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The Better Than Cash Alliance is a partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations established to scale financial inclusion by transitioning economies from cash to responsible digital payments. The Alliance is hosted by the Sustainable Finance Hub, a finance and innovation platform that draws on a critical mass of UNDP expertise, initiatives, and partnerships to support mobilizing and leveraging resources for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
80
Alliance members
75%
Alliance advisory focusing on women
57
Policy and regulatory changes since 2019
1.4B
Adults still financially excluded
Digital payments contribute to building a strong foundation for the Sustainable Development Goals. When digital payments are swifter, safer, more transparent, and more private than cash, they enable access to vital growth opportunities like energy, water, and credit.
The world is rapidly moving towards digital payments: the COVID-19 pandemic tripled digital transactions from governments to citizens. Technological advances, such as artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology, are transforming the digital payments landscape. In this context, it’s crucial that digital payments are responsible.
A concerted effort to scale up responsible digital payments will unleash everyone’s potential – especially women’s – enabling impact, scale, and sustainability.
The world is undergoing fast digital transformation, which some have referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. Numerous economies and private enterprises have embarked on their digital transformation journeys. Ethiopia is set to follow suit. Payments are an essential enabler for this transformation and as technology enables faster and seamless transfer of data (and money) in the modern age, a robust and responsible digital payments ecosystem becomes compulsory.
