Savings-led Microfinance – A Growing Force in Global Development
Savings-led microfinance is today gaining significant traction as a development tool, with a growing number of businesses, financial institutions and NGOs now viewing this method of supporting financial inclusion as best practice. At Barclays we see huge potential in the Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA’s) that form the core of savings-led microfinance, and for […]
IFC: What Does It Take to Create Jobs?
By Roland Michelitsch, Manager and Leader of IFC’s Jobs Study, International Finance Corporation (IFC) With so many young workers joining the labor force, more than 600 million jobs must be created by the end of the decade just to maintain today’s employment levels. The vast majority—90 percent, by most estimates—must come from the private sector. […]
Karel De Gucht: Helping developing countries trade their way out of poverty
One thing is for sure: No country has ever lifted itself out of poverty without international trade. Trade is key to help countries develop. So we need to make sure that people in the world’s poorest countries have access to markets, to create jobs and encourage growth as a result. But trade needs the right […]
Aid for Trade- Continued Success in a Rapidly Evolving Environment
“Aid for Trade” has galvanised broad engagement from the international community to support developing countries to make the most of international trade. Successive Global Reviews have provided clear evidence that the Initiative has lead to an integration of trade policies in national development strategies, to an inclusion of trade considerations in planning frameworks and consultations […]
The Importance of Aid for Trade
Photo: WTO Aid for Trade is as relevant today as it was when the Initiative was launched at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in 2005. Developing countries, and in particular Least-Developed Countries (LDCs), have made measurable progress in their participation in the global trading system. But for many, this participation still remains too narrowly focused […]
Jin-Yong Cai: How to end poverty? The private sector is part of the solution
Four years after the global financial crisis struck, the world still faces major economic challenges. Shocks from Europe, Asia, or the United States could undermine recoveries in many developing countries, hurting the poor the most. The threat is acute in Sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly half the population still lives in poverty, and many countries remain […]
A philanthropic strategy for enhancing the reach and impact of individuals, organizations and nonprofits
What would you do if you found out you were using less than 1% of the resources available to help you achieve your philanthropic goals? Here’s what I did. I have served philanthropic and social good organizations in some capacity for most of my adult life. A common theme I saw along the way was […]
The Next Mobile Revolution: Boosting Women's Entrepreneurship via Mobile Money
For Marion, the challenge of starting her own business was not lack of initiative – she had plenty – but rather dearth of start-up capital. At 20-years old, Marion dropped out of school because she didn’t have sufficient school fees. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she lives, this is a common trend for many […]
The Next Mobile Revolution: Boosting Women’s Entrepreneurship via Mobile Money
For Marion, the challenge of starting her own business was not lack of initiative – she had plenty – but rather dearth of start-up capital. At 20-years old, Marion dropped out of school because she didn’t have sufficient school fees. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she lives, this is a common trend for many […]
BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, visits lendwithcare.org entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina
In early December BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, accompanied staff from The Co-operative and CARE to visit female entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina who have received microloans through lendwithcare.org. DAY ONE So here we are, arrived in Sarajevo. I’ve been given an amazing tour of the city by lendwithcare.org’s local microfinance partner and CARE Bosnia. Then straight […]
What role for Islamic microfinance?
Conventional interest based microfinance has come under increasing scrutiny and its benefits questioned in recent years. Does Islamic microfinance present a viable alternative? Quite possibly. Islamic, more correctly termed Shari’ah compliant’, finance is based on principles that include linking transactions to tangible economic activities, excluding financial speculation and excessive uncertainty, and funding only socially productive […]
The challenges facing women micro entrepreneurs
Lendwithcare.org, CARE International Women microentrepreneurs face many difficulties in developing their businesses: lack of appropriate skills, lack of mobility and lack of infrastructure may all pose significant challenges. In such instances the provision of microfinance to address the problem of lack of capital may have a limited effect unless steps are taken to address other […]
Has the debate on microfinance made us forget about the poor?
Ines ©Nancy Thomas/CARE The microfinance community can be a confusing and contradictory place. Ever growing and buzzing, it is a community built upon grand ‘for’ and ‘against’ statements, a place that is bursting at the seams with facts and figures and a place, let’s face it, that leaves even the most persistent of ‘truth-seekers’ feeling […]
Microfinance over the last 10 years: Reflections and suggestions for the future
lendwithcare.org The UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Microfinance recently celebrated 10 years’ of raising awareness of microfinance and the role it can play in reducing poverty. At an event, hosted by CARE International, Dr Ajaz Khan (lendwithcare.org‘s Microfinance Advisor) reflected on the last 10 years and made some suggestions for the future. Since the […]
Grassroots Business Fund Closes $47 Million Fund for Impact Investing in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
December 4th, 2012 (Washington, DC) –The Grassroots Business Fund (GBF) announces today that is has successfully closed a $47,000,000 fund, with support from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the German Development Bank, the Netherlands Development Finance Company and more than two dozen additional governments, foundations and private individuals. GBF will target businesses in emerging markets […]
What I learned from Social Investors over Breakfast
I was delighted to have the chance to attend the Investor Breakfast at the ClearlySo SBC12 conference. After a career in the City, being around social entrepreneurs feels so “nourishing”. I love their energy and ideas. But I was curious about the investor experience: what are their concerns and aspirations, where are they satisfied and […]
Improving the lives of workers and producers through global value chains – what are some of the necessary conditions?
Dr Stephanie Barrientos, Capturing the Gains, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester We are all aware of companies in the North that source in developing countries. For decades, campaign groups have put them under pressure for poor working conditions in their global value chains. But what happens when the lead firms in those global […]
Working Towards Responsible Labour Standards for Cocoa Growing
Child labour is both a symptom and a self-perpetuating cause of poverty. Children in cocoa growing areas often face the harsh realities of rural poverty (including scarcity or low-fertility of land, food insecurity, lack of education infrastructure, poor access to potable water, and remoteness from markets). The practice of children working on cocoa farms is […]
Helping Corporates achieve Sustainable Development Goals through new funding models
The innovative Carbon for Water programme unlocked private sector finance to deliver safe water to 4.5 million people a year. For 15 years, ClimateCare has worked with large blue chip organisations who, having taken steps to reduce carbon emissions and want to address their residual footprint, by funding external emission reduction projects. Our name is […]
Crowding to a Cause
Crowdfunding is generally defined as an internet-based collective effort between people who pool money to help fund an activity or an entrepreneurial endeavor. Also called crowdsourcing, crowdfunding is used to underwrite a variety of activities, including new products, artistic efforts, political campaigns or scientific research, just to name a few. In return, if a product […]