The design of the SUMA accelerator program

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Why do we like and engage with certain content on social media? How do our limited attention spans affect our ability to focus on a certain topic? Why do we choose to sign up for certain services over others? How do we decide whether to spend, save or borrow?

These types of questions are part of the study of behavioral science. As defined by Hans Frech, a researcher at the Common Cents Lab – a behavioral sciences laboratory based at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University and focused on improving financial well-being – behavioral science refers to “a new set of disciplines that emerged as a result of different investigations into how people make decisions and why we behave in one way or another.”

There are many applications of behavioral science that aim to improve the effectiveness and reach of social initiatives. For example, Rare, a conservation-focused non-profit organization, utilizes behavioral change to encourage communities to adopt environmentally friendly practices that benefit both people and nature. And FeedMyCity, a community kitchen initiative in India, used behavioral science to effectively communicate its funding needs to donors, enabling it to scale its services france whatsapp number data during COVID-19.

Behavioral science is a relatively new field of study in Latin America. But lately, its applications have been growing in the region, and there has been an increase in the use of behavioral science to address problems impacting financial inclusion and other social needs. This has revealed some surprisingly straightforward solutions to persistent problems: For instance, actions as simple as replacing the word “savings” with a more colloquial term such as “set aside” can increase customer enrollment in savings programs.

Even before COVID-19, most Mexicans faced complex challenges that prevented them from achieving financial health. Mexico’s minimum wage is far below the amount needed to keep a family of four above the poverty line, and 53% of Mexican adults do not have a savings account. Considering COVID-19’s toll on Mexico’s healthcare system and economy, and to mitigate the dramatic increases in poverty and debt levels that the pandemic has caused, New Ventures – a Mexico-based accelerator and investor – recognized the need for initiatives that improve financial health and increase resilience in underserved communities.

New Ventures decided to apply the study of behavioral science to the issues of financial health and financial inclusion through a program called SUMA (meaning “sum” in Spanish), launched in 2021. We’ll explore this program and its impact – and share some lessons it has generated – below.