The ILO’s Social Finance Programme does this through three work streams. The first deals with financial inclusion, looking at how under-served market segments can be integrated into the financial sector so that they have access to the same services as everyone else. The second stream involves promoting impact insurance as a tool for managing risks for governments, financial institutions, small enterprises and low-income households.
Finally, the ILO works with investors to help them consider what impact they are having on the world of work when making investment decisions, looking beyond basic compliance rules to explore how their investments can help create jobs and improve working conditions.
The ILO and IFAM are jointly working on two aspects. The first is a meta- analysis of the behavioural impact of inclusive insurance products, including their benefits on health, wealth and wellbeing. The team gathered qualitative data from over 750 academic papers to identify examples of behavioural change resulting from people taking out insurance.
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The inclusive insurance meta- analysis project is demonstrating to companies that inclusive insurance products are not only socially responsible, but they are both financially viable and make good business sense. This aims to encourage them to operate within this growing market segment. Working in partnership with ILO, the team are developing a detailed business case on the value of inclusive insurance products to demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach on alleviating poverty, promoting decent work and reducing global inequality.
Another collaborative project is analysing the feasibility and effectiveness of the implementation of digital wage payments across countries in Asia and Africa. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the ILO brings together unions, governments and employers to encourage them to move from cash payments for workers to digital systems. Utilising the World Bank’s Global Findex Database and harnessing machine learning techniques, the project is predicting the evolution and effectiveness of rolling out digital payment methods to communities across the world.
This digital payment project is being harnessed by ILO’s Global Centre on Digital Wages for Decent Work to influence public policy around the world, encouraging governments and regulators worldwide to promote awareness of and implement digital wage payments for workers.
“IFAM is helping us to drive impact in the real world through its pioneering financial and actuarial mathematics research, enabling us to promote social justice and advance decent work for people around the globe.”
- CRAIG CHURCHILL, CHIEF OF THE SOCIAL FINANCE PROGRAMME AT THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION (ILO)