Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Savings and Credit are Still Essential to Crushing Poverty.

Deep poverty is increasing.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic is making more people poorer - especially those who are already experiencing poverty.  Some estimates suggest that COVID-19 wiped out the global gains on poverty alleviation in the three to four years before the pandemic.  Knowing this?  Now what?  How can development practitioners begin to address this challenge?  According to Kate Schecter, one of the key components may be more obvious than we think:  "saving money".  Check out this episode of GDP to learn more about her ideas and approach.  

Kate Schecter, Ph.D., joined World Neighbors as the President and CEO in June of 2014.  World Neighbors is a 71 year old international development organization that works with rural isolated communities to help find solutions to permanently lift these communities out of poverty.  Dr. Schecter is responsible for managing World Neighbors’ programs and operations in 14 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.  In her previous position, she worked for the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) for 14 years.  As a Senior Program Officer at AIHA, she had responsibility for managing health partnerships throughout Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe.  She worked with over 35 partnerships addressing primary healthcare, chronic disease management, hospital management, maternal/child health, Tuberculosis, blood safety and HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Schecter holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and an M.A. in Soviet Studies from Harvard University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Board of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. from 2010 to 2018.

Follow Dr. Bob on Twitter:  @ProfessorHuish