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Jose  Wolff

This husband and wife team in Bolivia began producing personal protective equipment (PPE) to help their community and keep their business afloat during the coronavirus pandemic

Article

For Carolina Cano Huanca, making clothes has always been a family affair. “I started because of my brother,” she says, “He was working in Argentina making clothes, and when he came back, he had the idea to start a workshop. He bought some machines, and then I got interested.” Eventually, she expanded her sewing skills and began designing her own garments and products. “I first bought a sewing machine, and I would make clothes for others, but I realized that did not fulfill me. I wanted to make my own creation. I wanted to make it myself, the whole thing."

Equipped with a newfound passion for design and her own sewing machine, Carolina decided to open a garment business in her hometown of La Paz, Bolivia. She's worked side-by-side with her husband Rómulo Ferrel Rodríguez since they got married ten years ago. They use the income from their business to provide for their family and build a future for their four young children. Carolina wants to “give them stability, make them study everything they want, and to be able to help them do anything they would like to do. Out of everything, that is what motivates me the most.”
<h3>Filling a need for their community during the pandemic</h3>
[caption id="attachment_21901" align="alignnone" width="750"]<img class="wp-image-21901" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bancosol2.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="500" /> <em>Entrepreneur Carolina Cano Huanca began producing PPE during the pandemic</em>[/caption]

Today, Carolina and Rómulo are facing very difficult circumstances: keeping their small business afloat while the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts life in Bolivia. Before the pandemic, the bulk of their income came from contracts with schools, businesses, and sports teams. Once schools closed and sports seasons were called off, all of their orders were suddenly canceled — even though they had already purchased the raw materials to fill them. “We could not do anything,” explains Carolina, “At first it was very hard because we thought that this was going to last less time. But with this being prolonged, my husband and I talked about having to do something, we had to adapt to this situation because we did not have any other option."
<blockquote>“We had to adapt to this situation because we did not have any other option.”</blockquote>
So, they pivoted their business to fill the growing need for personal protective equipment (PPE) in their community by producing biosecurity suits. Biosecurity suits are worn on top of clothing to protect people from viruses and other biohazards. During the COVID-19 pandemic, PPE has become a necessity for many people who must return to work despite the continuing spread of the virus in Bolivia. Carolina and Rómulo decided to produce these protective suits and put their own spin on a new design. Instead of the typical one-piece style, they’ve created a more comfortable two-piece design made of lightweight, waterproof material. Though their income is not what it was before the pandemic, they’ve kept their prices low so that the suits are accessible to those that need them. “That is a way in which I want to contribute. We are offering lower prices so that [people] can take care of themselves,” says Carolina.
<h3>“BancoSol helped us grow as a family, as a microenterprise.”</h3>
Right from the start, Carolina and Rómulo realized how difficult it was to start a business with their own money and knew they needed help to grow their business. By working with BancoSol, <a href="/bolivias-small-businesses-need-innovative-products-to-help-them-grow">a commercial bank serving small and micro businesses in Bolivia</a>, they’ve been able to purchase the machinery and raw materials they need to grow. “The most positive change that BancoSol has made for us was to trust us as clients. The trust BancoSol gave us, I believe that is the fundamental support that every microentrepreneur needs,” says Rómulo, “BancoSol helped us grow as a family, as a microenterprise.” With continued trust and support from BancoSol, they can continue working during the pandemic.
<blockquote>“The trust BancoSol gave us, I believe that is the fundamental support that every microentrepreneur needs.”</blockquote>
Since the pandemic has unfolded, BancoSol has been working to assist their small business clients. Together with Accion, they developed data-driven customer segments to better understand their clients’ business needs during this time. They’re incorporating these findings into a new mobile saving application that leverages gamification to enhance user engagement. By evaluating entrepreneurs’ mindsets, use of administrative tools, potential for growth, and technological savviness, they can group customers with similar needs and provide targeted solutions to help entrepreneurs reinvest in their businesses. We're currently working with BancoSol as part of our ongoing efforts with the <a href="/mastercard-and-accions-partnership-to-unlock-millions-of-underserved-microbusinesses">Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth</a> to drive the digital transformation of millions of microbusinesses and the financial institutions that serve them.
<h3>Fighting to move forward</h3>
<img class=" wp-image-21900 alignleft" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bancosol3.jpg" alt="" width="297" height="446" />This pandemic has threatened the livelihoods of entrepreneurs everywhere, especially those small and microentrepreneurs that were already vulnerable to challenges. But Rómulo has found a silver lining: “As a family, it has affected us economically, but the good thing about this pandemic is that as a family, we have been able to unite much more; with my wife, my children — we have been able to interact more. For every bad thing in our family, we are able to bring out the good, that the family has gotten closer.”

