The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) recently committed approximately US$556,000 to support pilot training programs for workers in the garment industry in Bangladesh. The funding will pay for technical assistance and performance-based grants for three companies seeking to promote financial and digital literacy skills and therefore financial and digital inclusion for 135,000 people working in the sector, mostly women. UNCDF implementing partners for the project are Quizrr, Ulula and employee. Wagely will offer attendees its Earned Wage Access service, which allows workers to collect their wages in advance. The other two companies are collaborating to provide digital training on “human rights and responsibilities, worker engagement and digital wages”.

Founded in 2020, Wagely is an Indonesian platform with a mission to “provide a sustainable solution for all employees to break the cycle of indebtedness caused by overdraft fees, high interest credits or loans on salary and play a leading role in building financial well-being for the weakest”. – and middle-income workers in Indonesia.

Quizrr is a Swedish education technology (edtech) company established in 2013. It offers training for digital workers from offices in Bangladesh, China, Thailand and Sweden. The company claims to have served 1.3 million users who work in 600 factories.

Launched in 2013, Ulula, which means “reveal” in Chichewa, is a Canadian company whose services include anonymous feedback and engagement solutions for workers to report human rights abuses, as well as tools to measure the scale of business contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. . The company claims to have served 1.6 million users in 40 countries.

Established in 1996 and based in the US city of New York, UNCDF works to create opportunities for the poor and their businesses by improving access to microfinance and other forms of investment capital. The organization operates in 47 low-income countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, with a particular focus on countries emerging from crises. For 2020, UNCDF had a budget of $75 million and supported initiatives providing financial services to 3 million unbanked and underbanked customers.

By Saulius Simonas Ramanauskas, Research Associate

Sources and additional sources

UNCDF press release
https://www.uncdf.org/article/7684/financial-digital-solutions-garment-workers-bangladesh

Quizrr homepage
https://www.quizrr.se

Ulula homepage
https://ulula.com

Salary home page
https://www.wagely.app

UNCDF homepage
https://www.uncdf.org

Previous note from MicroCapital on UNCDF
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-public-sector-commits-61m-to-smes-via-bamboo-uncdf-initiative-for-the-least-developed-build-fund

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