Jason Lamb of Gates Foundation Named New Chair of CGAP’s Executive Committee
CGAP CEO calls for renewed focus on retail credit to support growth and jobs for the poor
BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 22, 2019 - Jason Lamb from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was elected chair of the Executive Committee for The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) at its annual meeting on Wednesday.
Lamb will succeed Carolina Trivelli, senior researcher at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and Peru’s former Minister of Development and Social Inclusion. Under Trivelli’s leadership CGAP adopted its new five-year strategy and theory of change that places empowering the poor through financial services to capture opportunities and build resilience at the heart of CGAP’s work.
At the Gates Foundation, Lamb is Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor (FSP) and manages focus country implementation in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. He has served on CGAP’s Executive Committee, which functions like a board of directors providing strategic guidance to CGAP’s operational staff, for two years and represents the foundation’s constituency. He will take up the position on July 1.
“I am excited to deepen my engagement with CGAP, which makes such important contributions toward providing poor people with reliable access to a range of safe, affordable financial tools and services,” Lamb said.
Lamb’s leadership will prove invaluable in advancing CGAP’s development agenda, CGAP CEO Greta Bull said. “Financial inclusion can be one of the most powerful ways to help the poor build better, healthier lives. Working collectively in partnership with the Gates Foundation, as with all our members, we can make significant progress toward safeguarding the rights of and expanding opportunities for poor people,” she said.
In her address to the CGAP annual meeting, Bull said that one of the major barriers to jobs and economic growth is adequate credit at affordable prices for small and medium-sized enterprises. She urged regulators, financial service and infrastructure providers and funders to consider their roles in contributing toward a healthy retail credit market. “Digital credit has shown us what is possible, but it has also shown us how much more we need to do. If we want economic growth and jobs to keep pace with population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa and to provide pathways to livelihoods for poor people, it is crucial that we get the credit puzzle right,” Bull said.
About CGAP
CGAP is an independent think tank that works to empower poor people to capture opportunities and build resilience through financial services. We test, learn and develop innovative solutions through practical research and active engagement with our partners on building responsible and inclusive financial systems that help move people out of poverty, protect their gains and advance global development goals. Housed at the World Bank, CGAP is supported by over 30 leading development organizations committed to making financial services meet the needs of poor people.