As an entrepreneur, he and Carolina have overcome past challenges and grown from them. Rómulo is optimistic about the spirit of Bolivians during this crisis, saying, “There are entrepreneurs, fighters, who adapt to change rapidly. Just how it has happened in this pandemic. There are people who have turned 180 degrees to move forward, to continue the fight. I think that what characterizes Bolivians is the fight to keep going, to keep growing.” He and Carolina are doing just that.

“The fight to keep going”: A family business changes course

Debdoot Banerjee

Group lending gives people, especially women, opportunities they wouldn’t normally be able to access. Human-centered design can help it evolve.

Ibu Oom Rohmayato owns a rice milling business with her family in Majalaya, Bandung in West Java, Indonesia. She dreamed of expanding her family’s business and needed access to working capital to purchase additional unhusked rice to mill, so <a href="https://www.accion.org/expanding-the-benefits-of-a-growing-digital-economy-in-indonesia-and-india" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">she turned to group lending to grow her business</a>. She joined a group in her community and together they applied for a working capital loan from <a href="https://bina-artha.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bina Artha Ventura (BAV)</a>, a financial service provider in Indonesia and partner of Accion.

Group lending creates opportunities for women in rural areas like Ibu Oom who otherwise would not have access to financial services. <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5db8891e058ab7204b4e9088/t/5dea83f380f97670d487de8e/1575650294671/MIX+Market_Global+Outreach+%26+Financial+Benchmark+Report_2017-2018.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">80 percent of group lending participants are women, and 65 percent live in rural areas</a> where traditional banks don’t have a presence. By forming groups of people in the same communities that can guarantee each other, group lending uses social collateral to serve those without any credit history. Since group lending first began, it has relied heavily on frequent in-person interactions. Loan officers build relationships with their customers from the initial application to biweekly cash disbursement and repayment collection, and members participate in group meetings and often mentor each other. But as the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated social distancing and quarantines, we must rethink the group lending process and how if it might function digitally.
<h2>The case for human-centered design in group lending</h2>
Digitization has become an important <a href="/the-digital-transformation-of-microenterprises-a-path-forward-in-a-post-covid-19-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">path forward for financial service providers</a> and businesses during the pandemic. Many group lending providers have the ability to digitize their application processes and implement cashless transactions, but that might not be the best solution for their group lending customers. As providers consider digitizing their products, they must ask themselves if digitization will benefit the group lending customer, or if will it create more problems for them. While current circumstances discourage in-person gatherings, the solution to adapt group lending is not technology alone — we must pursue a human-centered design approach.

The core of design thinking is a focus on the end-user by building deep empathy and understanding of their lives while designing products and solutions. If we know our users, we will always build according to their needs and desires and can cultivate trust. As a part of <a href="/mastercard-and-accions-partnership-to-unlock-millions-of-underserved-microbusinesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our partnership with Mastercard to drive the digital transformation</a> of underserved micro and small businesses, BAV is in the process of launching a mobile phone-based model so they can continue to serve customers like Ibu Oom during the pandemic and into a more digital future. Christian Banno, Chief Business Officer of CASEA and board member of BAV, describes BAV’s approach to designing digital products for their customers, “When you try to digitalize the process for the clients — when you try to make clients adopt digital means — things become more complicated because we need to make sure that the client is at the center of the change. We need to make sure that the change is not only benefiting the microfinance institution, but that it is benefitting and enriching the life of the client.”
<h2>Can group lending operate in a digital world?</h2>
Group lending can only succeed when there is trust between customers and financial institutions, and that trust is built through many physical meetings and interactions with the customer. Forming these relationships digitally may become easier in the future as more and more customers use digital tools in other aspects of their lives. But an element of human touch will still be needed for group lending — especially for those clients in rural areas who have minimal exposure to digital transactions.

<a href="https://www.dvarakgfs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dvara KGFS</a> serves groups and individual customers who run small businesses in rural India through a network of branches in remote areas. They’ve invested in building mobile phone-based solutions to serve their customers, including a digital payment platform for customers to manage their money remotely while the pandemic prevents people from visiting branches. They plan to add more features to their digital platform to enhance the services that people receive and to make branches more relevant by converting them into cash checkout points using the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) and facilitating online utility payments using the Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS). Joby CO, Chief Executive of Dvara KGFS, says, “Going forward … I don’t see that the branches will go away, but I see the branches can really become more relevant as customers can access a lot more services digitally through the branches using the branch internet.”

For group lending participants to feel comfortable with new tools, they must be designed with the end-customer first, using a human-centered approach. Providers must pursue a hybrid approach for clients where <a href="/in-a-no-touch-world-tech-cant-leave-low-income-people-behind" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human touch complements their new technology</a>. “We need to maintain physical touch because we don’t want to exclude them. We are here to include people, we’re not here to exclude people,” says Christian. To learn more about how we might reimagine group lending, <a href="/reimagining-group-lending-for-a-digital-world">listen to our recent conversation with Christian and Joby here</a>.

