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Do Payday Loans Deserve Their Bad Reputation? Ask the People Who Know Best – the Borrowers
Payday loans have earned a bad reputation as high-interest money traps that leave low-income borrowers stuck in a cycle of debt. But despite all the criticism and bad press, these loans remain very popular among low-income borrowers, with an estimated 15,766 payday loan stores throughout the U.S. – slightly more than the country's 14,350 McDonalds. So are payday loans really that bad – and are borrowers actually being victimized? LendEDU conducted a survey of payday loan customers, and Mike Brown unpacks the results – many of which may surprise you.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- financial health, lending
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The Donor-Funded Dilemma: What’s Stopping Emerging Countries from Developing Private Markets for Contraceptives?
In sub-Saharan Africa, the private sector provides family planning solutions to almost 40 percent of women. But that isn’t the case in Malawi, a country that’s long been dominated by donor-funded commodities. Erika Beidelman and Andrea Bare at the William Davidson Institute explore Malawi's family planning landscape, highlighting five factors that may be limiting the private sector’s involvement – issues that may apply to other countries with histories of donor-funded healthcare.
- Categories
- Health Care
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On the Ground at European Microfinance Week: Discussing Technology’s Threat and Promise – and Financial Services for Refugees
There were two topics that dominated debate at last week’s European Microfinance Week (EMW) conference: the threats and opportunities brought about by the fintech revolution in inclusive finance, and the issue of financial inclusion for refugees and internally displaced persons. The discussion of these issues ranged from hopeful to surprisingly cautionary – Sam Mendelson at the European Microfinance Platform shares some highlights.
- Categories
- Finance
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Four Ways to Support Vulnerable Youth: Key Takeaways from a Six-Year Livelihood Program
The world’s current generation of 1.8 billion young people is the largest in history. But harnessing this demographic dividend has proven difficult, as youth unemployment rates have remained persistently high for the last decade. Save the Children’s recently concluded Youth in Action program was designed to improve the socioeconomic status of 40,000 out-of-school youth in rural Africa. To find out how well it worked, the organization embedded 32 studies into the program. It recently shared the results – and Nikhit D’Sa discusses four lessons from the findings.
- Categories
- Education
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Inexpensive Impact: The Case for Frugal Innovations
Over 4 billion people around the world lack necessities like food, water, energy, health care and housing. This represents not only a major social challenge but a major market, as low-income consumers have an annual purchasing capacity of US $5 trillion. Rajat Chabba and Sheena Raikundalia at Intellecap explore how entrepreneurs are developing innovative, frugal products to meet these customers’ needs – and why an ecosystem approach is needed to help them scale their solutions.
- Categories
- Technology
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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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Watch the Recording of the Live-Streamed Debate: Is There Still Room in Microfinance for Smaller MFIs?
As the 2018 European Microfinance Week came to a close, the conference hosted a live debate on whether there's still room in microfinance for "the little guy" - ie: smaller MFIs. This was an Oxford-style debate, with two speakers arguing that there's no room for smaller players, and two arguing for the continued relevance of these institutions. Hear their arguments and find out who won (yes, there were judges) in the recorded video here.
- Categories
- Finance
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Accelerating Energy Access in India: New Research Highlights Keys to Developing a Nascent Industry
India’s clean energy industry is growing fast. But the challenges facing enterprises there – and the lessons they are learning – are neither unique to the clean energy industry nor to India. In fact, says Colm Fay at the William Davidson Institute, recent research suggests that India’s clean energy sector is following patterns that can be observed in any nascent industry. He explores how existing knowledge about how industries develop can help guide investment, and provide some clues about what the sector’s future may hold.
- Categories
- Energy