Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Learnings on your challenge
What are the top key insights you generated about your learning challenge during this Action Learning Plan? (Please list a maximum of 5 key insights)
Digital access does not automatically translate into financial well-being.
While most IMG households use digital wallets to receive transfers, usage remains shallow and transactional. Without trust, understanding and perceived value, digital tools do not lead to improved financial practices or stability.
Financial decisions are strongly emotional and experiential.
Fear, need for control, past negative experiences and uncertainty shape behavior more than technical knowledge. Emotional safety is a prerequisite for deeper adoption of savings, insurance or credit.
Cognitive complexity is a key barrier to adoption.
Features such as savings pockets or financial goals are not intuitively understood. Simplicity must be cognitive and practical, not only technological.
Trust is fragile and easily broken.
A single system failure or poor customer service interaction can undo months of positive use, highlighting the importance of human-centered support alongside digital services.
Traditional financial education is ineffective for this population.
Learning happens through doing. Experiential, hands-on and guided approaches resonate far more than theoretical or instructional content.
Considering the outcomes of this learning challenge, which of the following best describe the handover process? (Please select all that apply)
Our work has led to a significant change in public policy at a national or local level
Can you provide more detail on your handover process?
The handover focused on institutional ownership and continuity, rather than a simple transfer of findings. Following the exploratory phase, UNDP Accelerator Lab worked jointly with SDIS and Banca de las Oportunidades to translate insights into a prioritized action roadmap, which is now embedded in Bogotá’s Financial Well-Being Ecosystem 2026 plan.
SDIS assumes leadership of implementation, ensuring alignment with IMG operations and territorial teams. Banca de las Oportunidades supports technical validation and connection with the financial sector. The Accelerator Lab will continue accompanying the next phase through prototyping, learning loops and evidence generation during 2025–2026.
Please paste any link(s) to blog(s) or publication(s) that articulate the learnings on your frontier challenge.
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Data and Methods
Relating to your types of data, why did you chose these? What gaps in available data were these addressing?
We deliberately combined quantitative and qualitative data to address critical blind spots in existing administrative and survey-based data. While institutional data captured access and usage rates, it failed to explain why behaviors persisted.
Focus groups and projective tools helped uncover emotions, beliefs and mental models driving financial decisions.
Surveys provided scale and pattern validation.
Offer–demand tension mapping revealed structural mismatches between product design and user realities.
Emotional representations and narratives surfaced dimensions of trust and risk perception that are invisible in traditional datasets.
These methods addressed gaps related to behavioral drivers, lived experience, and system-level misalignment between financial supply and user needs.
Why was it necessary to apply the above innovation method on your frontier challenge? How did these help you to unpack the system?
The challenge was systemic, behavioral and adaptive in nature. Linear or purely technical approaches would not have captured the underlying dynamics shaping financial well-being.
Innovation methods allowed us to:
Move beyond assumptions and institutional narratives.
Surface hidden tensions between policy intent, product design and daily life practices.
Understand the financial ecosystem as a set of interdependent actors, emotions, incentives and constraints.
Systems thinking and sensemaking were essential to reveal leverage points where small changes (e.g. service design, support, communication) could generate disproportionate impact.
Partners
Please indicate what partners you have actually worked with for this learning challenge.
Please state the name of the partner:
• Secretaria de Integracion Social – Alcaldía de Bogota (liderazgo)
• Banca de las Oportunidades – Gobierno Nacional
• PNUD – AccLab
• Aliados financieros
What sector does your partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the partnership.
The collaboration brings together the strategic leadership of the Bogotá City Government, through the Secretaría Distrital de Integración Social (SDIS), the national expertise of Banca de las Oportunidades in financial inclusion, and the innovation and learning capabilities of UNDP’s Accelerator Lab.
This joint effort was established to understand, through evidence and user-centered methodologies, how vulnerable households experience financial and digital services in their daily lives. The three institutions co-designed and implemented an exploratory phase that included focus groups, behavioural insight tools, analysis of user journeys, and the identification of structural tensions between the supply and demand of financial services.
The collaboration allowed each actor to contribute its strengths:
SDIS provided territorial leadership, access to IMG beneficiaries, and integration of findings into the City’s 2026 planning.
Banca de las Oportunidades contributed technical guidance on financial inclusion, insights from the financial sector, and support in validating opportunities with providers.
UNDP Accelerator Lab contributed wih methodological design, behavioural analysis, synthesis of insights.
Together, the partners co-created a shared roadmap and prioritized actions—such as experiential financial education, simplification of digital services, savings, financial education—that will guide the prototyping and implementation phase of Bogotá’s Financial Well-Being Ecosystem.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
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Bonus question: How did the interplay of innovation methods, new forms of data and unusual partners enable you to learn & generate insights, that otherwise you would have not been able to achieve?
The combination was critical. Innovation methods created safe spaces for honest conversations; new data forms revealed emotional and behavioral layers; and unusual partnerships aligned perspectives across government, financial providers and communities.
This interplay enabled:
Shared understanding across institutions that usually operate in silos.
Evidence-based conversations with financial providers grounded in user reality.
Co-creation of solutions that are feasible, legitimate and user-centered.
Without this combination, insights would likely have remained fragmented, superficial or disconnected from implementation pathways.
Please upload any further supporting evidence / documents / data you have produced on your frontier challenge that showcase your learnings.
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