Can group lending work in a socially distant world?

Dandan Wang

Grassland Finance Limited is guiding small business in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia as they pivot their businesses to rebuild during the pandemic

Guangwen Liu started his sportwear business with one shop and a dream to expand his business to a chain of retail stores in Inner Mongolia. By partnering with <a href="http://grassfin.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Grassland Finance Limited</a>, a financial service provider focused on micro and small businesses across China, he grew his business from eight stores to 43 in ten years. But his business success hit a major obstacle when the coronavirus outbreak escalated and lockdowns went into place, forcing his storefronts to close and cashflow to plummet. When his sales dried up, Guangwen needed to find a way to pay for his rent, staff, and loan repayments.

Without any foot traffic in his stores, Guangwen had to explore new sales and marketing channels to continue getting his products in front of consumers. With encouragement from Grassland and inspiration from the rising trend of using streaming to sell products, he quickly decided to hire an online streamer and employees began livestreaming product demonstrations from inside the stores to engage with customers remotely. Across China, livestreaming has gained huge popularity, thanks to new platforms like Taobao, TikTok, Kuaishou, and Huoshan. Guangwen’s business gradually build a firm footing on livestreaming platforms. Many businesses have joined their customers online and began using these popular livestreaming platforms to showcase their products and answer customer questions in real time. Even farmers are using livestreaming to promote and sell agriproducts in China, especially flowers and fruits, during the pandemic.
<h3>Grassland evolves to support small business clients</h3>
Many of Grassland’s small business clients have quickly adapted their businesses to solve for coronavirus-related challenges, from livestreaming products like Guangwen to opening online stores on e-commerce platforms. To help these clients succeed, Grassland itself also needed to adapt in order to support these small businesses in new ways. They began offering increased business advisory services to help their clients generate sales and rebuild their cashflow during China’s lockdown and reopening.

[caption id="attachment_21880" align="alignleft" width="355"]<img class=" wp-image-21880" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/grassland2.jpg" alt="" width="355" height="514" /> <em>Limin Liu’s shops sell specialty foods and snacks in an airport in Inner Mongolia.</em>[/caption]

Grassland client Limin Liu owns several specialty food stores located at airports in Inner Mongolia. When airport traffic stopped at the beginning of the year, he was forced to close his stores and all staff stayed home for safety. With no ability to sell goods in airports without any travelers, Limin found himself with a sudden need to pursue multiple sales channels. For the first time, he is selling online. Grassland helped Limin transition to digital sales by connecting his business with local e-commerce platforms. As air travel slowly resumed in China, the Grassland team advised the business to attract customers back into stores by offering free masks with each purchase and services to assist senior travelers with filling out the new required health check forms. Store traffic improved with these new services.

While Grassland supports microentrepreneurs like Limin on an individual basis, they’re also considering the impact of the pandemic on broader client segments. Grassland conducted an analysis with the support of Accion to identify the best ways to serve their clients across different industries during this difficult time. As a result, they’ve implemented other measures to help their clients, like offering flexible loan repayment terms and restructuring, applying to waive COVID-19-induced delinquency from client’s credit record, and increasing digitalization of their products. Entrepreneurs are finding new ways to survive in our new normal, but they need support from their financial providers to succeed.

Entrepreneurs get creative to rebuild their businesses in China

Robert Abare

Accion partner Lulalend has supported a printing company’s efforts to make face coverings for teachers and students

After a three-month lockdown due to COVID-19, South Africa’s school system began reopening in early June. A South African paper company has become an unlikely partner in helping ensure that students and teachers have access to protective face coverings that are critical to slowing the spread of the virus.

Peter Kohnert, managing director at <a href="https://webprinter.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Webprinter Online Printing</a>, said the company developed its <a href="https://1millionsmiles.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1millionsmiles</a> initiative to support schools that most needed protective equipment, with the goal of providing one million face shields to students and teachers. In one week, the Cape Town-based online printing store distributed 15,000 face shields to 30 schools.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/439285423" width="750" height="420" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start">﻿</span></iframe>
“We wanted to help,” said Peter. “We saw reports that up to 80 percent of schools had no protection, so we reached out to schools.”

The shields cover the entire face but incorporate a clear window for students to look — and smile — through at their teachers and peers. Through partnerships with its suppliers, Webprinter produces the disposable face shields at a cost of R10, or roughly 50 cents in US dollars.

The company’s statement on the initiative said, “We will beat this crisis by standing together. Keeping our educators safe is critical, and our colorful disposable face shields have been specifically designed with them in mind.”

Webprinter is a client of Accion partner <a href="https://www.lulalend.co.za/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lulalend</a>, South Africa’s first online automated provider of short-term funding for small and medium enterprises. Lulalend has <a href="https://www.accion.org/how-three-financial-service-leaders-are-adapting-to-covid-19">quickly adapted</a> to support their small business clients coping with the effects of the pandemic. They are addressing client concerns on a case-by-case basis, restructuring loans and extending payment terms as needed. Lulalend also set up a Facebook page for their clients to connect with other struggling business owners and share their experiences.

<img class="wp-image-21837 alignright" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/8fbc64a9-e3a7-4aca-8e1c-5b03fed16ce5.jpg" alt="" width="304" height="304" />

“It’s been encouraging to see small businesses like Webprinter Online Printing step forward to play a role in the response to COVID-19,” said Trevor Gosling, CEO of Lulalend. “We’re incredibly inspired by the team’s commitment to protecting schoolchildren and fighting the spread of coronavirus.”

Small businesses like Webprinter are essential partners for communities as they start reopening and rebuilding from the effects of COVID-19. Financial service providers like Lulalend that focus on reaching underserved families and small businesses can provide crucial support for these vulnerable groups as they seek to adapt and thrive in a new normal.

A South African printing company is helping schools reopen safely

Kathleen Yaworsky

RedCapital's revamped crowdfunding platform is helping microenterprises build financial health and resilience

In this time of uncertainty, it is more critical than ever to support small businesses and microentrepreneurs as they strive to exist within this new, socially distanced reality. In Chile, where COVID-19 infections have <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/02/885207834/covid-19-exploits-cracks-in-chilean-society" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recently soared</a>, nearly <a href="https://oecdecoscope.blog/2020/06/29/reaching-out-to-informal-workers-in-latin-america-lessons-from-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30 percent of the population works in the informal sector</a>, with no access to social protection and little savings to draw from if their businesses are closed. These challenges underscore the importance of financial health.

In <a href="https://www.accion.org/accion-and-metlife-foundation-announce-expanded-partnership-to-advance-financial-inclusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">partnership with Metlife Foundation,</a> Accion has supported the fintech <a href="https://redcapital.cl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RedCapital</a> to develop financial health resources for microentrepreneurs over the last two years. Founded in 2014, RedCapital is the first crowdfunding platform with a sole focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Chile. On this platform, individual investors lend money to SMEs. Accion's support has enabled RedCapital to offer services through their platform to benefit microenterprises too. Serving this new segment meant that RedCapital needed to revisit their end-to-end customer experience — product, processes, credit scoring, etc.

More than 40 percent of RedCapital's client base within the microentrepreneur segment is under 35, with businesses that have been in operation for only a few years. As these young business owners strive to create stability, their financial health is critical. In interviews with Red Capital customers, we learned that many microentrepreneurs are unsure about their monthly revenues. Many told us that they know how much they make in income but do not keep an accurate record of their costs. They said that they would like to have more control over their finances, but they need help.

<img class="wp-image-22090 aligncenter" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/redcapital.png" alt="" width="750" height="363" />

Manuela Iribarren, an entrepreneur and client of RedCapital, has faced many challenges in managing her pickle business, <a href="https://bymaria.cl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>By Maria</em></a>, which opened in 2012. When she and her brother had the idea to start a pickle company, she had never made a spreadsheet, let alone run her own company. Learning business and financial management skills helped her organize her business's finances for both busy and slow seasons.

We carefully adapted RedCapital's platform from the original to meet microentrepreneurs' needs and goals. To ensure that these microbusinesses were able to maximize their use of both the platform and any credit products they might take up, RedCapital sought to build their customers' financial capabilities in four distinct areas: (1) help them to organize their finances, (2) control costs, (3) plan for their future, and (4) manage debt.

For each of these four categories, the Accion and RedCapital team developed relevant, actionable, and easy-to-digest advice for busy microentrepreneurs, structured as a series of blogs. The blogs were published weekly on the RedCapital website as part of a comprehensive customer engagement campaign. In a blog titled "Managing your Debt," clients learn to calculate how much of their earnings they should save to pay off their debt. They also learn to identify whether they can reasonably manage to take on credit based on their income level.

[caption id="attachment_22085" align="aligncenter" width="750"]<img class="wp-image-22085" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/redcapital2.png" alt="" width="750" height="714" /> <em>Blogs accessible to RedCapital customers: "Manage your Debt," "Plan Your Future," "Control your Costs," "Organize your Finances" (top left to bottom right)</em>[/caption]

To ensure that microentrepreneurs take action after reading the blogs, each post contains a gamified, simple activity that demonstrates the financial capability explained in the post. These <em>calls to action</em> use <a href="https://www.ideas42.org/dfsplaybook/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">behavioral design principles</a> to encourage customers to engage with the concepts and, over time, build their financial health. For example, in one of the activities, users are asked to develop a concrete plan for managing their current debt. As they complete these activities, users unlock membership benefits, such as higher loan amounts. To assess the impact of the blogs and corresponding exercises, the team used various indicators to measure the perception of financial well-being for those who engaged with the content, compared to a control group. Data gathered through this study showed that RedCapital clients who completed the calls to action said that they felt better able to manage their businesses and debt.

