Building Efficiency for Farmers in Kenya – Replacing Cash with Digital Repayments
The shift to digital payments has enormous potential for eliminating rural poverty. Success stories from places like Kenya show that potential can turn into real-life impact, as mobile payments help to boost productivity for smallholder farmers. Just this week, a new case study by the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance presents how the agriculture […]
Why Greater Financial Inclusion for Africa’s Women is Smart Policymaking
This blog is published as part of the 2017 WEE Global Learning Forum Blog Series. Join Winrock International, ACI and USAID at the 2017 WEE Forum for the Peer Learning Session, Different Perspectives, Shared Goal: Accelerating Women’s Financial Inclusion in Africa Imagine that you are unable to open a bank account or access a loan […]
How Can Microfinance Contribute to Women’s Empowerment?
An Interview with Naila Kabeer, Professor of Gender and Development at the Gender Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science Gateway: From the very beginnings of microfinance, women’s empowerment has been discussed as one of its main social goals. In your experience, have you seen that microfinance initiatives can achieve this goal? Naila: One […]
In Defence of Aid
As Britain embarks on the process of leaving the European Union, and as we prepare to stand up as a “Global Britain”, we need to decide what it is we stand for. Our values will define and give weight to our leadership on the world stage. All of us, whether on the left or the […]
Social network payments now reach nearly US $3 trillion in China
A new UN study has revealed that Alipay and WeChat Pay enabled US$2.9 trillion in Chinese digital payments in 2016, representing a 20-fold increase in the past four years. The data shows that digital payments, using existing platforms and networks, provide access to a wider range of digital financial services, expanding financial inclusion and economic […]
Training and Support for Women Refugees
Interview with Mandana Hendessi, Iraq Country Director at Women for Women International Mandana Hendessi will be speaking at a dinner hosted by Women Advancing Microfinance UK on Tuesday 2nd May 2017 in London. She will be talking about the work that Women for Women International (WfWi) and its partners are doing in and around refugee […]
Why Women Workers and Managers Prefer Electronic Wage Payments in Bangladesh
Payday can be an ordeal for women garment workers in Bangladesh. Often, they must wait in long lines, carry wads of cash through crowded streets, or encounter a mother-in-law demanding money. Garment factories account for a huge slice of Bangladesh’s economy and employ more than three million women. Most are paid in cash. That’s bad […]
Five Ways East Africa is Leading the World on Financial Inclusion Through Savings Groups
By Fiona Jarden, Financial Inclusion Advocacy and Policy Adviser, CARE International UK Demand for financial services from low-income groups is at an all-time high. Some of that demand is by informal savings and loans groups – including CARE’s 5 million Village Savings and Loan Association members – who want access to quality group bank accounts […]
Blockchain Will Bring Empowerment And Transparency To Development
The open source, decentralised database blockchain allows donors, aid agencies, NGOs and beneficiaries to operate transparent, agile and open networks. Software is eating the world. And it is also gaining more and more importance and changing processes in development. Access to smartphones is increasing fast. And as we are seeing the first fruitful outcomes stemming […]
USAID Partners to Invest in Africa’s Entrepreneurs
This week’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which brings thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and policymakers to Johannesburg, South Africa, is an opportunity to build on the momentum of the Sankalp Africa Forum and reaffirm the development community’s commitment to invest in Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Sustainable entrepreneurship is a critical component of inclusive development. Entrepreneurs create jobs, […]
Girls’ Economic Empowerment – Why Context Matters for Financial Education
Last year I wrote about why it makes sense for corporates to invest in girls’ education and introduced Credit Suisse’s Financial Education for Girls program that aims to improve the financial knowledge and life skills of approximately 100,000 girls. At the time, the program had been implemented for only 18 months. This year we are […]
Mobilizing Private-Sector Investment to Transform Jordan’s Water System
Jordan is one of the driest, most water poor countries in the world, and population growth has put a strain on the country’s already limited water resources and aging infrastructure. The As-Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant is the primary facility for treating wastewater from Jordan’s Amman and Zarqa Governorates, home to about 5 million people, but […]
Exploring the Accelerator Landscape
Hundreds of accelerators—intensive, short term programs that speed up the development of early stage ventures to succeed, or fail—have emerged around the world. While the concept began in Silicon Valley, international development funders have seen the model as a way to drive growth in emerging markets as well. And beyond just tech companies, accelerators focus […]
Strategic Ideas for Investing in NGOs Innovation
Kickstarting the year for Bond’s Futures and Innovation Group “real world innovation” meeting series, James Whitehead, Oxfam’s global innovation adviser, held a fantastic session on business model innovation at Oxfam GB last week. Breaking the mould of secrecy and competitive thinking among INGOs, James used the session to share Oxfam’s exciting challenge for the next […]
On the Ground in Africa: Embedding Responsible Investment Practices
Interview with Marjorie Mayida, Chair, Old Mutual Africa’s Responsible Investment Committee As a long-term investor and responsible steward of the assets it manages on behalf of its customers, Old Mutual Africa is on course to becoming the leading responsible investor on the continent, where it has offices in Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Old Mutual […]
Top 10 Discussions of 2016
2016 saw our 100th online discussion, with over 1,300 comments posted over the course of the year! Online discussions have played a central role in our new Challenges as a way for members to share insights on the Challenge question. From next year, we will be upgrading our discussion forum to make it easier to […]
Empowering Today’s Women for the Women of Tomorrow
Interview with Johanna Ryan, Social Performance Director, VisionFund International Johanna Ryan will be speaking at a dinner hosted by Women Advancing Microfinance UK on Tuesday 31st January 2017 in London. She will talk to us about the work VisionFund International does and the impact it’s having on the lives of women. Tickets to the event […]
Recycled Loans Recycling Plastic
Lendwithcare began supporting entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe, through Microfinance Institution Thrive, one year ago. I was able to visit the country recently and met some of the entrepreneurs that I – and 80 of you – had supported in June 2016. I met the Nokutenda group which comprises four women entrepreneurs all running different businesses. By […]
Poverty Alleviation Through Qarz-e-Hasan (Interest-free Loans)
Akhuwat, Lendwithcare’s microfinance partner organisation in Pakistan, is one of the largest interest-free microfinance organisations in the world. Shakeel Ishaq is the Lendwithcare co-ordinator there, and is responsible, among many other things, for collecting and uploading the entrepreneur profiles onto the Lendwithcare website. In this blog he describes one of his field visits to a […]
Building Resilience Among Micro Entrepreneurs in the Philippines
The Philippines ranks third in the list of countries in the world where a natural disaster is most likely to occur, after the Pacific islands of Vanuatu and Tonga. Although it is also prone to earthquakes, flooding and droughts, it is typhoons that strike the Philippines most frequently. The state weather bureau PAGASA estimates that, […]