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Rising Star or Red Flag?: South Africa’s financial inclusion growth raises questions for the entire industry
South Africa placed second in a recent Brookings Institute study comparing financial inclusion in 21 developing countries – surpassed only by Kenya. But though this has led to celebration in some quarters, there’s a troubling aspect to these findings. Illana Melzer argues that the risks of burgeoning financial access and usage are too significant for beneficiaries, development organizations and donors to ignore.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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A New Wave of Capacity Building: Enabling private investment in the university education of students in developing countries
Human capital is a nation’s most critical capacity, yet many students in developing countries can't afford a higher education. And neither scholarships and financial aid nor bank loans are sufficient to meet the level of need. Brighter Investment enables private investors to fund the university education of students in the developing world, in exchange for a fixed percentage of their future income - its co-founder discusses their unique model.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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NexThought Monday – How We Can Improve Ultra-Poor ‘Graduation’: The next generation of innovations required to end the most extreme poverty
There is no great innovation without skepticism, much less in the tireless crusade against global poverty. So it's no surprise that as the ultra-poor ‘graduation’ approach pioneered by BRAC has gained ground as a viable path out of extreme poverty, questions have emerged about its effectiveness and possible next steps.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Three Pillars for Measuring Impact in Inclusive Financial Services: Apis Partners and Accion Frontier Investments Group publish a framework for impact investors
In seeking to ensure a social as well as financial return on their investments in inclusive financial services, Apis Partners and Accion Frontier Investments Group created a framework to capture these services' unique aspects of impact. This gave rise to three core categories which they believe any fund manager investing in inclusive financial services can use to measure impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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No Cardiac Clinic? No Problem: Handheld electrocardiogram monitor designed to provide distant, affordable heart care
Makers of Cardiotrack, a handheld ECG monitor, say it's easy to use, provides clinical grade output and performs predictive diagnosis to start intervention immediately, thus reducing the need for invasive intervention. Best of all, they say, is that it saves cardiologists’ time.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Needed: A ‘Facebook’ for Impact Investing: Why the Sector Needs to Embrace Failure – And Also Produce Some Inspiring Successes
Impact investing has had some notable success stories, but no true breakout companies that – like Facebook – can inspire public attention and draw more entrepreneurs and investors to the sector. That's a problem, says Vox Capital director Daniel Izzo – as is the fear of failure, both financial and social, among investors. He discusses these challenges, and some possible solutions, in this video Q&A.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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NexThought Monday – Collecting Data That Matters: Nine tips for making sure your organization extracts the most value from measurement
Measurement is an iterative process. Metrics can and should shift as a company evolves from design to scale. Organizations should focus on collecting data that helps them improve their operations, such as data that can lead to them creating more value for their customers, producers and/or the communities where they operate.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Saving Mothers and Their Babies: Innovators working to solve problems in the hardest-to-reach regions of the world
Saving Lives at Birth recently nominated 17 promising ideas to add to its impressive and growing group of innovators. These newest innovations rose to the top from a pool of more than 750 submissions, more than half of which came from low- and middle-income countries. The program will be announcing additional nominees for transition-to-scale awards (up to $2 million) later this year.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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