[caption id="attachment_22086" align="aligncenter" width="750"]<img class="wp-image-22086" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/redcapital3.png" alt="" width="750" height="231" /> <em>Calls to action available in the "Manage your Debt" blog: Calculate the percentage of Debt, Credit Financing, Credit Rules (from left to right)</em>[/caption]

RedCapital piloted this newly designed lending product for microentrepreneurs in October 2019. To date, 715 microentrepreneurs have registered their business on RedCapital's redesigned portal. This product's initial results signify an interest in personalized digital financial resources that let microentrepreneurs learn about financial health and access appropriate credit, which can help them weather crises and plan better for the future.

For RedCapital, it's all in the name. <em>Red</em> means <em>network</em> in Spanish, thus signaling that when individuals choose to engage with RedCapital, they become more than a client, but a member of a network. In reaction to this campaign, one client shared, "Everything that is education and help is welcome — it helps me not to make the financial mistakes that I [have made in the past]." As Accion continues to support RedCapital in the rollout of this adapted platform, we will also be further assisting the microentrepreneur community, as they navigate challenges imposed during these uncertain times.

This product is a part of our <a href="https://www.accion.org/accion-and-metlife-foundation-announce-expanded-partnership-to-advance-financial-inclusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Building Financial Capabilities and Strengthening Institutions through Customer-Centered Innovations project</a>, supported by MetLife Foundation.

<em>Megan Skaggs also contributed to this article.</em>

How we built a network for microentrepreneurs in Chile

An interview with Field Intelligence’s Michael Moreland on providing immediate and sustained assistance to vulnerable communities in East and West Africa.

Podcast

[embed]https://soundcloud.com/accioninternational/the-pandemic-provides-lots-of-new-problems-for-entrepreneurs-to-solve-fields-michael-moreland[/embed]

“<strong>T</strong><strong>he COVID pandemic has exposed risks embedded throughout the health system</strong>,” reflects Michael Moreland, co-founder and CEO of Field Intelligence, a tech-focused pharmaceutical supply chain company operating in Nigeria and Kenya. As the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in essential drug prices across Africa, Michael and his team took fast action, doing “everything [he] could to help [customers] keep [their] business open and working safely.” In an uplifting seventh episode of <a href="https://www.accion.org/series/venturekast-rebuild" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VentureKast: Rebuild</a>, Michael explains how critically important Field Intelligence’s data-driven Shelf Life product has been to mitigate volatility in the price and supply of essential drugs, and how the COVID-19 pandemic poses a massive opportunity for entrepreneurs to solve challenges within public health systems. In the wake of the pandemic, “health-seeking behavior [has changed] broadly as more and more patients avoid the clinical setting… and instead go to that pharmacy on the corner.” As people turn to community-based health care solutions for their basic care, Field has leveraged their reach with local pharmacies and distributed hundreds of hand washing stations and educational posters to protect against the spread of the virus at a local level.

“The urgency of [improving the lives of vulnerable populations] has never been more clear” as drug price volatility, coupled with lockdown measures and a collapse of household income, leaves many in a desperate situation. Michael reckons that investors and entrepreneurs alike will respond with solutions to problems that have become apparent. While “[Investors] will naturally turn to those essential critical services like community-based health care as the kinds of place where there is a tremendous opportunity to improve, create value, [and] participate in that value chain,” the pandemic “provides new problems for entrepreneurs to think about solving” — an opportunity which Michael believes will change the future of the health care supply industry.

Please join our host and co-managing director of <a href="https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Venture Lab</strong></a> <a href="https://www.accion.org/bio/vikas-raj" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Vikas Raj</strong></a> as he interviews industry leaders every Thursday about how COVID-19 is impacting their work.

“The pandemic provides lots of new problems for entrepreneurs to solve” – Field Intelligence’s Michael Moreland

Tim Huson

Use Accion’s new Technology Maturity Diagnostic to assess your organization’s technology agility and readiness to support your digital journey

From corner stores to multinationals, businesses today have realized that digital transformation is essential to survive the challenges of COVID-19. But just because a financial service provider (FSP) has succeeded in growing its business does not mean it will succeed at digital transformation. While an institution’s technology infrastructure can be a springboard to leap forward, it can just as often hold it back. An organization’s ability to digitally adapt depends on its <strong>technology maturity</strong> — the capabilities and agility of its software and hardware infrastructure and its technology team.

