A COVID cash transfer programme in Togo that gives more money to women

The Innovation Dividend Podcast, EP 9

The Innovation Dividend explores how innovation in society and government are paying off. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be exploring how ‘policy frontliners’ are innovating in real time in the COVID-19 pandemic and asking which of these changes and “raw learnings” might become part of our new normal. You can see the backstory by Kal Joffres here, Podcast EP 1, Podcast EP2, Podcast EP3, Podcast EP4, Podcast EP5, Podcast EP6, Podcast EP7, and Podcast EP8

Togo built a fully digital cash transfer programme serving over 12% of the population from scratch in just 10 days in response to COVID-19. The programme pays out more to women than to men and it has successfully reached out to vulnerable populations by doing some very non-digital things. We speak with Cina Lawson, Minister of Postal Affairs and Digital Economy in the Togo Government and Shegun Bakari, the senior adviser to the Togo President about Novissi, a fully digital cash transfer scheme aimed at workers in the informal sector.

Lawson has held her post since 2013. She was featured twice in Forbes’ top 20 “Youngest power women in Africa”. She received the Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Public Service Award last year and she is the first African woman political figure to receive the award. This interview was recorded on June 9, 2020.

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Doing development differently through designing, developing, curating, collating and championing innovation and digital across the Asia Pacific Region.

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Regional Innovation Centre UNDP Asia-Pacific

Doing development differently through designing, developing, curating, collating and championing innovation and digital across the Asia Pacific Region.