Articles by James Militzer
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Guest Articles
Thursday
April 16
2015‘By making it available to people, you are almost by definition doing good’: Grameen Foundation CEO Alex Counts, on microfinance’s past and future
Microfinance has careened from hero to villain status over the years, before settling into its current persona as a useful but not transformative anti-poverty tool. Alex Counts has had a front-row seat in the sector’s turbulent development, as founder and long-time president/CEO of Grameen Foundation. He shares his frank perspectives on microfinance’s past and future in this video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Saturday
April 11
2015Weekly Roundup: Sympathy for the Super-Rich: They don’t care much about socially responsible investing – but are the rest of us any better?
Only 20 percent of investors with a net worth of $5 - $25 million factor social responsibility into their investing decisions, according to a recent survey.
You may be rolling your eyes at the obliviousness of these multi-millionaires to the potential impact of their wealth. That was my initial reaction – until I remembered the email I received last January.- Categories
- Investing, Telecommunications
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Interviews
Wednesday
March 25
2015Mobile Money on the Move: Part Two of Our Interview With Carol Caruso, Senior Vice President, Channels and Technology at Accion
The growth in global mobile connectivity has been astonishing, and perhaps no sector has been more impacted than finance. We spoke recently with Carol Caruso, Senior VP of Accion’s Channels & Technology unit, about the shifting trends and future outlook of mobile finance in part two of this Q&A.
- Categories
- Technology
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Saturday
March 21
2015Weekly Roundup – 6 Mobile Finance Innovations (That Have Nothing to Do With Apple): While the U.S. obsesses over the latest gadget, mobile finance accelerates around the world
Lately, the digital payments conversation in the U.S. seems to revolve around whatever Apple is doing. But while we discuss the latest gadget, mobile finance innovation is exploding in countries around the world. We highlight six intriguing recent developments affecting countries from China to Kenya in this roundup.
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- Uncategorized
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Monday
March 16
2015‘This isn’t what we had once hoped it would be … so what should we do?’: Dean Karlan discusses the influential new studies on microcredit’s social impact
Discussion of the six recent microcredit RCTs has followed two general tracks. Within the sector, it has focused on how the studies can be used to improve products and social impact. But outside the sector, it has focused on how microcredit hasn’t lived up to the hype. Both of those currents came to the fore in our Q&A with Dean Karlan, President and Founder of Innovations for Poverty Action.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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Interviews
Tuesday
March 10
2015‘Financial inclusion is not going to be realized without smartly leveraging technology’: An interview with Carol Caruso, Senior Vice President, Channels and Technology at Accion
With cellphones booming in developing countries, achieving universal financial inclusion by 2020 is no longer unrealistic. Accion has been at the forefront of digital finance as an anti-poverty tool. We recently spoke with Carol Caruso, who leads Accion’s Channels & Technology unit, about what the future holds.
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- Uncategorized
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Guest Articles
Friday
February 20
2015Weekly Roundup – 2/20/15: A Turning Point in the Evolution of Microfinance?
There has been plenty of research questioning the social impact of microcredit. But the latest studies in the American Economic Journal feel far more momentous. Conducted by prominent poverty researchers, and covering six countries on four continents, they consistently undermine the sector’s core social impact claims. NextBillion will cover the Feb. 27 event on the research and the path ahead.
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- Education, Environment, Impact Assessment
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Wednesday
February 18
2015Competing with the ‘Bank of Mom’: What makes informal finance so popular – and how can financial services providers respond?
After tracking the financial activities of lower-income Americans for a full year, the U.S. Financial Diaries project found that informal financial mechanisms were enduringly popular - even when formal alternatives were used. What makes them so appealing - and how can financial services providers respond? We discuss these issues in part two of our Q&A with FAI Executive Director Jonathan Morduch.
- Categories
- Education