1.4) By 2030 ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology, and financial services including microfinance
MasterCard, in partnership with financial institutions, merchants, telecommunications companies, governments and non-governmental organizations, has helped make the financial system more accessible to more than 300 million people previously excluded through 500 programs in more than 50 countries. And they’re just getting started. Their commitment is to connect 500 million, including 40 million micro and small merchants, to the formal economy by 2020 – giving people an important tool to help them move out of poverty.
Identity is a starting point, especially for women, and MasterCard is working with governments like Nigeria and Egypt to link a government identity with payments – enabling people to become financially included on a massive scale.
MasterCard is also working with governments to help them distribute social benefits through electronic payments cards. For example, the company partnered with the South African Social Security Agency to deliver government funds on 10 million debit cards with biometrics. Five million of the 16 million South Africans getting government benefits now have access to a formal financial tool for the first time.
The company has also worked with the Rwandan government to fast-track the country’s move to include 90 percent of its citizens in the financial mainstream. MasterCard worked with the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to broaden the use of electronic payments by micro, small and medium enterprises. MasterCard launched Masterpass QR, a solution that allows millions of MSMEs to accept quick and secure payments and empowers consumers to move beyond cash when buying goods and services, in eight countries. And the company worked with bKash to connect Bangladeshis to send and receive remittances on their mobile phones.
2.3) By 2030, double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment
MasterCard has been leading efforts with the World Food Programme to transform the delivery of food assistance for people living in refugee camps. The company also recently launched 2Kuze, a product developed by the MasterCard Labs for Financial Inclusion in Nairobi that digitizes the agriculture supply chain. 2KUZE connects smallholder farmers, agents, buyers and banks through a digital platform. It empowers farmers by providing them access to markets, information, and relevant financial services, all made possible through transparent digital payments. Farmers using 2Kuze can conduct the entire transaction of selling produce and receiving payments via their mobile phones. Farmers are also able to capture a greater percentage of the wholesale value of their goods by providing price transparency, more direct access to buyers and empowerment of farmer-friendly agents. The platform is being piloted in Nandi Hills, Kenya, in partnership with Cafédirect Producers Foundation, a nonprofit organization working with 300,000 small holder farmers globally.
5.5) Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life
“Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World” is a joint initiative from the Singapore Committee for UN Women and MasterCard, to help young change-makers create a better world for women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. Launched in 2011, to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Project Inspire presents 18-35 year olds with a five-minute platform to pitch their inspired idea, for the chance to win a US$25,000 grant. The competition attracted over 430 entries from 65 countries around the world with a broad range of projects from the cultivation of traditional dyes in Indonesia to female health education applications in South Africa in 2015.
5.b) Enhance the use of enabling technologies, in particular ICT, to promote the empowerment of women
MasterCard recently launched the Give Me 5 initiative in response to Goal 5 to address the work that MasterCard is doing for gender equality. MasterCard is working with governments like Nigeria and Egypt to link Identity solutions with payments – enabling people to become financially included on a massive scale. The company’s partnership with UN Women will provide half a million Nigerian women with ID cards enabled with electronic payments functionality, advancing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. 2Kuze, a product developed by the MasterCard Labs for Financial Inclusion in Nairobi that digitizes the agriculture supply chain, helps supports women farmers, who often have household duties that prevent them from leaving the farm gate and are more often subject to having to take whatever deal is given them from middlemen in the process.
MasterCard created and launched Girls4Tech in 2014, a signature education program based on global science and math standards that has already reached 22,000 girls in 16 countries. This hands-on, inquiry-based program connects the foundations of our business to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) principles and shows students that it takes all kinds of interests and skills to pursue a STEM career. Designed to inspire young girls to build STEM skills that will help them become leaders of tomorrow and learn about possible STEM careers, it showcases MasterCard’s payments technology emphasizing the foundations of the business – algorithms, encryption, fraud detection, data analysis, digital convergence and the power of our network.
8.3) Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial resources
MasterCard established the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth as an independent subsidiary to empower people through inclusive growth. With a broad focus on long term equitable economic growth of countries and communities, the Center mobilizes MasterCard resources - including data, expertise, technology and philanthropic investments - to advance financial inclusion, engage leaders on the front lines of inclusive growth and connect one million micro-entrepreneurs to the formal economy by 2020.
10.2) By 2030 empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
MasterCard works to reduce economic inequality through the “power of identity.” Their mission is to create solutions that address the needs and challenges of partners so that they can extend the reach and scale of their efforts. One such way is through efforts to extend identity to more women around the world. Nearly 2.4 billion people live without any form of official personal identification, and the majority of them are women. Proof of identity allows you to be counted and is therefore a critical, essential first rung on the ladder toward gender equality, independence, and greater economic agency and political voice. Without proof of identity, it’s nearly impossible to receive government benefits. MasterCard is working with governments and NGOs around the world to help change this. Nigeria is a key example, where millions of people are now getting their government benefits on a National ID card that doubles as an electronic payments card. MasterCard has partnered with UN Women to provide half a million Nigerian women with ID cards enabled with electronic payments functionality. The company is also working with Mercy Corps to register 18,000 Nigerian girls and women to receive an eID card, giving most access to their first formal identity.
17.1) Strengthen domestic resource mobilization, including through international support to developing countries to improve domestic capacity for tax and other revenue collection.
Governments with cash heavy economies are unable to maximize tax revenue or monetary policy. With 85% of the world’s retail transactions still done in cash and check, MasterCard is actively working to build a World Beyond Cash where more people have access to and use electronic payments. Economies that successfully shift away from cash can help governments increase domestic revenue that can be mobilized toward development goals.
17.3) Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources
MasterCard is building a multi-sector effort designed to support the emergence of inclusive financial services systems in an entirely different way, altering the nature and mix of funding from traditional types of support e.g. equity or grant funding in isolation. Together, these entities will select target markets to deepen financial inclusion, design a country-specific “ecosystem map” to scale financial inclusion and offer coordinated funding to accomplish the following in a more holistic way:
Market- level transformation in financial inclusion;
Investment in a coordinated set of interventions against highly targeted country research;
A “blue print” for engaging all the players necessary to scale products and services for the under-served aligned with key stakeholders’ strategic areas of interest and core competencies;
Identification of a high potential portfolio of companies whose participation in the financial services ecosystem can create a positive, “chain reaction” that will accelerate market evolution.
17.16) Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
MasterCard co-created a new end-to-end technology solution with humanitarian aid organizations to distribute aid swiftly and safely even in the absence of connectivity. The MasterCard Aid Network has already been in field where it has helped 15,000 people in Yemen and 9,000 people in the Philippines receive aid through programs managed by Save the Children and World Vision, respectively. At its core, MasterCard Aid Network is a digital, non-financial service that organizations can use to provide basic human needs such as food, shelter and healthcare to impacted populations.
17.17) Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
MasterCard has launched The MasterCard Labs for Financial Inclusion, the first of its kind innovation R&D hub, based in Nairobi, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This Lab is working with local entrepreneurs to create commercially-viable financial products and services that reach 100 million people living in poverty, including small and micro merchants.
Working with the Internal Finance Corporation (IFC), MasterCard has established a USD $250 million risk participation facility to help emerging market banks participate in the MasterCard network and issue prepaid, debit and credit cards to people previously unable to access electronic payments.