Remittances represent up to 60 per cent of recipients’ families on average and typically more than double a family’s disposable income and help deal with uncertainty, allowing them to build assets.

In rural communities, half of remittances are spent on agriculture-related expenses. Additional income increases receiving households’ demand for food, which increases domestic food production and improves nutrition, particularly among children and the elderly.

Remittances invested in health care – access to medicine, preventive care and health insurance products – improve the health and well-being of recipient families. Infants born into remittance families have a higher birthweight and are less likely to die during their first year.

By making remittance sending more accessible to migrants and reducing their cost, SRG is empowering remittance receiving households. Studies have demonstrated that these households have better educational participation and invest a tenth of their income in educating their children. The impact is so significant that remittances lead to almost doubling school enrolment. Children from remittance families, especially girls, register higher school attendance, enrolment rates and additional years in school.

Women now comprise half of all remittance senders, totalling 100 million. Remittances transform the economic role of women on both the send and receive side. They enable financial independence and better employment opportunities. SRG is committed to including women in the financial empowerment of the migrant community.

To create social capital and pool funds to address local needs, migrants and/or their families often organize themselves into neighbourhood organizations in their communities or through Hometown Associations (HTAs) abroad.

Remittances have a positive impact on family assets and overall quality of life when invested in housing, and they are more likely to be used for home improvements than for home purchases. Affordable solutions for poor households and their communities are already available, including efficient cooking devices and clean energy solutions.

By working closely with the ILO and IOM, SRG seeks to further grow the benefits of remittances for migrant workers. SRG is distributing financial tools, resources and information that empowers workers to understand their labour rights and opportunities. This is builds on our vision for the reducing remittances costs. By reducing average costs to 3 per cent globally, remittance families would save an additional US$20 billion annually. This substantially increases disposal income for remittance receiving families and begins to transform remittance receiving communities.

SaverRemit group is revolutionising this sustainable development goal by making low cost services accessible for the migrant worker community. Transaction costs listed on Saver platforms range from 1.8% to 15% with the top services averaging 2.1%.

As remittance families increase their purchase capacity and change their consumption patterns, they can do so by meeting individual needs and aspirations within the ecological limits of the planet.

Migration is increasingly becoming a consequence of climate change. Remittances and diaspora investment play a crucial role in mitigating its negative impacts and helping cope with income shortages due to weather-related shocks. Remittances enable the adoption of more sustainable crops and non-farm activities.

The international community – in line with SDG 17 – is committed to working together in order to leverage the development impact of remittances. Through initiatives such as the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the international community now recognizes remittances as a vital support for hundreds of millions of people across the globe and works to strengthen their development impact on families and communities.