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Digital Access Matters: The Benefits of Bringing High-Speed Internet To Low-Income Communities During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has led people around the world to work and shop from home – but as Dirk-Jan Koeman and Kara Ing at Poa Internet point out, this is easier for some than others. For instance, in densely-populated urban areas in Kenya, the lack of high-speed internet makes working from home almost impossible. They discuss how Poa is bringing these households online, and share research on how these newly connected customers are using the internet.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Leveraging the COVID-19 Crisis for Local Development: How the Pandemic Can Strengthen Public-Private Collaboration in Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic is a massive humanitarian crisis. But as Malado Kaba, the first female Economy and Finance Minister of the Republic of Guinea argues, it could also be an opportunity for the African continent. She explores how public-private partnerships and improved collaboration across industries and sectors could create sustainable change—if governments take the lead in mobilizing private sector and development partners to support locally driven solutions.
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- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Investing
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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
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing
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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
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COVID-19’s Impact on Indian Agriculture: How Data Should Drive Future Policies
The Indian agricultural economy is made up of complex market linkages connecting approximately 263 million agricultural workers to over 1 billion consumers. When COVID-19 locked down the economy, many feared the sector would be crippled, yet these networks seemed remarkably robust – at least at first. However, analysts at IDinsight share data suggesting that agricultural markets may not be as healthy as market figures suggest, and explore policy prescriptions that could strengthen the sector in the long term.
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- Agriculture, Coronavirus
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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.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, 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.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Investing, Technology
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