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Social Business Roundup: Debating UBI in India, Pondering Change at WHO, Questioning SRI
In this week's social business roundup, our editors note the growing debate over replacing welfare programs with a universal basic income (UBI) in India, the limitations of WHO's donor-funded model, and an ironic side-effect of SRI's avoidance of "sin stocks" – among other developments making recent headlines.
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- Energy, Health Care, Investing
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Leveraging India’s Digital Transformation: Three Lessons for MFIs
As India continues its digital transformation, Grameen Foundation India has helped several MFIs transition to a digital financial services platform, and along the way developed some key lessons MFIs should keep in mind: conduct a thorough analysis of your business requirements before you select a digital financial services provider; don't discount the value of effective change management; and pay close attention to client education.
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- Technology
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IPOs in Microfinance – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Highlights from Our Twitter Debate
Microfinance's first initial public offerings played an important role in both the sector's emergence and in its fall from grace. But in light of two recent successful IPOs in India, many are wondering if public investment is coming back into vogue in the industry. We gathered a panel of experts, including both optimists and skeptics, to debate the pros and cons of public investment in microfinance in a Twitter chat on Jan. 30; you can read the chat here.
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- Investing
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Financial Inclusion for Rural Youth Starts with Adults
The three-year Rural Youth Economic Empowerment Project in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen tested five different approaches to achieving financial inclusion among rural youth. It found that the most sustainable and scalable approaches leveraged infrastructure that had been used to serve adults, then adapted to serve both adults and youth at the same time.
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- Uncategorized
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- financial inclusion, youth
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution: How Big Data and Machine Learning Can Boost Inclusive Fintech
It's easier and cheaper to generate data than ever before, and the tools to turn data into insights are growing exponentially. So much so, according to Matt Grasser of BFA, that any organization dealing with data that does not apply machine learning will be left behind. He explores the experiences of Destacame.cl, a fintech startup, in using machine learning to help identify good and bad payers based on a score.
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- Finance, Technology
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Social Business Roundup: Scrutinizing a $30M Cookstove Study, the Limits of Silicon Valley and TV from the Sun
A $30 million study looking into using liquified petroleum gas in clean cookstoves has some 'stovers' heated up, why apps won't stop pandemics and why the time may be right for solar TV. It's all in our weekly roundup of social business news.
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- Energy, Environment, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Technology
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- climate health, solar
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Helping Microfinance Clients to Save: Are Incentives a Solution?
La Ceiba is a microfinance institution that serves low-income clients in rural Honduras, where the combination of distance, cost and knowledge gaps discourages clients from opening and maintaining a savings account. The MFI decided to leverage small incentives and special training to address those challenges; here's how they did it and what they learned along the way.
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- Uncategorized
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A Tale of Four IPOs: Is Public Investment in Microfinance Becoming OK Again?
Initial public offerings have long been a controversial topic in microfinance, and rightly so. The early IPOs of Compartamos and SKS Microfinance made a lot of money for investors and turbocharged the sector's growth, but also sparked hyper commercialization and debt crises that rocked the industry. But last year, two Indian MFIs had successful IPOs that have garnered a much more positive reception. We spoke with Daniel Rozas of the European Microfinance Platform and Anna Kanze of Grassroots Capital Management about how these four offerings differed, and what they could mean for the future of public investment in microfinance, in this podcast.
- Categories
- Investing
