How WhatsApp provides financial lifelines to Nigerian women

Guaranteed income programs aim to reduce poverty by providing cash to those in need with no strings attached. One of these programs in New York City, The Bridge Project, focuses on helping women of color who are mothers.

Women fisherfolk in Kenya are starting fish farms in Lake Victoria, aided by smartphones and technology that help them track the health and needs of the fish. Owning farms gives them financial freedom and prevents the sexual exploitation women often face when bargaining for fish.

States across India are providing free bus passes for women so they can afford to join the workforce and have more financial independence.

The city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, used some of its money from the American Rescue Plan Act to create a Wage Boost Grant for local businesses. The grant is used to raise hourly wages for two years allowing the business to save up money to keep the higher hourly rate after that. These raises are critical for small businesses trying to retain employees.

Volunteers of the PDX Housing Solidarity Project are working to redistribute generational wealth through homeownership in Portland. The project connects people with ample resources to Black and Indigenous homebuyers and helps facilitate cash gifts, no-interest loans, or other ways to assist throughout the process.

A philanthropy-funded guaranteed income pilot program, Oakland Resilient Families, distributed a $500 monthly payment to 300 participants for a year and a half. The money was provided with no strings attached, so participants could use it for whatever they needed.

Maternal Expert Thinking Analyzer is a pilot project to prevent maternal mortality that uses a mobile diagnostic, training, and outreach application to help midwives assess the risk of their patients in rural areas. Midwives input data collected from pregnant mothers into the app and generate an automated risk-based assessment score. The pregnant mother then receives a text with advice based on her risk level. A total of 33 midwives across 14 regions are trained to use the app. Initial results indicate that the app has had positive results preventing maternal mortality and even increasing antenatal care.

By calling a toll-free number, villagers in India can receive help for filing claims after human-animal conflicts like an elephant stomping on their crops or a tiger killing cattle. The service, known as Wild Seve, operates in 284 villages where a field agent arrives to take photos of the damage and file documentation to the government so residents can receive compensation. Field agents have helped file claims for more than 3,000 incidents. The hope is that residents can receive compensation for their losses quickly and, hopefully, are less likely to harm the animals.

The Kanyashree Prakalpa conditional cash transfer scheme helps support economically marginalized unmarried girls between the ages of 13 and 18 so they can stay in school and delay child marriage. Since launching, the scheme has helped increase enrollment in school and reduce the rate of child marriage in the region.

The Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund’s In Her Hands initiative provides monthly stipends to Black women with no strings attached, to help them combat poverty. Payments average $850 dollars per month and recipients have full control over how it is spen.