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Making Technical Assistance Work in Africa: Three Keys to Success for Financial Services Providers
It’s not easy delivering data-driven financial services to financially excluded customers in Africa. That’s why technical assistance can be essential to these financial service providers' success. Dumisani Dube at Insight2Impact (i2i) explores the technical assistance programs that i2i provided to seven financial service providers across the continent, and shares what worked – and what didn't.
- Categories
- Finance
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Taking the Pulse of the Global Inclusive Finance Industry: A Preview of European Microfinance Week 2019
European Microfinance Week 2019 is coming soon, and with hundreds of global financial inclusion experts, policy-makers and investors in attendance, the event offers a unique opportunity to take the pulse of the industry. In previewing the conference agenda, e-MFP's Niamh Watters explains how it reflects the topics that are driving discussion in global microfinance, and the key players, insights and innovations that are shaping its future. As a media partner, NextBillion will provide live coverage of the event, and we’ll be giving away a free ticket through our e-newsletter on Oct. 16.
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- Finance
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The Stories That Change Our World: How Narrative Fiction Can Take the Development Sector to Greater Social Impact
Women's empowerment programs can play a critical role in improving lives and building local economies. But their impact will be limited unless there are changes in the social norms that perpetuate traditional gender roles. According to social impact producer Lara Storm, that's where narrative fiction can help. She explores how effective storytelling – from radio programs to soap operas – is being used to raise awareness around social issues and foster lasting change.
- Categories
- Finance
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Inside-Out: The Good and the Bad of insight2impact
Does this situation sound familiar? A development program generates lots of intriguing insights – but once it's over, these learnings end up languishing in a sparsely read report in the back pages of a website. That’s the scenario insight2impact (i2i) aims to avoid. As the program wraps up, i2i lead Hennie Bester describes how it's bringing the insights it has generated, from both successes and failures, to the organizations that can use them – including through a new partnership with NextBillion.
- Categories
- Finance
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Revisiting our Assumptions About Digital Financial Inclusion: Three Unexpected Findings from BFA’s FIBR Project
When BFA launched its FIBR (Financial Inclusion on Business Runways) R&D project four years ago, it outlined a set of assumptions about how smartphones, increased connectivity and digitization would help to accelerate financial inclusion for small businesses in Africa. As the project wraps up, BFA Founder and Chair David Porteous explores which of those assumptions still hold – and which need to be reassessed as unanticipated developments have reshaped the market.
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- Finance
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Building Financial Stability: Can Liquid Savings Help Recession-Proof the Economy?
Though the U.S. economy is experiencing a historic expansion, stock market jitters and other recent developments have some economists predicting a recession. And according to Mariel Beasley at Common Cents Lab and Timothy Flacke at Commonwealth, cracks have been forming beneath the surface of the economy for a long time. They explore the surprising financial insecurity facing American households, and explain why short-term, liquid savings could help mitigate the effects of a future recession before it begins.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- financial health, research, savings
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The Evolution of Inclusive Finance Data: What’s Next for MIX
Since 2002, MIX has been a key resource for global inclusive finance data. Its initial focus was to build transparency in microfinance through shared data standards and common metrics, and it compiled a huge dataset, MIX Market, that became a critical source of information for the industry. But MIX recently announced two important shifts to its approach. CEO Camilla Nestor discusses these changes, and what they mean for MIX and the inclusive finance industry.
- Categories
- Finance
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The Missing Piece of the Fintech Puzzle: How Local, Informal Networks Play a Crucial Role in Remittances
The spread of fintech is bringing millions of emerging markets customers – and their relations – into the realm of formal finance. But though they're powered by futuristic technologies, fintech initiatives are often built on complex community networks and informal methods of transacting that have existed for centuries. Researchers Daivi Rodima Taylor and Bill Maurer explore the implications of these roles, relationships and social intermediaries for financial service design.
- Categories
- Finance
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