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Asian Development Bank Approves $50 Million Loan for Bangladesh
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $50 million loan to help restore the economic activities of microenterprises in Bangladesh, which have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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African Development Bank Launches $50 Million Facility to Support Energy Businesses in Africa
The African Development Bank (AfDB) board of directors has approved a $20 million concessional investment from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) to establish the COVID-19 Off-Grid Recovery Platform (CRP).
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Energy, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Big Impact of Small Improvements: How Last-Mile Distributors Have Responded to COVID-19 with ‘Incremental Innovation’
Distributing beneficial products in last-mile communities has always been difficult, but COVID-19 has made it much harder, exacerbating many of the challenges that last-mile distributors were already facing. Emma Colenbrander and Gerwin Jansen at the Global Distributors Collective explore innovative solutions to some of these challenges, many of which have tended to be incremental rather than radical.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
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UN: COVID-19 to Worsen Poverty in 47 Poorest Nations
The pandemic could push as many as 32 million people in the world's least developed countries into extreme poverty, a new UN report has said. Without international action, global development goals will be missed.
- Categories
- Coronavirus
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A Boon for Online Commerce: How COVID-19 is Transforming the Industry in Bangladesh
COVID-19 has been merciless to the world and its economy in general. But according to analysts at MicroSave (MSC), it has boosted a few sectors – like digital/contactless payments, e-commerce and Facebook commerce (or f-commerce). They explore how the pandemic is accelerating the online commerce industry in Bangladesh, and how regulators and other stakeholders can support its growth.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
- