More people than ever are now using mobile money and other forms of digital payments; mobile money accounts reached an all-time high in 2019 of 1 billion mobile money accounts processing over 1.9 billion in value per day. The usefulness of digital payments cuts across all sectors of work and over the past six years the digital payments landscape has matured and become essential, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic in which contactless and remote transactions are essential elements for communities’ health, safety and economic resilience. USAID has expanded its commitment to digital payments as a tool to achieve development outcomes.
Digital Payments Toolkit
The Digital Payments Toolkit was originally published in 2014 in partnership with NetHope to help USAID Implementing Partners transition from cash to digital payment methods. Given how rapidly this space is developing, the toolkit was updated in 2020 with new content and tools to reflect the progress made both in the availability of digital payments and their use by development organizations. The most recent iteration includes a guide divided into ten step-by-step modules along with associated tools to support partners in practically applying the knowledge learned.
Digital Landscape Assessment
USAID is conducting an assessment of the current environment, motivating factors, success factors, and challenges for implementing partners in using digital payments. The goal is to identify how USAID can best support implementing partners to digitize payments efficiently, inclusively, sustainably, and at scale and to share out best practices. USAID has already engaged over 124 staff from implementing partners across 19 countries and varying sectors and organization type and size, and the findings are being compiled and analyzed for future publication.
Download the Digital Payments Toolkit
For more information, please contact digitaldevelopment@usaid.gov.