Giving Women Better Access to Finance Could Unlock $330 Billion in Annual Global Revenue
Lack of access to finance remains one of the major barriers facing women entrepreneurs in marginalised communities across the world. 80 per cent of women-owned businesses with credit needs are either unserved or underserved – a US$1.7 trillion financing gap. CARE International is responding to this injustice by launching our ‘Access Approved’ campaign. We are […]
Helping Women Thrive: Give a Loan, Create a Community Role Model
Most of these women have simple dreams and plans for themselves, whether it is to provide food for their children, obtain books to go to school or access clean water. And microfinancing organizations and crowdfunding platforms like Kiva are helping women achieve them. Kiva is an international nonprofit based in San Francisco with a mission […]
Celebrating IWD 2019: M&S Joins Better Than Cash Alliance
There’s no normal day working as the Global Ethical Trade Manager at M&S. On Monday I might be in Cambodia meeting a programme delivery partner, by Friday I’m back in London running a compliance report on a proposed new supplier or co-ordinating a weekly call with our regional managers based around the world. Since starting […]
Cash Transfers and Gender Equality
At this year’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, IDS researchers highlighted the limitations of social protection policies such as cash transfers in relation to improving the lives of women across the world. Integrating social protection policies with public services and infrastructure They argued that social protection policies can only be truly effective […]
Mind the Gap & Fix the Mix: Gender Equality in Private Equity
With more than $3 trillion in assets under management—nearly $800 billion of which is allocated to emerging markets—private equity can be a powerful source of financing, especially for innovative businesses that cannot access bank loans or capital markets. Investors and funds with stakes in these privately owned companies not only help them expand, they also […]
Businesses for impact in the spotlight: 4 insights into transforming access to financial services in Nepal
Amit Agrawal is a Nepali tech entrepreneur and CEO of Janaki Technology Pvt Ltd, an award-winning software company that operates the digital wallet Khalti. Amit recently participated in the SPRING Accelerator programme, which helps growth-oriented businesses in East Africa and South Asia develop innovations that transform the lives of adolescent girls through human-centered design (HCD) – a […]
Business Integrity Initiative: Changing the Way We Do Business in Africa?
230,000+ UK SMEs need to export to Africa without engaging in corruption. They need clean business partners and intermediaries. Is this a business opportunity for your country? If your country is anything like mine (Nigeria) where corruption is endemic, pervasive and systemic, you will know the business case for spending scarce funds on demonstrating anti-corruption […]
Can Microfinance Solve the Finance Woes of Facebook Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh?
Research estimates the presence of over 300,000 merchant pages and 28 million Facebook users in Bangladesh today. Large companies are increasing their promotional focus in the platform, to target the right clients and benefit from the large customer base. The most promising factor, however, are not the big players, but the multitude of small businesses […]
Factories Paying Workers Digitally are Five Times More Likely to Provide Good Social and Labor Practices
Like millions of women working in garment factories in Asia, Lucky worried about receiving her monthly salary in cash. “I was concerned about walking out of the factory with that much money in my bag,” she said. “I also share my house with other people, so I didn’t know where to keep my money safe.” […]
Food System Failures in Our Age of Abundance
Twelve-year-old Lena is growing up poor and malnourished on Chicago’s West Side. She buys Blue Juice and Hot Chips from the corner store on her way to school. She and her classmates can afford the flavoured sugar water and salty starch, but this cheap “food” that fills up her stomach provides no nutritional value. Lena […]
How to Mobilise Finance for Corporate Social Impact? Involve your CFO!
At the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), we work every day with our member companies who are pushing the boundaries of business as usual to create positive social impact. Their social impact strategies are not seen as a ‘nice-to-have’ – they are about making the core business work better for employees, society and, […]
Strategic Leadership Education for Inclusive Finance: A Discussion with Professors from the Harvard Business School
Founding Professors Discuss Executive Education Program in Inclusive Finance The HBS-Accion Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance Program is “right at the center of gravity of our mission.” The HBS-Accion Program on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance is a Harvard Business School Executive Education program developed with Center for Financial Inclusion. The program is led by faculty co-chairs Kash […]
Towards Solving the SDG’s Funding Gap: UNEP FI’s Positive Impact Initiative
UNEP FI’s Positive Impact Initiative proposes a new approach: social, economic and environmental impacts have an as-yet under explored potential to generate financial revenues: impact-based business models can be developed, with the delivery of positive impacts as a driver of sustainable business growth and long-term enterprise value. This could be game-changing: by making it cheaper […]
Finance for All: Wedded to Fintech for Better or for Worse
The marriage metaphor appropriately captures the link between technology and financial inclusion as we launch “Finance for All 2018: Wedded to Fintech, for Better or Worse,” a new report on what financial inclusion stakeholders see as crucial risks facing financial service providers in emerging markets who work with those with little or no access to […]
The 6 Market Gaps the Finance Sector Must Address to Help Meet the SDGs
On 30 September 2015, the global community, represented by all 193 member states of the UN, adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Three months later, world leaders charted a new course in our battle against climate change with the Paris Agreement which – for the first time – brought all nations into a common cause […]
Toilets, Not Poverty Traps
Cambodia has made remarkable progress in developing its sanitation. The proportion of households having access to toilets leaped from 23% to 68% in the last 10 years. Since 2011, iDE has been involved, training hundreds of entrepreneurs to manufacture and deliver attractive low-cost toilets for their community. Combined with our sanitation marketing demand-creation efforts, these […]
For Women in India Small Loans Have a Big Impact
In Harhua, India, a sleepy village on the outskirts of the ancient city of Varanasi, Irawati Devi stands proudly under the bael tree that shades her home. Goats scour the ground around her mint-green food carts, searching for traces of the fried noodles and samosas she sells. “When we first moved to Harhua,” Irawati, 58, […]
High ESG Standards in Logistics for Economic Development
The logistics sector in India presents an opportunity for impact focused investors. It’s a vital, enabling industry that is essential to the many manufacturers in the industrial parts of the country. However, the network is expensive and inefficient. For example, logistics costs the equivalent of 14 per cent of GDP – compared with 8-10 per […]
Investing in Africa: The UK announces its ambition to become the leading G7 investor in Africa
This week the UK Government announced its ambition to become the leading G7 investor in Africa, with UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, pledging £4bn to help create jobs for young people across the continent during her trip to South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. This came with a welcome confirmation of the UK’s commitment to spending […]
Two Weeks to Go and Acumen Explore Investing in Impact
Acumen was founded in 2001 with the mission of changing the way the world tackles poverty. Our model: To raise philanthropy and invest it for up to a decade, sometimes more, in intrepid entrepreneurs building businesses to serve the poor; Early-stage companies at critical moments in their evolution, because that’s where capital is most scarce. […]