IFAD awards economic development in social and economic development

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will award a bank, an NGO, a CEO and a private company for their efforts to help remittance recipients leverage the funds they receive for greater social and development impact. The awards will be presented at the fifth Global Forum on Remittances and Development (GFRD) in Milan at 5 pm today.

Remittances - money migrant workers send home to their families - amounted to US $346 billion in 2014. The majority of remittances received are used for basic goods such as food, clothing, shelter, medicine and education.

The Central Bank of the Philippines will be awarded for its Economic and Financial Learning Programme, one component of which targets overseas Filipinos and remittance-recipient families providing financial education on savings and productive investments.

The non-profit Asociación Mexicana de Uniones de Crédito del Sector Social (AMUCSS), a network of rural financial institutions and micro banks, will be awarded for its project Red Confianza.

The project aims at creating a financial environment in rural areas through debit cards and mobile banking, connecting remote communities to national and international financial systems. The project serves 30,000 migrant families annually and led to a significant reduction of transaction costs.

Mame Khary Diene, CEO of the Bioessence Laboratories will receive the award in the category of diaspora entrepreneurship. This young Senegalese entrepreneur returned from Europe to Senegal to set up her own African natural cosmetics and food supplements enterprise. Through the social impact of her enterprise, she proved it is not necessary to continue going abroad to be successful.

WorldRemit, the world largest mobile-centric money transfer service, is the winner of the private-sector award for its iOS and Android mobile Apps, enabling fast, secure and low costs money transfers.

"Awardees were chosen on the basis of innovation, but also on their demonstration of impact for development," explained Pedro De Vasconcelos, manager of IFAD's Financing Facility for Remittances.

The GFRD 2015 awards are based on three principles that represent the work that IFAD Financing Facility for Remittances supports:

Promoting access to remittances in rural areas;

Linking remittances to financial services and product;

Developing innovative and productive rural investment opportunities for migrants and community-based organizations.