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What Will Last Mile Distribution Look Like in 2025? Six Predictions for an Emerging Sector
From water purifiers to solar lights, the impact-oriented products can’t further development goals if they can't make it to last mile customers. Emma Colenbrader and Charlie Miller of the Global Distributors Collective explain how the organization's 140 member distributors have defied tough odds to get 13 million products and counting into the hands of last mile households. They share a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the markets for these products, the customers being reached – and the business models that can reach them.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications, Transportation
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New Solutions to an Old Problem: How the Internet of Things, Water Kiosks and Sensor Data are Improving Access to WASH in Kenya
When well water systems break down due to a lack of monitoring or maintenance, people can go days or even weeks without access to water for themselves and their livestock. The Kenya RAPID program seeks to solve this problem by applying innovative technology and data to improve water management and distribution. Paul Wiedmaier at Catholic Relief Services explores how the program is already making a significant impact on water access in Kenya.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications, WASH
- Tags
- data, innovation, Internet of Things, water
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Finding the Right Balance: A Toolkit for Regulating Digital Financial Services in Emerging Markets
The number of financially excluded adults has dropped from 2.5 billion in 2011 to 1.7 billion in 2017, thanks largely to digital financial services (DFS). However, finding the right regulatory balance for these services is not easy: Too much regulation can undermine the business case for DFS, while too little can leave consumers exposed. Anton Didenko and Ross Buckley at the University of New South Wales discuss a recent paper that seeks to address these challenges through a comprehensive analytical framework – what they call the Regulatory Diagnostic Toolkit.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, Telecommunications
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The Power of Messaging: How WhatsApp is Becoming a Not-So-Secret Weapon Among Small Enterprises in Emerging Markets
Doing business in emerging markets requires significant and often remote communication – from managing inventory to keeping track of transactions and employees in the field. But though donor-funded digitization efforts often focus on building payments use cases, some of the most needed advancements are happening via existing communications channels like WhatsApp, says Strategic Impact Advisors VP Hamilton McNutt. He explores the innovative ways companies are using WhatsApp – and how messaging apps could better serve their needs.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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Sustainable Connectivity: How Biofuels Can Boost Mobile Access, Support Small Farmers – And Fight Climate Change
Mobile connectivity is sweeping through rural Africa and Asia – but it has a major drawback. It’s dependent on cellular towers that often rely either on diesel power, which has economic and ecological costs and limited availability, or solar panels, which require clear, sunny skies. Fortunately, another solution is emerging: bioenergy. John Garrity, Dennis Garrity and James Daniel at the Evergreening Global Alliance explore its positive impact on food security, grid infrastructure and global climate change.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Technology, Telecommunications
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The New Face of Poverty: Why Unemployment isn’t the Issue – And How Financial Inclusion Can Help
When you think about poverty, what does it look like? Many people might picture an undernourished African child, or an elderly beggar sitting in the street. But as Oakam CEO Frederic Nze explains, the reality can be far different. Poverty today often involves the struggles of the working poor, and it’s defined less by extreme deprivation and more by lack of access – to clean water, to power, to basic education, and increasingly to the internet. Nze explores the implications of this shift for the financial inclusion and development sectors.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
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Seeking a Happy Ending: Will Nigeria’s New and Improved Financial Inclusion Strategy Work Better Than the Last One?
Nigeria's Central Bank has finally admitted something it had been hinting at for months: The 2020 goals described in its National Financial Inclusion Strategy are not feasible. Building off the wins and learning from the shortcomings of that strategy, the country is now setting new goals and targeting new gains in financial access. Olayinka David-West and Ibukun Taiwo of the Lagos Business School share their five recommendations for the next phase in Nigeria’s efforts to reach the unbanked.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
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Step by Step Credit: Empowering the Unbanked through Progressive Finance
Despite notable progress in the financial inclusion sector, widespread, permanent change remains elusive. The good news, says Aristotle Socrates at Juvo, is that not only is this change possible, but everything we need to make it happen already exists. In fact, it might be as easy as setting aside long-held assumptions about the role of wealth and income in establishing credit. He outlines how improved data infrastructure is connecting lenders to creditworthy customers, producing big gains for both providers and the financially excluded in the developing world.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
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