Author: zenreaper

Webinar: Better Remittances Data for Better Decisions: South to South learnings on capturing and analysing remittance data | 18 & 19 April 2023, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. EST 

Posted on | by zenreaper

Over the last two years, UNCDF has consulted with more than 70 central banks and national statistical offices developing and running systems and sources to better capture and analyse remittance data for better policy decisions. These central banks’ experiences can be relevant to other central banks in least developed countries (LDCs). As a result, UNCDF is publishing several reference guides with the insights and learnings from implementing these reporting systems on remittances, sharing experiences on the methods, sources, and systems used by central banks to measure remittance flows. 

This two-day webinar series—the second in a multi-part series that started in 2022—furthers our quest to bring knowledge and develop capacities of central banks in LDCs that are still in the designing phase or need further improvement in the efficiency of reporting and processing remittance data. During the webinars, UNCDF will present key insights from two reports focusing on South-South learnings on capturing and analysing remittance data from central banks in two regions: Latin America and the Caribbean and the Western Balkans. The first webinar on 18 April will also allow participants to learn from the experiences of central banks on the systems and methods used to capture formal remittances. The second webinar on 19 April will focus on ways to supplement information through surveys that capture remittances in cash and other unregulated channels. 

We will be hosting the webinar on: 18 & 19 April 2023, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. EST 

  • 18 April: Latin America and the Caribbean 
  • 19 April: Western Balkans
Register here

How to join?   
Please use the above registration link to register. After you register, you will receive an email confirmation and will be able to add the event to your calendars. 

Panelists 

Moderators:  

  • Paloma Monroy, Senior Remittance Policy Specialist, UNCDF 
  • Ibish Kastrati, Remittance Policy Specialist, UNCDF  

Speakers from: 

Day 1 

  • Central Bank of Suriname (Centrale Bank van Suriname) 
  • Central Bank of El Salvador (Banco Central de Reserva) 
  • Central Bank of Dominican Republic (Banco Central de la República Dominicana) 
  • National Bank of Angola (Banco Nacional de Angola) 

Day 2 

  • Bank of Albania 
  • Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo 
  • National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia 

Agenda for 18 April: South to South learnings on capturing and analysing remittance data: Latin America and the Caribbean 

  • Welcome note 
  • Key findings from the UNCDF’s stock-taking exercise  
  • South to South learnings on capturing and analysing remittance data: 40 mins 
  • Insights from the journey to building an ITRS: 
  • Central Bank of Suriname (Centrale Bank van Suriname) 
  • Central Bank of El Salvador (Banco Central de Reserva) 
  • Using data from electronic financial analysis and surveillance system information for the compilation of remittance data: 
  • Central Bank of Dominican Republic (Banco Central de la República Dominicana) 
  • National Bank of Angola (Banco Nacional de Angola) 
  • Q&A 
  • Closing remarks  

Duration: 60 minutes 

Agenda for 19 April: South to South learnings on capturing and analysing remittance data: Western Balkans 

  • Welcome note
  • Key findings from the UNCDF’s stock-taking exercise  
  • South to South learnings on sources of remittance flows of unregulated channels: 
  • Bank of Albania  
  • Central Bank of Kosovo 
  • National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia 
  • Q&A 
  • Closing remarks 

Duration: 60 minutes 

South-South Exchange on Gender and Remittances: African Perspectives

Posted on | by zenreaper

Gender Colab Webinar Series: South-South Exchange on Gender and Remittances: African Perspectives – 12 April 2023, 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. GMT

The financial inclusion of the 140 million migrant women is essential to the global development discourse. Despite the strong presence of women on both the sending and receiving side of remittances, it is often implicitly assumed in research, policy, and innovation that remittance patterns are gender-neutral or gender-blind. Gender plays a significant role in migration and remittances—including who, when, where, why, and how people migrate; the amount and frequency of remittances sent and received (which in turn impacts costs); and how remittances are used and what financial resilience opportunities are created and leveraged as a result. 

