Courtesy Ruth Goodwin-Groen

Today, 100 million unbanked adults worldwide receive government transfers, wages, or pensions in cash, a payment method that is highly vulnerable to fraud and theft. Furthermore, 1.7 billion adults lack a bank account, making it difficult to save money or establish a financial history. Ruth Goodwin-Groen (MBA 2001) is on a mission to change that. “Our job will not be done until all people—old or young, rich or poor, male or female—are able to make and receive payments in a way that works for them,” says Goodwin-Groen, managing director of the Better Than Cash Alliance, a public-private partnership funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BMZ, Flourish, Mastercard, Norad/Vipps, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the US Agency for International Development, and Visa, and hosted by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

Digital payments increase savings, security, and transparency for both the payer and the recipient, and they can serve as the spark for larger societal change, Goodwin-Groen explains. “Digital financial inclusion can build a foundation for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Whether it’s improvements in sanitation or health or education, it starts with a payment system everyone can use.”

The Better Than Cash Alliance advocates for this type of digital financial inclusion, provides guidance to governments and corporations in their transition efforts, and helps the groups attract the necessary financial investments. “There is no blueprint, as every member is at a different place,” observes Goodwin-Groen. “Our role is to help create opportunities for investment in this sector.”

One of the biggest challenges is translating the complexities of the financial payments sector into a language that can be understood by policymakers, politicians, and all those who will use the system. “We need to break down the barriers and make it accessible for everyone who is going to be a part of the digital payment ecosystem,” Goodwin-Groen says. “Our mission is to catalyze a global movement from cash to digital payment so that all people have the ability to improve their lives.”

The work of the Better Than Cash Alliance is especially urgent in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “As we showed five years ago during the Ebola crisis, that to respond quickly and effectively, it was essential that all key public and private sector players work together to deliver payments digitally,” Goodwin-Groen says. “Those companies and governments that took action and can pay all their front-line workers and citizens digitally, are today responding quickly and effectively. For the others, there is now a digital payment imperative. Our work has never been more important.”

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