Today’s social distancing measures have made an FSP’s technology maturity even more crucial, as technology determines whether the institution can quickly deliver the <a href="/four-steps-to-accelerate-digital-financial-solutions-during-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">critical digital functionality</a> its staff and customers need. When Accion partner <a href="/five-crucial-insights-from-china-for-facing-the-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CD Finance</a>’s clients could not visit its branch offices, the institution relied on its digital payments platform to manage payments. The crisis is a stark reminder to many FSPs that without agile technology, they can’t adapt quickly when client or business needs change.
<h2>Accion’s new tool to evaluate and understand your organization’s technology maturity</h2>
To help institutions evaluate their technology maturity, Accion has developed a <a href="https://dtsurvey.accion.org/technology-maturity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Technology Maturity Diagnostic</a>. This tool enables organizations to gauge their current maturity, set benchmarks, and plan a roadmap of strategic technology initiatives to support digital transformation and priority business goals. The Technology Maturity Diagnostic allows your organization to assess how ready your staff and technology platforms are to plan, operate, and adapt to meet changing business needs. The tool is available <strong>in <a href="https://dtsurvey.accion.org/technology-maturity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">English</a> and <a href="https://dtsurvey.accion.org/index.php/873765?newtest=Y&amp;lang=es" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spanish</a></strong>.

<strong>Organizations can use the tool in various ways:</strong>
<ol>
 	<li>As a <strong>diagnostic tool</strong> to determine the status of the organization along the technology maturity continuum and identify where the most and least progress has been made.</li>
 	<li>As a <strong>benchmarking tool</strong> for peer-to-peer comparisons and evaluations by investors, donors, creditors, and strategic partners.</li>
 	<li>As a <strong>reference to set technology strategy</strong> and define specific maturity targets. These targets will impact the organization’s market, customers, budget, and capabilities.</li>
 	<li>As a <strong>communications tool</strong> among the board, management, and technology stakeholders to help articulate how strategic technology initiatives enable the organization to meet its business goals, provide context, and measure progress.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Five dimensions of technology maturity</h2>
The Technology Maturity Diagnostic assesses the effectiveness of an organization’s technology infrastructure and capabilities <strong>across five dimensions</strong>:
<ol>
 	<li><strong>Strategy</strong>: How well has the organization developed a strategy to meet its business goals through digital technologies? How well does its technical agility and experimentation position it for disruptions?</li>
 	<li><strong>Functional architecture</strong>: How agile is the organization's core architecture? Can it readily add new services and integrate with external systems, create digital workplaces for staff, use automated back-office workflows, and provide platforms to serve its clients?</li>
 	<li><strong>Data architecture</strong>: How advanced are the organization's data architecture and methods for using data, such as for reporting and analysis? How innovative and sophisticated is the use of internal and external data for decision making?</li>
 	<li><strong>Operations and delivery</strong>: How effective are operations and the delivery of systems functionality? How dependable are infrastructure and service desk support? How well do cross-functional teams employ agile methods in development and operations to deliver new functionality quickly and predictably?</li>
 	<li><strong>Resilience</strong>: How strong is the organization’s capacity to proactively manage cybersecurity risks, business continuity, and data protection and respond to disasters?</li>
</ol>
<h2>More tools in Accion’s Digital Transformation Framework</h2>
The Technology Maturity Diagnostic is the latest of three diagnostic assessments within Accion’s <a href="/digital-transformation-framework" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Digital Transformation Framework</a>, a comprehensive set of tools designed to help providers understand, map, and accelerate their digital transformation developed as a part of our ongoing work with <a href="https://bit.ly/39XuCMa" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth</a>.
<ol>
 	<li><a href="https://dtsurvey.accion.org/digital-transformation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Digital Transformation Assessment</a>: To assess an organization’s overall digital maturity.</li>
 	<li><a href="https://dtsurvey.accion.org/data-maturity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Data Maturity Diagnostic</a>: To assess an organization’s data capabilities.</li>
 	<li><a href="https://dtsurvey.accion.org/index.php/873765?newtest=Y&amp;lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Technology Maturity Diagnostic</a>: To assess the capabilities and agility of an organization’s software and hardware infrastructure and its technology team.</li>
</ol>
Financial providers face a daunting digital journey, and under COVID-19 that journey has become more challenging and more urgent. Accion’s digital transformation framework provides a roadmap for prioritizing strategic initiatives, setting goals, and tracking progress. The new Technology Maturity Diagnostic makes clear the various dimensions of technology readiness that underly that progress. We invite institutions to <a href="https://dtsurvey.accion.org/technology-maturity" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">use these resources</a> to navigate digitization so they can serve customers more efficiently and effectively, especially those who have been left out of the financial system for too long.

Is your technology ready to bring your business to the next level?

