Developing countries often prioritize the formalization of enterprises in their MSME development policies. The benefits of formalization include increased access to credit, higher productivity, and better social protection, while governments gain from a higher tax base. However, informality continues to persist despite these apparent benefits. This blog stresses on the need to modulate our approach to formalization of the informal economy and explores three principles on how the digital economy can enable this process.

The rapid digitization of work in the informal economy offers an opportunity to increase women’s participation in the labor force. However, women continue to grapple with a disproportionate burden of unpaid work at home. Thus, any tangible increase in women’s participation in the labor market will call for adequate social protections that reduce this burden. This blog discusses the importance of reimagining the social protection architecture for the digital economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic carved out a prominent role for digital technologies in enabling economic transactions. However, the gender divide in access to digital technologies hurts women’s ability to participate in the labor force. This blog explores the nature of women’s work and how digitization shapes it. We outline the opportunities and challenges in the digital economy and offer recommendations to ensure a fair digital economy for women.

Lending to cash-in cash-out (CICO) agents in developing countries remains a vastly underserved market despite its investment potential. This report focuses on the agent lending landscape in nine diverse low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries that represent mature and evolving markets to provide insights into the larger global opportunity.

India sees 13 million young people joining the workforce every year. Yet many cannot get employment. Overwhelmingly, 70% of the workforce is still engaged in the informal sector, which does not provide job benefits like the safety of tenure or a social safety net. Amid this, India is undergoing a digital transformation, offering a pathway for gainful economic opportunities for the young in India. In this blog, we discuss the need to expand the current skilling architecture in India to help the young thrive in the digital economy. The blog also offers specific recommendations on its implementation.

This report highlights the impact of COVID-19 on business correspondent (BC) agents in India and the issues they faced while delivering financial services in the wake of the pandemic. It also offers policy recommendations to help BCs offer uninterrupted services.

MSMEs in India have been adversely affected by the lockdown announced as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. This report outlines the impact of the pandemic on MSMEs and offers policy recommendations to support their recovery.

This blog highlights the need for a social security program for tech platform based gig workers, a subset of informal workers. We highlight the unique features of gig workers, and the enabling technology and formal financial ecosystem that can fulfil the promise of a safety net for gig workers. We also highlight the role of the government in regulating and financing such a scheme.