Over the last two years, UNCDF has worked with private sector partners globally, running innovation pilot projects that apply a gender lens with respect to digital remittance products and services. These partnerships have uncovered key gender insights that can be leveraged to inform gender-smart innovations and have directly reached nearly 150,800 women customers so far. The natural next step in this work is to expand beyond direct partnerships and mobilize knowledge sharing among development practitioners, policymakers, remittance customers, and remittance service providers. To drive scalable, sector-wide impact that leads to gender transformative outcomes in financial inclusion and resilience for migrants and their families, particularly migrant women and women recipients, UNCDF has established the Gender Collaborative for Remittances (Gender Colab). This Gender Colab connects key stakeholders in the remittance sector to share insights and experiences on remittance policy, research, and innovation, targeting and/or prioritizing migrant women and recipients.  

This webinar—the first in a multi-part series under the Gender Colab in 2023—will focus on understanding the gendered experience within South-South migration and remittances as experienced within Africa. About 70 percent of people migrating from Africa are moving within the African region. We will explore the experience of migrant women remittance senders and women remittance recipients as customers in Africa, gaining a deeper understanding of who they are as a customer group. Determinants of South-South migration within, and from or to African countries, the socio-economic dimensions (networks, income, gender, seasonal movement, etc.), and the impact of the global crises, i.e., the COVID pandemic, on remittance trends associated with South-South migration within Africa will be discussed. By sharing our learnings, we can discover new insights towards migrant-centric and gender-smart improvements in financial inclusion for migrant women and women recipients. 

We will be hosting the webinar on:

12 April 2023, 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. GMT

Register here

How to join?  

Please use the above registration link to register. After you register, you will receive an email confirmation and will be able to add the event to your calendars.

Webinar participants

Moderator: Uloma Ogba, Lead Gender Specialist, UNCDF 

Breakout group facilitators: UNCDF Migration and Remittances Programme team (Julie Kamau, Uloma Ogba, Tanya Smith, Mercy Wachira) 

Speakers:   

  • Sharon Welang, Director of MNO Network Expansion, MFS Africa  
  • Kaleo Nakazwe, Product Manager – Send, Flutterwave  
  • Babette Lind, Business Development and Marketing Manager, Ping Money

Agenda

  • Welcome note – 5 mins
  • Opening remarks by the UN Office of South-South Cooperation – 5 mins
  • Speaker presentations – 45 mins
  • Breakout – 20 mins
  • Plenary-roundtable sharing – 10 mins
  • Concluding remarks– 5 mins

Duration: 90 minutes

UNCDF Benchmarking tool for Remittances

Posted on | by zenreaper

UNCDF’s Benchmarking Tool for Remittances is the world’s first policy tool that compares the systems central banks use to compile international remittance data.  

UNCDF aims to leverage data on migration and remittance flows in low- and middle-income countries to improve how remittance markets function and boost the financial resilience of migrants and their families. Since 2021, UNCDF has engaged with more than 70 countries using different remittance data systems to monitor and analyse cross-border remittances. This benchmarking tool currently includes information from 38 countries and will expand to include more countries in 2023 and beyond.    

The Summary page shows and compares the level of granularity of data and explores the use cases of different countries. This tool also compares and examines how countries gather remittance and sex-disaggregated data at the regional level, including national and subnational levels. These findings could help policymakers develop more effective data-driven approaches. 

A country can be selected on the Country Details map. Once selected, the dashboard presents: 

  • Who are the stakeholders responsible for collecting, analysing, and publishing remittance data? 
  • What remittance data do they collect? 
  • Why did they collect this remittance data? (Key policy use case) 
  • How are remittance data collected, analysed, and used? 

This tool additionally champions central banks with women in executive leadership roles in the compilation of remittance data. 

Finally, the tool also allows users to download the dashboards as images for inclusion in reports and presentations, as well as offers country-specific PDFs with detailed information. 

Contact: migrantmoney@uncdf.org