Shweta Pereira

Microentrepreneurs in Myanmar adapt their businesses to cope with the challenges of COVID-19

Daw Amar Myint owns a small restaurant serving up traditional Myanmar cuisine in the Mingaladon Township of Yangon. When the pandemic hit, she was forced to close her doors. Without customers coming in, she couldn't provide for her family, including her son, who lost his job because of the pandemic. Before the pandemic hit, Dw Amar's restaurant was always busiest at lunchtime, so she decided to keep her kitchen open and start delivering lunch boxes to her customers who couldn't come eat at the restaurant in person. She turned to social media to market her new delivery service and began selling on Facebook. As her online sales picked up, her income has rebounded — she was even able to give a job to her son. She’s now receiving monthly pre-orders, allowing her to estimate her future income and minimize waste when she orders ingredients.
<h2>Providing small businesses with financial support during the pandemic</h2>
Microentrepreneurs like Daw Amar can build stronger businesses, better manage their expenses, and earn reliable incomes to care for their families when they can access financial services like group and individual loans. Accion portfolio company <a href="https://www.dawn.com.mm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DAWN Microfinance</a> provides these services for low-income microbusinesses in Myanmar, and now they are helping these businesses make it through the pandemic and its economic effects. The dramatic spread of COVID-19 has disrupted lives, livelihoods, communities, and businesses in Myanmar. In response, DAWN quickly mobilized a COVID-19 response team to limit the disruption to clients’ businesses and to adapt their own business.

Micro and small business owners already face many struggles in Myanmar — <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/myanmar/publication/poverty-report-myanmar-living-conditions-survey-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">where 1 in 4 people live in poverty</a>, and most people still don't have the financial services they need to manage their daily lives and grow their businesses. These entrepreneurs are experiencing additional challenges during the pandemic, like shortages of imported raw materials, declines in sales and revenue, forced closures of brick and mortar businesses, and the inability to cover day-to-day expenses. DAWN has implemented several changes to help their clients, including:
<ol>
 	<li><strong>Providing alternative repayment options:</strong> DAWN is encouraging clients to transfer repayments digitally through collaborations with banks and mobile money agents. For clients who aren’t comfortable making digital repayments through these third parties, especially group lending clients who normally make cash payments at collection points, staff are continuing field visits while following social distancing measures. Clients also have the option to visit DAWN’s branch locations where staff is practicing social distancing. DAWN is also reimbursing the transport cost to their customers who choose to visit in-person.</li>
 	<li><strong>Offering new products to help clients adapt:</strong> DAWN created a new “Emergency Top-Up Loan” product to support clients’ businesses that have been impacted negatively by coronavirus. This loan is being disbursed in parallel with the client’s existing loan.</li>
 	<li><strong>Rescheduling repayments and providing prepaid loans:</strong> DAWN is proactively contacting customers to reassess their repayment capacity and determine rescheduling options. In some cases, customers can request a prepaid loan and deduct a certain amount from it to offset the remaining balance of their existing loan.</li>
 	<li><strong>Setting up help desks in response to COVID-19:</strong> DAWN’s customer service representatives at their head office and branches are available to help clients in any way that they can.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Meeting customers’ evolving needs</h2>
DAWN’s new efforts allow them to help the people and businesses that are struggling most right now, and to support entrepreneurs that have found new opportunities to grow their businesses and serve their communities despite the circumstances. U Kaung Htike Kyaw, a DAWN customer located in Yangon, runs a small business that produces personal care products, including a wide range of soaps and hand sanitizers. When the pandemic arrived, he expanded his offerings and began producing different types and sizes of hand sanitizers to fill a need in the market. He was able to expand his market even further by selling his products online. By adjusting his business operations to suit his customers’ new and evolving needs, he’s keeping his business running and continuing to earn an income.

[caption id="attachment_22008" align="aligncenter" width="800"]<img class="wp-image-22008" src="http://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Kaung-Htike-Kyaw_1-Swenyein-Swenyein-1.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="450" /> <em>U Kaung Htike Kyaw expanded his personal care business’s line of hand sanitizers during the pandemic.</em>[/caption]

We’ve seen how <a href="https://www.accion.org/the-future-of-finance-in-myanmar-is-digital" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">digital financial tools can open up opportunities for people in Myanmar</a>. Most adults in Myanmar have a cell phone and the vast majority of those phones are smartphones, giving a significant portion of the population access to the internet. The opportunity of digitization has never been more critical for entrepreneurs than it is now. Beyond creating new ways to access financial services, digitization allows small business owners like U Kaung to continue selling online so they can withstand this downturn. By finding ways to continue serving customers during the pandemic, DAWN is giving entrepreneurs the support they need to adapt to challenging times and build new capabilities that will help them continue to thrive in the future.

Digital tools open opportunities for struggling business owners

An interview with Toffee Insurance’s Rohan Kumar on how COVID-19 is changing consumer behavior and the future of insurance technology. 

