Nic Kristof on Sparking a Global Savings Revolution

In his end of the year column for the New York Times, Nic Kristof highlights the role that savings can play in promoting social development and poverty alleviation. His focus is on the international development context, where a growing number of organizations are turning their attention to microsavings to augment some of the existing work promoting microloans.

While some people have begun arguing that microlending has been oversold (I don’t agree, nor does Kristof), it makes sense to explore how microsavings represents an essential foundation for microfinance, one that can complement increased access to credit. The challenge of poverty is multifaceted and it turns out that one of the primary obstacles is having access to a secure way to save money and manage finances. Kristof shines some light on this issue and also highlights some of latest innovations in microsavings, which my colleague Jamie Zimmerman has been promoting for years as a part of our Global Assets Project.

In October we hosted a program discussing the potential of savings as a tool in international development. The event marked the launch of the issue brief, Promoting Savings as a Tool for International Development: Spotlight on WOCCU’s MatchSavings.org, and highlighted the experience of the World Council of Credit Unions’ (WOCCU) MatchSavings.org in Mexico, a program which Kristof gives a special shout-out to in his column. Matchsavings.org lets donors match a poor person’s savings to increase the incentive to build a savings habit. I think it is representative of the next round of innovation in development circles. Well done, Nic.