Why Cash Is a Problem For Businesses Around The Globe
Until very recently, bags of cash were dropped by plane, every 15 days, in remote rural areas of Uganda to pay more than 8,000 workers on tea estate plantations. When the cash arrived, workers waited half a day in line to collect their wages and the company had to deploy nearly a hundred staff members […]
Investing In The Energy Transition
Innovators and entrepreneurs are working to speed up the transition towards clean and renewable energy sources, but many of the innovative clean energy projects have trouble raising the finance to turn their ideas into reality. This was the case for ATEC, a social enterprise in Cambodia which has developed appropriate technology to address the health […]
The Business Case for a Gender Audit
An increasing number of businesses have committed to create more diverse, gender-balanced, inclusive workplaces – recognizing that it is not only the right thing to do, but also makes business sense. This recognition of the value of gender equality is progress in itself – but pursuing change in this area is not simple, particularly for […]
From Gender Lens to Inclusive Impact Investment
Defining impact by destination… A significant component of impact investment’s raisson d’etre is the promotion of economic development. But not just any investment qualifies as impact investment by contributing to economic development- an oil rig or a tobacco company can catalyze demonstrable GDP growth and job creation but are rarely classified as impact investments. […]
Formal Finance and Informal Groups: Inside the Black Box
A successful business case for linkages must offer something useful to all involved parties. This means looking ‘inside the black box’ of different mindsets: the bank or microfinance institution (MFI) interested in mobilizing money; the fintech or platform provider interested in moving money; and last but not least, the informal groups and the people using […]
Helping Refugees Move From Crisis To Resilience and Self-Reliance
It is estimated that, on average, a refugee spends over a decade in exile. This means that many refugee children, who make up more than half the world’s refugees, will spend most of their childhood in exile, jeopardizing their education and access to future economic opportunities. For millions of refugee adults, decades of displacement have […]
Charting a Course for Robust Private Sector Engagement
Since its inception, MCC has sought to engage the private sector as a key part of its mission of “Reducing Poverty Through Economic Growth.” Now in its 14th year, the agency has a strong foundation of experience and best practices gleaned from working with the business community to build upon. Yet how to best draw […]
The Impact of a Microfinance on Preventing Intimate Partner Violence
Indashyikirwa, meaning ‘agents for change’, is a program that seeks to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) across Rwanda, and is being implemented by CARE Rwanda, Rwanda Women’s Network (RWN) and Rwanda Men’s Resource Center (RWAMREC). One component of the program was a 5-month weekly curriculum with 840 heterosexual couples recruited from CARE’s micro-finance village savings […]
Making Payment Acceptance a Driver for Financial Inclusion
Ten years ago, 85 percent of the world’s transactions were in cash and checks, and 2.5 billion people were unbanked. Since then, we’ve all been working hard as an industry to develop technology that will give the unbanked access to the world of digital payments. Mastercard has connected more than 360 million people to formal […]
Why Retailers are Uniting to Tackle Climate Change
The products we can buy today may not be available to us in the future unless action is taken to address the most pressing global challenges facing us. Take a simple cotton shirt for example. Cotton production is being hit by environmental impacts such as climate change and water scarcity, social challenges in production such […]
Engaging the Private Sector for Development Results in Indonesia
Last month, I had the great pleasure to meet Bonaria Siahaan who heads the Millennium Challenge Account-Indonesia, the locally led and staffed entity implementing the MCC’s Indonesia Compact in the country’s bustling capital Jakarta. From procurement modernization to maternal and child nutrition to energy efficiency, Bonaria and her team are working on innovative projects making a real difference in a […]
Are Standards an Effective Tool to Help Improve Production Practices Across Sectors?
As businesses increasingly strengthen their sustainability policies in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many are deepening their sustainability commitments. We know from an AidEnvironment review published last year that upstream and downstream businesses benefit in many different ways from working with sustainability standards, for example, 98% of studies reviewed show improvements in sales and […]
Affordability – Beyond the Buzzword
Affordability is at the core of much of our work as impact investors – from affordable electricity to housing, food, healthcare, education and many more. Yet ask someone to define what it means, and you may be met with little more than a blank stare. We recently conducted a straw poll of 20 impact investment […]
Women Sea Salt Producers in Indonesia Cooperate to Seize New Economic Opportunities
Traditional sea salt production has been practiced on the island of Lombok in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province for generations. It is labor-intensive work generally done by poor women like Mini Asmayanti. Mini earns less than $2 a day. This modest income, along with that of her husband, a fisherman, provides for them and their […]
A Nigérien Entrepreneur Finds Her Niche in Camel Milk
Last month, I travelled to Niamey, Niger’s capital, where MCC Country Team Lead for Niger Kristin Penn and our Nigérien partners are hard at work on MCC’s $437 million compact to improve access to water for agriculture and livestock and expand access to markets. Around 80 percent of Niger’s population relies on the agricultural sector for its […]
The Counter-intuitive Nature of ‘recovery’ Lending
Microfinance, where small amounts of money are lent to people to start or grow a business – often in developing countries – is a familiar concept. When delivered responsibly, it helps people to earn an income to support their families. What happens though when disaster strikes a community that is depending on microfinance for its […]
Land Rights Open Economic Opportunities in Cabo Verde
In Cabo Verde, tourism comprises as much as 40 percent of gross domestic product. However, a lack of conclusive information about land rights and confusion over ownership has resulted in unauthorized land sales and delays and cancellation of public and private investment projects damaging the growth potential of the island nation. Residents have been wary […]
Delivering on the Promise of Inclusive Business
Back in November 2008, on a hot, dusty day in Dar es Salaam, I vividly remember the moment I met Lillian Kessy. I was immediately struck by her confidence, dignity and determination. Only a year earlier, Lillian was in a desperate financial situation. By the time I met her, she was busy building a small […]
How to Achieve Financial inclusion through Data-free Mobile Banking
Two billion people, or 45% of the developing world’s adult population, do not have a bank account, other financial institution or mobile-money service.[1] Financial services are the lifeblood of an economy, giving households the ability to save, invest, and protect themselves against risk. The promise of digital technologies can give more people access to financial […]
Why the Role of Business is So Crucial in the Fight for a Fairer Tax System
By Radhika Sarin, Policy Adviser, Private Sector Team, Oxfam Oxfam engages with a wide range of actors – citizens, journalists, political leaders, policymakers and allies within the private sector – to achieve the changes we need to build a fairer, more transparent tax system. Two weeks ago, Oxfam released The Heist That No One’s Talking […]