Request for Application #2019-020

Digital Financial Services on Health Outcomes and Health Systems

Assessing digital financial services’ contributions to health in low-resource health systems

Executive summary: 

Rabin Martin and Women’s World Banking will conduct a landscape assessment to help Digital Square and USAID understand the current and potential impact of digital financial solutions on advancing financial protection to help improve clients’ access to care and broader health system performance. The assessment will consider digital financial services in the context of efforts to strengthen health services and health systems in low income settings, with a focus on financial protection, demand and use of health services, and quality and responsiveness of health care providers.

Rabin Martin will draw on its deep experience and networks in digital health technologies, universal health coverage (UHC) and health system strengthening, while Women’s World Banking will contribute insights on designing and introducing digital financial services. To ensure a comprehensive assessment of the landscape, we will conduct a literature review and interviews with experts in the field who bring diverse perspectives and experiences to this fast-evolving area of health and development. Our collaboration will result in a report, including country case studies, on digital financial services’ effects on financial protection, healthcare uptake, and care delivery. The report will also include preliminary recommendations on introducing digital financial services for health in different country contexts.  

Consortium Team: 

Our team unites a distinctive combination of expertise in many relevant areas: health systems strengthening, program design, evaluation, UHC, digital financial services, digital health innovation and gender – bringing a holistic perspective to how we approach this assignment, analyze information and make practical recommendations. Rabin Martin will be the prime organization, however, we envision an equal partnership with Women’s World Banking.

Rabin Martin is a mission-driven, strategy consulting firm that helps clients lead in improving health and access to global health technologies. Rooted in our mission to improve health and health equity for underserved and hard-to-reach populations, Rabin Martin has been actively engaged in the global health and development arena for more than 15 years. We combine our networks with our deep expertise in private enterprise and global health to help clients design pragmatic solutions to global development issues. Guided by an unwavering commitment to measurable results and impact, we use research as an anchor to our efforts, and bring together the necessary actors to devise, develop, and deploy programs that can move the needle on complex global health challenges. We have strong technical capabilities across global health and development, including the areas of gender, maternal health, HIV/AIDS, UHC, global health security and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). We are also the firm behind Merck for Mothers and have played a strong role shaping investments in digital financial services for health, such as M-TIBA, and innovative financing mechanisms such as the Utkrisht Impact Bond, which USAID also funds.

Women’s World Banking, Inc. is a global non-profit organization that designs digital financial solutions, and invests in women leaders, institutions and policy environments in emerging markets to create greater economic stability and prosperity for women, their families and their communities. Over the last 40 years, Women’s World Banking has cultivated deep insights about what works for low-income women, including the digital financial products that will meet their needs. The organization brings strong capabilities in the areas of gender, research, women-centered design, and digital financial services. Women’s World Banking’s co-actors are its global network of cross-sector partners including retail banks, mobile network operators, fintech companies, governments, multinational corporations and funders which today includes 49 organizations in 31 countries, with a reach of 30 million women. These network members serve as implementing, catalyzing, and strategic partners that help achieve Women’s World Banking’s mission.

Application Status: 
In Scope - withdraw