Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water
For many low-income households in the developing world, incomes are highly variable and uncertain. High up-front costs combined with irregular incomes result in unequal access to water, sanitation, and irrigation. Households typically can, and shou...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/387931552667416907/Fintech-for-the-Water-Sector-Advancing-Financial-Inclusion-for-More-Equitable-Access-to-Water http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31417 |
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okr-10986-314172021-05-25T09:22:15Z Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water Ikeda, John Liffiton, Ken ACCESS TO WATER FINANCIAL INCLUSION WATER FINANCE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION CLEAN WATER WATER UTILITIES MOBILE MONEY DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION IRRIGATION DIGITAL FINANCE URBAN WATER SUPPLY SERVICE DELIVERY SMALLHOLDER IRRIGATION For many low-income households in the developing world, incomes are highly variable and uncertain. High up-front costs combined with irregular incomes result in unequal access to water, sanitation, and irrigation. Households typically can, and should, cover the costs of accessing water resources, but they cannot do this without help. Financial inclusion can help households access water resources. Financial inclusion focuses on ensuring everyone has access to useful and affordable financial products and services, including transactions, payments, savings, credit, and insurance. The emerging field of financial technology (fintech) can help address barriers to financial inclusion in the water sector while potentially reducing or eliminating the need for subsidy. Fintech solutions already address some of the needs of developing-nation households—applications include payments and mobile money, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) models, insurance technology (insurtech), and virtual banks. This paper explores how fintech can support expansion of market-based solutions for water, sanitation, and irrigation, identifying several use cases where fintech is already being used to address financial inclusion and access to water. In addition to ways that fintech can help households access water supply and sanitation services, the paper also examines how fintech can help water utilities serve low-income customers more effectively and assist small-scale service providers in growing their businesses. 2019-03-15T21:49:35Z 2019-03-15T21:49:35Z 2019-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/387931552667416907/Fintech-for-the-Water-Sector-Advancing-Financial-Inclusion-for-More-Equitable-Access-to-Water http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31417 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
ACCESS TO WATER FINANCIAL INCLUSION WATER FINANCE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION CLEAN WATER WATER UTILITIES MOBILE MONEY DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION IRRIGATION DIGITAL FINANCE URBAN WATER SUPPLY SERVICE DELIVERY SMALLHOLDER IRRIGATION |
| spellingShingle |
ACCESS TO WATER FINANCIAL INCLUSION WATER FINANCE WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION CLEAN WATER WATER UTILITIES MOBILE MONEY DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION IRRIGATION DIGITAL FINANCE URBAN WATER SUPPLY SERVICE DELIVERY SMALLHOLDER IRRIGATION Ikeda, John Liffiton, Ken Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water |
| description |
For many low-income households in the
developing world, incomes are highly variable and uncertain.
High up-front costs combined with irregular incomes result
in unequal access to water, sanitation, and irrigation.
Households typically can, and should, cover the costs of
accessing water resources, but they cannot do this without
help. Financial inclusion can help households access water
resources. Financial inclusion focuses on ensuring everyone
has access to useful and affordable financial products and
services, including transactions, payments, savings, credit,
and insurance. The emerging field of financial technology
(fintech) can help address barriers to financial inclusion
in the water sector while potentially reducing or
eliminating the need for subsidy. Fintech solutions already
address some of the needs of developing-nation
households—applications include payments and mobile money,
pay-as-you-go (PAYG) models, insurance technology
(insurtech), and virtual banks. This paper explores how
fintech can support expansion of market-based solutions for
water, sanitation, and irrigation, identifying several use
cases where fintech is already being used to address
financial inclusion and access to water. In addition to ways
that fintech can help households access water supply and
sanitation services, the paper also examines how fintech can
help water utilities serve low-income customers more
effectively and assist small-scale service providers in
growing their businesses. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Ikeda, John Liffiton, Ken |
| author_facet |
Ikeda, John Liffiton, Ken |
| author_sort |
Ikeda, John |
| title |
Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water |
| title_short |
Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water |
| title_full |
Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water |
| title_fullStr |
Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Fintech for the Water Sector : Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water |
| title_sort |
fintech for the water sector : advancing financial inclusion for more equitable access to water |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/387931552667416907/Fintech-for-the-Water-Sector-Advancing-Financial-Inclusion-for-More-Equitable-Access-to-Water http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31417 |
| _version_ |
1764474279816069120 |