Overcoming Barriers to Savings and Asset-Building for Poor People in Developing Countries

Professor Michael Sherraden will discuss his work on policies and programs that can help poor people build assets in developing nations. His talk will be followed by comments about how the successes of asset-building policies can be applied to microfinance where, as the new CGAP Focus Note finds, institutions struggle to mobilize deposits and help their clients build assets.

Commentators will include Ray Boshara, Director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, Allyn Moushey, Poverty Analysis & Social Safety Nets Advisor for the US Agency for International Development, and Thierry van Bastelaer (invited), Director of the Economic Opportunity Program for Save the Children US.

The event will also serve as the official release of the new CGAP Focus Note, “Safe and Accessible: Bringing Poor Savers into the Formal Financial System.” Read CGAP’s interview with Professor Sherraden to learn more about his work.

This event is jointly sponsored by The Consultative Group to Assist the World’s Poorest (CGAP) and the Global Assets Project, a new initiative of the Center for Social Development (CSD) and the Asset Building Program of the New America Foundation. Sherraden and Boshara formed the Global Assets Project in 2006 to advance public policies that build savings and assets for the poor in developing and developed nations. Please see www.globalassetsproject.org to learn more.

All RSVPs must be emailed to cgap@worldbank.org by Friday, January 19th. Guests should bring a valid photo ID and enter the World Bank building through the visitors center on 18th Street.

Location

The World Bank
1818 H Street NW Preston Auditorium
Washington, DC, 20433
See map: Google Maps

Participants

• Michael Sherraden
  Director, Center for Social Development, Washington University
  Co-Director, Global Assets Project
• Ray Boshara
  Director, Asset Building Program, New America Foundation
  Co-Director, Global Assets Project
• Allyn Moushey
  Poverty Analysis & Social Safety Nets Advisor
  U.S. Agency for International Development
• Thierry van Bastelaer (invited)
  Director of the Economic Opportunity Program
  Save the Children U.S.