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The Colombia LISTA project is harnessing innovations in mobile technology to expand financial capability and asset building among low-income families and individuals. With this initiative, Fundación Capital is testing new channels for engaging the poor, providing them with the tools they need to save in the financial system and make sound financial decisions.
The initial test phase of the project contains three separate components:
a) Freeing financial education: Advances in mobile technology present attractive, cost-effective alternatives to in-person financial education programs. This component will aim to greatly increase access to financial education by adapting proven training methodologies to mobile, interactive, and online platforms.
b) Making peer incentives work for savings: Based on breakthroughs in behavioral economics, which demonstrate the power of community incentives in savings behavior, Colombia LISTA will provide interactive, digitally displayed financial assessments and status updates in prominent places in local communities. The use of public encouragement mechanisms will be coupled with incentive programs to encourage savings by individuals and their communities.
c) "Nudge" messaging: this component of the project will capitalize on the vast availability of cellular phones among poor populations to provide - via SMS messaging - reminders, rules of thumb, and other prompts to encourage informed financial decision making.
This complementary approach will demonstrate to policymakers and practitioners alike the utility of mass communication in encouraging self-help and informing positive financial decisions. Taking advantage of these technologies, Fundación Capital, through Colombia LISTA, will explore the potential for innovation to change the way that poverty is understood and confronted.
Colombia LISTA is financed by the Citi Foundation. |
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