[embed]https://soundcloud.com/accioninternational/everyone-is-out-there-reassessing-how-much-liquidity-they-have-toffee-insurances-rohan-kumar[/embed]

“Everyone is out there reassessing how much liquidity they have. Do they have enough safety nets for their kids — do they have enough savings if they were to go to the hospital?,” says Rohan Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of <a href="https://toffeeinsurance.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Toffee Insurance</a> in India. Health concerns and other risks from COVID-19 are causing consumers to reassess whether their current safety nets are adequate. Insurance has switched from being a “push product to a pull product,” and people across income levels are “going out and proactively looking for products.” In episode six of <a href="https://www.accion.org/series/venturekast-rebuild" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VentureKast: Rebuild</a>, Rohan talks about how the pandemic is changing consumer perceptions of insurance and why fintechs are uniquely positioned to meet the increased demand with truly affordable, flexible, and high-quality offerings. Toffee leverages a digital infrastructure, including payments and claims management, to offer simple health, home, and income insurance to the 500 million Indians who have historically been overlooked by traditional insurers. This agile and enterprising fintech is expanding insurance access in India. “Something that has taken 10 years for people to solve, has been solved in three months,” says Rohan.

Toffee’s new monthly subscription model expands access to affordable insurance with a payment schedule that complements the income cycles of low-income customers, providing the security that “if [consumers] were to contract COVID-19 they would have some sort of coverage which doesn’t empty their banks.” While the vast majority of traditional insurers who rely on outdated products and legacy delivery methods are ill-equipped to adapt to the needs of consumers in a COVID-19 world, Toffee — which “started all digital from day one” — can bring products to market at a rapid pace. Rohan adds that the “mass behavioral change” in perception of insurance in India “has a huge impact which continues to stay.” With empathy, Rohan reminds us that despite the strain caused by the pandemic, COVID-19 has encouraged insurers to serve previously ignored populations.

Please join our host and co-Managing Director of <a href="https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Venture Lab</strong></a> <a href="https://www.accion.org/bio/vikas-raj" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Vikas Raj</strong></a> as he interviews industry leaders every Thursday about how COVID-19 is impacting their work.

“Everyone is out there reassessing how much liquidity they have” – Toffee Insurance’s Rohan Kumar

Accion CEO Michael Schlein shares how investing in digital technology can solve financial exclusion for underserved populations in new ways

[embed]https://vimeo.com/438255046[/embed]

“I think impact investing can take a chance and invest in technologies that can transform the way we deliver important, basic tools to people all around the world — that can really help them weather pandemics and tremendous storms, as well as seize opportunities when the day allows that.” Our CEO Michael Schlein joined the 2020 Collision from Home conference to share how impact investing can build resilient communities.

Pioneering startups are finding new ways to help fight poverty, empower women and girls, and provide access to a good education. By investing in these startups and their innovations, we can build and scale powerful new tools that create a safer, more equitable world.

Impact investing for resilient communities: Michael Schlein at Collision

An interview with Anthemis’s Vica Manos on how COVID-19 is accelerating innovation in digital financial services for the underserved

[embed]https://soundcloud.com/accioninternational/there-is-much-more-empathy-across-the-globeanthemiss-vica-manos-1[/embed]

In episode five of <a href="https://www.accion.org/series/venturekast-rebuild" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VentureKast: Rebuild</a>, Vica Manos, Partner at <a href="https://www.anthemis.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Anthemis</a>, explains that the collaboration of traditional banks and fintech startups during and after COVID-19 will foster “an equilibrium that really works for consumers.” Vica shares a holistic understanding of financial wellbeing focused on resilience and explains that we must back companies that promote positive customer behavior. Although a few aspects of how Vica and Anthemis operate have changed, their ability to support entrepreneurs and their theses around digital services have only been reinforced through the pandemic. The advantages of Anthemis' portfolio companies — like <a href="https://www.altbank.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Altbank</a>, which leverages a digital, distributed model, and <a href="https://abaka.me/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Abaka</a>, which enables digital infrastructure for financial institutions — are shining through now more than ever.

Unlike past recessions, Vica sees that the landscape for early-stage investing is burgeoning. The “data speaks for itself,” says Vica, who is proud to share that Anthemis has added eight new companies to their portfolio in the second quarter of 2020 alone. The long-term increase in demand for digital services, catalyzed by the COVID-19 crisis, has encouraged founders “to take the plunge and take the risk” to build scalable solutions to address customer challenges. In other words, says Vica, “the opportunity cost of not innovating, not inventing … has become way bigger.” Entrepreneurs are responding to this call to innovation. There will be “more opportunities that happen way faster," says Vica, adding that, "there is much more empathy across the globe and across industries because we are all in this together this time.”

Please join our host and co-Managing Director of <a href="https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Venture Lab</a> <a href="https://www.accion.org/bio/vikas-raj" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vikas Raj</a> as he interviews industry leaders every Thursday about how COVID-19 is impacting their work.

"There is much more empathy across the globe" - Anthemis's Vica Manos

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