Savings-linked Conditional Cash Transfers: Lessons, Challenges & Directions

This report on the Global Colloquium on Savings-Linked Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs), held in November 2010, distills lessons, challenges, and direction for increased interest and activity at the intersection of social protection and financial inclusion. It examines trends in social protection and financial inclusion, and discusses the vision of savings-linked CCTs.

The report examines specific savings-linked CCT programs and lessons learned. It also details opportunities and challenges. Conclusions include:

• Growing global momentum behind savings centered financial inclusion and cash based social protection polices suggests opportunities to innovate at their nexus;
• Stakeholders from various fields are showing interest in this area, but their actions are mostly uncoordinated;
• Recent experience suggests great potential to leverage strategies toward financial inclusion and social payments to financial and human capital asset building opportunities for the worlds poorest;
• Bringing global leaders to regional and country-level gatherings is important for sharing ideas, experiences and best practices.

Policymakers interested in developing a savings-linked CCT program need to define its goal and amount of required resources. They need to make regulation more conducive, identify strategic priorities and prepare clear guidelines for monitoring and evaluation for stakeholders to understand what variables are necessary for the success of savings linked CCT.