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Recognizing a Neglected Opportunity: The multiple benefits of electronic wage payments
Consumer goods companies rely on massive supply chains with millions of workers in developing countries. Many of these workers are women, and many are still paid in cash – and herein lies an opportunity for change. Digitizing these wage payments could help workers and employers, while boosting financial inclusion.
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- Uncategorized
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Gender Mobility: A deeper dive into female-friendly business, economic programs harnessing cell technology
Women are 21 percent less likely to own a phone than a man in developing nations.The mobile development community is aware of this gender gap and has kickstarted a number of programs to help. Global Envision profiles a few of the mobile providers that are ahead of the game with female-targeted programs.
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- Technology
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Into Acumen’s Latin American Expansion: Patient capital fund hopes to deploy $8 million in 10 enterprises in Colombia and Peru in five years
Earlier this month, the philanthropic impact investing group Acumen announced it would be expanding to Latin America. We caught up with Acumen’s Latin America Director Virgilio Barco about Acumen’s long-term social sector and portfolio goals, and the state of impact investing across Latin America, which may have gotten a slow start compared to other regions of the world, but seems to be making up ground at a rapid pace.
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- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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Twitter Top Ten
It was a big week in the Twitterverse as POTUS – after six years in office – finally joined the fray. There were also plenty of Big Thoughts in the world covered by NextBillion, and we combed the scrolls to bring you some of the highlights.
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- Health Care
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Weekly Roundup: Natural Born Entrepreneurs: Why veterans make great businesspeople – and how the U.S. could help them succeed
As the U.S. salutes its veterans this Memorial Day, one of their under-appreciated contributions to the country is drawing increasing attention: their affinity for entrepreneurship. We discuss the reasons behind this phenomenon and the ways the public and private sectors are supporting it, in this roundup.
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- Social Enterprise
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Will the ‘F-Word’ Damage Mobile Money?: The industry deals with a spate of high-profile fraud cases
Trust is one of the key factors that will ultimately determine the success or failure of mobile payments. That’s why recent headlines about fraud in prominent mobile money platforms, from Apple Pay to MTN Money in Uganda, have raised eyebrows in the industry. Mondato’s Chris Connolly discusses these cases, and finds that the headlines don’t tell the whole story.
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- Technology
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How Do You Know You’re Really Reaching the Poor?: Tips for microfinance providers considering digital services
Though many microfinance institutions operate in impoverished areas, they often have little or no objective poverty data on the clients they’ve reached. Pride Microfinance wanted to avoid this problem when it rolled out its digital financial services programs this year, so it worked with Grameen Foundation to measure its social impact. The lessons it learned can be valuable to other MFIs considering going digital.
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- Uncategorized
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Exploring the Base of the Pyramid in Latin America: A new IDB report and conference will discuss this vibrant, evolving market
Latin America’s BoP now encompasses 406 million people and represents a market of $760 billion. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will explore this market in a new report, to be released at the BASE III Forum, June 29-July 1 in Mexico City. In this Q&A, Luiz Ros, Manager of Opportunities for the Majority at the IDB, provides a sneak peak at the report and the forum.
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- Education
