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Don’t Just Color It Pink and Call It Financial Inclusion for Women
To close the financial inclusion gender gap, providers will have to do more than simply making cosmetic changes to their existing services. To that end, more than 100 financial regulators and policymakers recently gathered in Fiji and adopted a 10-point proposal focused on creating regulatory and operational environments conducive to bringing financial products and services to women – a possible game-changer for women’s financial inclusion.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup: Romanticizing Castro, Bridge’s Troubled Waters and the Benefits of Cash
NB's Weekly Roundup makes the call on whether Cuba's high quality of health care justified Castro’s means of achieving it; ponders the future of a private education company under attack from public sector foes; helps debunk the assumption that poor people, when given cash, will squander it on cigarettes and alcohol; and brings up the possibility that data, as it relates to public health, is a business opportunity.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Technology
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Impact Investing Buzz: GIIN and Toniic Mix with Growth Reports
The knock on impact investing – both within and outside of the industry – is the lack of long-term data and platforms to observe deals in a more transparent way. The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and Toniic, arguably the industry’s most influential trade groups, both released studies designed to turn around some of those perceptions. The reports were unveiled at the GIIN Investor Forum 2016 on Wednesday in Amsterdam.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, research
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Financial Inclusion Forum: The Technology Revolution
Technology was a recurring theme during the recent Financial Inclusion Forum. Eugene Amusin, chairman of the event, points out that while fintech is an enabler – it can decrease costs, providing new entrants with a competitive edge over incumbents who have legacy systems – there is a risk of new technology looking for problems to solve vs. creating technology to address identified obstacles.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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How Catalyst Fund Helped PayGo Energy Build a Foundation for Growth
As startups move past a proof of concept and start to scale, they require whole new sets of systems, operational processes and skills that will allow them to grow and expand. A well-thought-out backend system can help make the transition, but building it requires a team with the technical expertise to implement the right changes.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Tags
- fintech, microfinance
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Technology Meets Impact: New Online Marketplace Aims to Expand the Reach of Impact Investing
ImpactUs aims to simplify the process of impact investing through an online platform that allows investors to identify and invest in products that provide social impact. In this email Q&A, Reginald Stanley, president and CEO of ImpactUs, explains how the platform works – and why it's needed.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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Weekly Roundup: India’s Demonetization Gets Ugly, Health Care’s Last Mile Gets Shorter and Coke Comes to Gaza
Indian Prime Minister Modi’s surprise move to ban 1,000 and 500-rupee notes early last month, ostensibly to crack down on black money, has mushroomed into a full-blown crisis. Are the financial inclusion benefits worth the cost? We explore this and many other topics in the roundup.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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An Opportunity for Small Businesses Expanding Affordable Internet Access: Grant Applications Open
New Sun Road designed, built and operated the first 24/7 metered electricity service on an off-grid island chain in the southern part of Uganda. It's exactly the type of small business – providing a critical service, creating jobs – that Microsoft aims to support with its Affordable Access Initiative. Applications are open for a new round of grants through the initiative, and will be accepted through Jan. 31.
- Categories
- Technology
