Savoirs

L’Initiative relative aux services financiers postaux en Afrique (APFSI) était un partenariat d’envergure inédite dirigé par le Mécanisme de financement des envois de fonds du FIDA et réunissant la Banque mondiale, l’Union postale universelle (UPU), l’Institut mondial des caisses d’épargne (WSBI) et le Fonds d’équipement des Nations Unies (FENU), et cofinancé par l’Union européenne (UE). L’objectif commun de ce programme régional était d’accroître la concurrence sur le marché africain des transferts d’argent en encourageant et en soutenant les bureaux de poste du continent dans l’offre de services financiers. Plus précisément, il visait à promouvoir des services de transfert d’argent moins coûteux, plus rapides, plus pratiques et plus conviviaux, en particulier vers les zones rurales, tout en favorisant le dialogue entre les différents acteurs, les autorités de réglementation et les décideurs politiques.

​RemitSCOPE, a new website portal, is designed to provide data, analyses and remittancemarket1 profiles on individual countries or areas. In coordination with the Global Forum on Remittances, Investment and Development 2018, RemitSCOPE is being launched to provide market profiles for 50 countries or areas in the Asia and the Pacific region.

The additional four regions will be included gradually: Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Near East and the Caucasus. RemitSCOPE intends to address the fast-changing market realities in the remittance industry in order to help bring together the goals of remittance families, as clients, and the strategies of the private-sector service providers. RemitSCOPE is designed as a free, one-stop shop that is available to any organization or entity interested in accessing all relevant public information on remittances.  

Remittances constitute a critical lifeline for around 1 billion people around the world. These vital flows of private money, sent by over 200 million international migrant workers, help families raise their living standards and contribute to improved health, education and housing. 

Remittances have increased in low-income and lower- middle-income countries in recent years, playing an important role as a stable source of finance at the macro-level, and in poverty reduction at the micro-level. 

Drawing on a critical review of the literature and econometric analyses based on cross-country panel data, this study examines the relationships among remittances, growth and poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific and highlights policy implications to be considered by governments and policy-makers.