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Financial Inclusion Week: Reflection and Action from Three Leading Voices
Today, the Center for Financial Inclusion is wrapping up Financial Inclusion Week. The intention for the week was to ask some soul-searching questions about what it means to be inclusive – and about how financial access in the age of fintech can impact the lives of millions, for good or ill. We caught up with three leading voices in the field, asking each of them three key questions focused on what financial inclusion means to them from a personal, organizational and international standpoint.
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- Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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Charting the Next Decade in the Global Small and Growing Business Sector: A Q&A with ANDE Executive Director Randall Kempner
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, a membership organization of investment groups, NGOs and business ecosystem advocates, recently marked its 10th anniversary. As it approaches a second decade moving the global small and growing business sector forward, ANDE announced a new strategy that focuses on gender, the environment and job creation. We spoke with Executive Director Randall Kempner about what the future holds for ANDE and the global SGB sector.
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- Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Turning Impact Measurement on its Head: A Q&A with 60 Decibels Co-Founders Sasha Dichter and Tom Adams
How should a social business measure its impact? The sector has always struggled to answer that question, leaving many enterprises and investors without useful data about the impact of their work. Acumen is addressing this issue by spinning out a standalone social enterprise called 60 Decibels, which leverages mobile technology to quickly and easily acquire impact data from low-income customers and beneficiaries. Co-founders Sasha Dichter and Tom Adams discuss its innovative model, and the potential it offers to investors, enterprises and the people they serve.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Why Africa’s Energy Sector Needs Transparency: A Q&A with the Head of KawiSafi Ventures, Acumen’s for-Profit Energy Fund
While investing patient capital into for-profit firms has been Acumen’s MO for decades now, the organization itself has remained a non-profit. But in April, Acumen announced that it was doing something it hadn't done before: creating a commercial investment fund. Called KawiSafi Ventures, the for-profit fund has lined up $70 million to boost clean energy firms – and therefore clean energy access – in East Africa. Managing Director Amar Inamdar explores the fund's focus on scalable businesses, and why debt and equity need to start playing nice with one another in the sector.
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Courage, Optimism, Defiance: Impact Investment Exchange Founder Durreen Shahnaz Discusses her Journey of Empowerment
Growing up in Bangladesh, Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) Founder Durreen Shahnaz tended to rebel against tradition, preferring boys’ clothes to saris, and exploring the streets on her bike rather than staying indoors. Yet she never rebelled against her family's core focus on charity. Her long and distinguished career in social business and investing has been defined both by her maverick spirit and by her humanitarian values. NextBillion caught up with Shahnaz to discuss her inspiring story and IIX's ongoing work, as the company celebrates its tenth anniversary.
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- Investing
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Why are Investments Surging in Off-Grid Energy? A Q&A with Wood Mackenzie’s Benjamin Attia
In partnership with Energy 4 Impact, Wood Mackenzie recently released "Strategic Investments in Off-grid Energy Access: Scaling the Utility of the Future at the Last Mile." Among its many headlines, the research found that total annual investment in the off-grid energy access sector surpassed $500 million in 2018 for the first time. To find out what's fueling it and what it means for the millions living off the power grid, we spoke with Benjamin Attia, a research analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and an African solar PV markets expert.
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Less Golf, More Gender Equity: A Q&A with Impact Investor Morgan Simon
From filing shareholder resolutions as a teen to founding multiple impact investing funds and penning a successful book, Morgan Simon has spent nearly two decades combining finance and social justice in diverse and innovative ways. NextBillion caught up with her to discuss her distinctive career – and how her role within the sector has been shaped by her gender – in this interview, part of our special series 'By Women, For Women.'
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- Investing
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Chopping Block to Starting Block: How OPIC (Now IDFC) is Writing the Next Chapter in U.S. Development Finance
The Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) just survived a near death experience. The agency was among the proposed cuts when the Trump administration came into power and began budget negotiations. But with the passage of the BUILD Act, OPIC will transform into the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, with a new budget and a new set of financial tools. We caught up with David Bohigian, Executive Vice President of OPIC, at SOCAP18 to find out what these changes mean for entrepreneurs and others seeking development finance.
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- Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise