March 19, 2025, 8:00–09:30 (central U.S., UTC – 6)
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Financial Inclusion: A Growing Focus in International Social Development

March 19, 2025, 8:00–09:30 (central U.S., UTC – 6)
Via Zoom
V., D., Ghoh, C., & Sherraden, M. S. (2024). Financial capability training for social workers in Singapore: Towards more effective practice. International Social Work, 67(2), 346–359. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208728221150901
In a recent seminar, Center for Social Development (CSD) researchers discussed the SEED for Oklahoma Kids experiment, Singapore’s leadership in asset-based social policy and a vision for global Children Development Accounts. Singapore is a global leader in asset-based social policy, providing citizens a cradle-to-grave structure for accumulating wealth. That interest in such policies and their […]
In Singapore, an innovative project is training frontline staff and volunteers to give financial guidance to low-income families.
Nearly 30 years after the publication of Michael Sherraden’s seminal Assets and the Poor, Child Development Account (CDA) policies and programs are emerging across the globe. Now, a new book edited by Jin Huang, Li Zou and Sherraden showcases the global context of those advancements.
Singapore initiated training in Financial Capability and Asset Building in 2017. It is kicking off its third phase: expanding to a nationwide scale.
Sherraden, M., Lough, B. J., Sherraden, M. S., Williams Shanks, T. R., & Huang, J. (2019). Applied social research: Aiming for impact. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 10(4), 545–570. https://doi.org/10.1086/706153
Loke, V., & Sherraden, M. (2019). Building assets from birth: Singapore’s policies. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 29(1), 6–19. doi:10.1080/02185385.2019.1571940
Huang, J., Zou, L., & Sherraden, M. (Eds.). (2019). Inclusive child development accounts: Toward universality and progressivity [Special issue]. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 29(1).
Sherraden, M., Huang, J., & Zou, L. (2019). Toward universal, progressive, and lifelong asset building: Introduction to the special issue. Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 29(1), 1–5. doi:10.1080/02185385.2019.1575272
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke at the August 24 launch of the book “Critical Issues in Asset Building in Singapore’s Development.” Professors S. Vasoo and Bilveer Singh at the National University of Singapore (NUS) edited the book. The lead chapter is by Michael Sherraden, director of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.
Sudha Nair, PhD, was recently named a finalist for Singaporean of the Year 2016 in recognition of her powerful impact as a social worker focused on family violence. Nair, among Brown School Distinguished Alumni (MSW ’91), was also awarded the title of Her World Woman of the Year in August 2016.
Lough, B. J. (2016). Global partners for sustainable development: The added value of Singapore International Foundation volunteers [Report]. Singapore: Singapore International Foundation.
The Singapore government announced on March 24 that it significantly expanded Child Development Accounts as of that date.
Loke, V., & Sherraden, M. (2015, December). Building children’s assets in Singapore: The beginning of a lifelong policy (CSD Policy Brief No. 15-51). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development.
Singapore’s innovative response to its rough and vulnerable beginning has shaped the first 50 years of the island country, Michael Sherraden said Wednesday, speaking to a crowd gathered at the National University of Singapore for his public lecture marking Singapore’s 50th Anniversary as an independent nation.
The Singapore launch of the Next Age Institute is on Monday, February 23, at the National University of Singapore. The event will feature Singapore’s Senior Minister of State Amy Khor as the guest of honor.
Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have established the Next Age Institute, an international partnership to study, design and test social innovations.
Michael Sherraden, PhD, George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor and director of the Center for Social Development at the Brown School, has been named the inaugural S. R. Nathan Professor at the National University of Singapore.
Sherraden, M. S. (2010). Forum Research 2010 presentation given at the 2010 annual conference of International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations, Singapore [Video]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrC2BQf7pP0
Loke, V., & Cramer, R. (2009). Singapore’s Central Provident Fund: A national policy of life-long asset accounts (New America Foundation Working Paper). Washington, DC: New America Foundation.