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A Phone Can Only Do So Much: Why Mobile Access Isn’t Leading To Digital Financial Service Usage Among Women in India
India has made significant progress in financial inclusion in recent years. However low-income working women are not benefiting from this momentum, even when they receive their wages digitally. To better understand why, BSR’s HERproject and MSC have researched the financial behaviors of female garment workers in India. Akhand Tiwari at MSC and James Steady at BSR explore the results, and discuss how the financial inclusion sector should respond.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Telecommunications
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Keeping Finance in the Family: How Intra-Family Accounts Can Help Low-Income Customers During COVID-19 – and Beyond
Banks in emerging countries often struggle to generate active usage of the accounts they offer to young people. Yet as Anne Marie van Swinderen at L-IFT points out, financial diaries research has shown that young people save frequently and significantly – especially when their earnings rise. She explores how intra-family accounts could help banks serve this challenging demographic during COVID-19 and in the longer term – while also expanding their financial services to other members of the family.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Tags
- COVID-19, financial inclusion, youth
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How Governments Can Reach People in Extreme Poverty and Build Resilient Livelihoods During COVID-19
Governments around the world have taken fiscal measures that total almost $12 trillion in response to COVID-19. But Lindsay Coates at BRAC argues that most of these programs are short-term and reactive, and many do not reach those most in need of support. She proposes a more comprehensive response – and discusses how the Graduation approach to poverty alleviation can play a role.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Investing
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How Should We Measure Impact? We Asked Our Investees.
Ceniarth describes itself as an "impact-first investor," but as senior impact manager Julia Mensink points out, even with its commitment and resources, it has found that there is no simple solution to measuring impact well. She explores what Ceniarth learned by asking all its investees how they measure impact, and shares key insights which may be useful to other investors looking to deepen their impact measurement practices.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Startups and Venture Capital vs. COVID-19: How an INR 1 Billion Grant Program Is Boosting India’s Pandemic Response
India is home to many innovative startups that are leveraging technology to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. To support them, a group of prominent venture capital funds and founders recently launched ACT Grants, an INR 1 billion effort to fund scale-ready solutions to COVID-related challenges. NextBillion spoke with Mekin Maheshwari, founder of Udhyam Learning Foundation – a key partner in the initiative – about how it is helping India’s startups ramp up their battle against the virus.
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- Coronavirus, Health Care, Investing, Technology
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Manufacturing a COVID-19 Recovery: Why Building Local Manufacturing Capacity Is Key To Africa’s Pandemic Response
COVID-19 is taking a heavy toll on sub-Saharan Africa's economies. And as Salma Okonkwo at Blue Power Energy Ltd. points out, the region is particularly vulnerable because it relies on international imports and exports for much of its GDP. She proposes an effective way to help Africa recover from the pandemic and build resilience to future shocks: developing local manufacturing.
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- Coronavirus, Energy
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Bringing Refugee Camps Out of the Dark: An Entrepreneur-Driven Solution To Clean Energy for the World’s Most Vulnerable Communities
There are almost 80 million forcibly displaced people worldwide – and among refugees living in rural settlements, 90% have very limited access to electricity. Sofia Ollvid at SolarAid discusses its innovative collaboration in Malawi's Dzaleka refugee camp, which mobilizes the support of refugee entrepreneurs to bring solar lighting to a population that's been living in the dark.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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‘Our Only Competition Is Poverty’: How Avanti Finance Aims To Create a ‘Population-Scale’ Digital Microfinance Platform in India
India has long been a hotbed of digital financial innovation. Avanti Finance is an emerging innovator in the sector, with a digital lending platform that aims to bring affordable microfinance to even the poorest customers. NextBillion spoke with CEO Rahul Gupta to discuss Avanti’s unique model, and the challenges of serving low-income customers both efficiently and responsibly.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology