The Center of Economic Policy (CEP) co-hosted a two-day online workshop with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in December, featuring researchers and practitioners to discuss how digital solutions can further the frontier in the financial empowerment of overseas migrants in Southeast Asia.
Presentations highlighted the current landscape of “migtech” services that is being supported by partnerships between Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and international development organizations. These include digital platforms providing comparison services for remittance transfer fees and exchange rates, enabling overtime pay calculations, as well as online financial empowerment training and online training of trainers in local NGOs.
Researchers discussed the gaps in migrants’ financial knowledge relative to their high aspirations, as well as highlighted that effective financial literacy training changes trainees’ attitudes rather than simply providing numerical knowledge. Panelists also highlighted that services and products need to meet migrants’ specific needs and constraints, including proximate challenges such as the lack of internet bandwidth and recent upgrades to their software, their busy work schedules and limited control over their time, as well as more fundamental difficulties of meeting family expectations and a lack of control over how their remittances are spent.
Visit the event website for further details or view the recorded videos here.
