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Beyond RCTs: How Rapid-Fire Testing Can Build Better Financial Products
Rapid-fire tests are nimble randomized controlled trials specifically aimed at improving product design. They are already common practice among technology-based companies as a way to iterate and rapidly improve their product and expand their user-base, but they can also be used to answer questions about the demand for financial products and improve other interventions that help the world’s poor. Innovations for Poverty Action explores what these trials can and cannot do.
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EdTech That Can Do Much More for Global Learning
Ed-tech has been hailed as a game-changer of sorts, a movement that will equalize the playing field for all children. Of course, this sort of hype does not come without its drawbacks. More research is showing that technology can only be an enabler and aid – not a replacement – to real, live nurturing teachers in the classroom. What is needed in order for technology to work in education? EdTechX Europe was a forum for answers.
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- Education
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- innovation
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NextBillion's weekly e-newsletter is designed to be a crib sheet for anyone interested in exploring the connection between development and enterprise. It offers a snapshot of our offerings, including links to the most thought-provoking posts, compelling quotes, photos and other highlights from the week on NextBillion.
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- Social Enterprise
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Storming the Walls – How Mozambique’s ‘Citadel Economy’ Shapes Financial Inclusion
In Mozambique, the combination of infrastructure deficit caused by colonial neglect and civil war, a centralist political economy, the sheer scale of poverty, and limited formal sector employment opportunities creates sharp income inequalities and shapes a "citadel economy," where high walls separate those inside and outside the enclave. This keeps financial service providers from reaching excluded target markets in the informal and agrarian economy. Christine Hougaard at Cenfri explores the problem and its potential solutions.
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Weekly Roundup: How Brexit Could Impact Emerging Markets + Other Non-Brexit News
We could not call this a Weekly Roundup without addressing Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (spoiler alert: like most economists, we're struggling to see any upside.) But for those readers who've had their fill of Brexit news, we have plenty more developments to share, including Capria Accelerator's new $100 million fund, Waste Ventures' tie up with Coke, and the dark side to alternative credit scoring.
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- Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Opportunity International and MyBucks: ‘A Powerful Partnership to Improve More Lives’
Opportunity International's sale of six microfinance banks to the fintech company MyBucks has sparked extensive analysis in recent days - along with some serious concerns. In this article, Opportunity CEO Vicki Escarra responds to the criticisms of the partnership leveled by former MFTransparency CEO Chuck Waterfield in his recent NextBillion post.
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‘Ahead of the Curve’ – Three Companies Get Serious About Measuring Customers’ Financial Health
It is easy to track the number of active checking accounts or the number of dollars lent on credit cards. It is much harder to measure if those checking accounts and credit cards are actually helping customers manage their money better. To help financial services providers get serious about measuring their impact, CFSI recently released eight key indicators of financial health, and profiled three companies that are ahead of the curve in understanding customer outcomes.
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A Quick, Simple Malaria Test, and Why It Matters
What problems does a noninvasive, simple test for malaria solve? According to Fyodor, the makers of just such a test which retails for about $2, it can help curb the issues of inappropriate treatment, over-treatment, self-medication or presumptive treatment.
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- Health Care
