Collaboration will aim to enable refugees to send and receive funds digitally

Mastercard and Western Union have teamed up to help refugees around the world access goods, services and financial services within refugee settlements.

Paybefore, Banking Technologys sister publication, reports that the partnership will explore ways to use a digital model to serve the more than 65 million people around the world currently displaced from their homes due to political conflict and natural disasters.

The collaboration will aim to enable refugees, their host communities and donors to send and receive funds digitally, creating more transparency and long-term empowerment of refugees, according to Mastercard and Western Union.

Over the past year, the firms studied a pair of settlement camps in northwestern Kenya to examine the needs, challenges and opportunities for refugees and their host communities. The findings led to the development of Smart Communities: Using Digital Technology to Create Sustainable Refugee Economies, a blueprint designed to serve refugees by combining digital access to remittances, banking, education, health care and other basic needs in way that is unified and trackable.

The model emphasises digital solutions including the delivery of mobile money, digital vouchers and prepaid cards, notes Maureen Sigliano, head of customer relationship management, Western Union. The goal is to drive personal empowerment, stimulate growth and promote social cohesion among the worlds refugee populations, while driving better governance and transparency, she says.

Both Mastercard and Western Union are founding members of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a coalition of more than 70 companies committed to addressing the global refugee crisis.

The private sector is uniquely positioned to bring greater innovation and ingenuity to this crisis, says Gideon Maltz, executive director of Tent. The Mastercard-Western Union initiative reflects the contributions that companies can make when they identify problems, collaborate with each other, and work tirelessly to find and fund scalable solutions to fix them, adds Maltz.

Yesterday (21 June), Banking Technology reported that the Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP) launched a new competition to find financial products and services that improve the lives of poor people in rural areas of Africa.

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Mastercard and Western Union designing digital solutions for refugees - Banking Technology