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Optimizing Incremental Building: Why the Answer To Decent, Affordable Housing for All Is Hidden in Plain Sight
The scale of the global housing challenge is enormous, with an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide lacking adequate shelter. As a huge percentage of homebuilders around the world build incrementally, analysts at Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter explore how optimizing the incremental building process could present an effective solution.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance
- Tags
- housing, innovation, manufacturing
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Necessity Is the Mother of Disruption: How Indonesia’s Fintech Startups Can Survive the Do-Or-Die Situation of COVID-19
Indonesia is a silent giant in the startup ecosystem, with over 2,200 startups nationwide – many in the fintech sector. However, with the onset of COVID-19, this progress is at risk of dissipating. Anshul Saxena and Sheila Teta Carina at MicroSave Consulting recommend several measures that can help sustain fintech startups' momentum during the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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Giving and Receiving: Understanding the Financial Flows Between Young People and Their Parents
Young people in many emerging markets tend to live in their parents’ homes until their mid-20s, leading to a complex, dynamic interplay of financial support between generations that's particularly relevant during COVID-19. Guy Stuart at Microfinance Opportunities discusses the results of a study exploring the implications of this support for financial service providers and financial inclusion in Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Tags
- COVID-19, financial inclusion, research, youth
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The Game-Changing Potential of a Regulatory Sandbox: Why Creating a Safe Space for Digital Innovation Is a Necessity for Financial Inclusion in Bangladesh
While Bangladesh has made notable progress in accelerating financial inclusion, around 50% of Bangladeshis still remain unbanked. As Jakirul Islam at Bank Asia points out, this highlights a need for more technological disruption – and more regulatory innovation. He explores the potential of a “regulatory sandbox” approach, in which the government provides a safe harbor for businesses to test inventive new products, services and business models.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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The Case for Stakeholder Dividends: Why It’s Time for the Financial Sector to Put Its Money Where Its Mouth Is
While the financial devastation of COVID-19 may remind America's working families of the 2008 crisis, Peter Tufano and Timothy Flacke at Commonwealth argue that this time, banks can be the heroes rather than the villains. They explain why this will require banks to make a pivotal choice between enriching their shareholders and supporting their stakeholders – including the country's most vulnerable customers.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Avoiding Another Crash: How Global Standards Set after the 2008 Crisis Prepared the Financial System to Weather COVID-19
International standard-setting bodies have been working to strengthen global financial stability ever since the 2008 crisis. And according to Robin Newnham at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, they are now playing vitally important roles in the global response to COVID-19. He explores how the global financial system is seeing the benefits of the reforms of the past decade – and how these efforts can expand in the future.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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A Well-Timed Investment: How Investing in Tech-Driven Healthcare SMEs Is Boosting Africa’s COVID-19 Response
COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need to strengthen healthcare systems in countries around the world. And according to Kristin Kelly Jangraw at USAID INVEST, funding promising healthcare technology companies is one way to do so. She explores how an investment in an innovative local enterprise is improving the pharmacy supply chain in Nigeria and Kenya.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Investing
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Survival, Recovery and Resilience: 12 Recommendations to Help Financial Institutions Weather the COVID-19 Crisis
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the 300 million-plus enterprises operating in emerging economies around the world. It has also harmed their financial institutions, which are dealing with poor asset quality, liquidity pressure and reduced profitability as clients struggle to repay loans. Analysts at MicroSave Consulting (MSC) share 12 recommendations to help these institutions survive and recover in the wake of the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance