotes innovations in savings, technology and finance to help poor households around the world interrupt inter-generational cycles of poverty.

 

Our work has been made possible by the Ford Foundation,

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi Foundation, MasterCard Foundation, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), and Nike Foundation.