In a new report, HERproject shares insights from HERfinance Vietnam on how financial inclusion programs can improve financial resilience for workers and create broader business benefits for employers.
This impact report shares the benefits for garment sector workers and businesses following participation in HERfinance in Vietnam, developed with support from The Walt Disney Company.
This report describes HERproject’s industry stakeholder approach to expand support for workers to use and benefit from their payroll accounts, including advice for stakeholders to integrate a gendered approach to digital wages training into existing training programs.
This report by HERproject, IFC, under the IFC/ILO Better work shares research into the market potential for wage digitization in Cambodia and recommendations to expand this further.
Snigdha Ali, Program Officer, Financial Services for the Poor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Global Findex 2021 report shows, surprisingly, that financial inclusion increased all over the world last year despite COVID-19. Bangladesh’s work to increase the use of digital wages during the pandemic illustrates how some policy responses enhanced this inclusion and led to enormous dividends for women.
HERessentials, a tablet-based learning app for workers and managers, started as a response to the COVID-19 crisis, but it has the potential to build digital capabilities for all workers. We share three key recommendations for businesses considering how to set up digital training in supply chains.
Laura contributes to HERproject’s workplace program in global supply chains by conducting research and program management.
Prior to joining BSR, Laura was a public policy consultant at the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation in Paris, researching innovation trends and the relationship between innovation, artificial intelligence, and diversity. She also managed relations with Latin American governments. Before her experience at the OECD, Laura worked at UNICEF for four years in corporate partnerships and fundraising while based in her home country of Colombia. She has also worked in communications and project management in a B corporation and in TECHO, an international NGO focused on poverty alleviation in Latin America.
Laura has experience working with HIV-positive vulnerable women in Kenya, helping them strengthen and build small businesses for economic empowerment.
Laura is also a columnist on topics related to gender equality and speaks Spanish, English, and French. Laura has a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and completed a fellowship in public leadership at the Unversidad de los Andes.
Digitizing wages in Cambodia’s garment sector has the potential to drive efficiency in the supply chain, while bringing large numbers of unbanked workers, especially women, into the formal financial system. This blog details research by HERproject and IFC, under the ILO/IFC Better Work partnership, in close collaboration with Better Factories Cambodia and Microfinance Opportunities.
Laura contributes to HERproject’s workplace program in global supply chains by conducting research and program management.
Prior to joining BSR, Laura was a public policy consultant at the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation in Paris, researching innovation trends and the relationship between innovation, artificial intelligence, and diversity. She also managed relations with Latin American governments. Before her experience at the OECD, Laura worked at UNICEF for four years in corporate partnerships and fundraising while based in her home country of Colombia. She has also worked in communications and project management in a B corporation and in TECHO, an international NGO focused on poverty alleviation in Latin America.
Laura has experience working with HIV-positive vulnerable women in Kenya, helping them strengthen and build small businesses for economic empowerment.
Laura is also a columnist on topics related to gender equality and speaks Spanish, English, and French. Laura has a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and completed a fellowship in public leadership at the Unversidad de los Andes.
HERproject Team
Ella Moffat
Manager | France
Ella manages the HERfinance Digital Wages program, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program supports ready made garment factories to digitize wage payments for 150,000 workers—mainly women—in Bangladesh and India.
Before joining BSR, Ella was partnership manager on CARE International UK’s private-sector engagement team, working closely with companies including Barclays, Mondelez International, and GSK to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and deliver business and social impact, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. Ella also spent three years as a VSO fundraising advisor in India working for grassroots disability and rural development organizations.
Ella holds a Master’s in Development Studies from Birkbeck, University of London.
This report details HERproject's progress towards wage digitization, three plausible alternative futures to what wage digitization may look like in 10 years, and recommendations for action to strengthening digital payment systems that empowers workers.
Ella manages the HERfinance Digital Wages program, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program supports ready made garment factories to digitize wage payments for 150,000 workers—mainly women—in Bangladesh and India.
Before joining BSR, Ella was partnership manager on CARE International UK’s private-sector engagement team, working closely with companies including Barclays, Mondelez International, and GSK to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and deliver business and social impact, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. Ella also spent three years as a VSO fundraising advisor in India working for grassroots disability and rural development organizations.
Ella holds a Master’s in Development Studies from Birkbeck, University of London.
HERproject Team
Smita Nimilita
HERproject Country Representative | Bangladesh
Smita leads the implementation of HERproject in Bangladesh. She also supports the development of HERfinance Digital Wages Program in other countries, including Egypt and Cambodia. Previously, she was a Research Associate at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a research and policy nonprofit organization that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty issues. She completed her intership with IDLC Finance Ltd.
Smita holds an MBA from North South University, Bangladesh. She enjoys travelling, yoga, meditation, reading, and spending time with her marine aquarium and with her family.
HERproject Team
Justin Hui
Associate | Hong Kong
Justin leads on the implementation of HERproject programs in Vietnam..
Prior to joining BSR, Justin was a startup owner providing professional training services to Japanese expats in Hong Kong, focusing on communication and presentation skills so that they were able to better navigate Hong Kong’s multicultural business environment. He has experience in curriculum, business, and strategy development. Before that, Justin was an English teacher and manager at a South Korea-based education center.
Justin has a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Toronto and an M.B.A. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Ella manages the HERfinance Digital Wages program, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The program supports ready made garment factories to digitize wage payments for 150,000 workers—mainly women—in Bangladesh and India.
Before joining BSR, Ella was partnership manager on CARE International UK’s private-sector engagement team, working closely with companies including Barclays, Mondelez International, and GSK to develop mutually beneficial partnerships and deliver business and social impact, with a focus on women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. Ella also spent three years as a VSO fundraising advisor in India working for grassroots disability and rural development organizations.
Ella holds a Master’s in Development Studies from Birkbeck, University of London.
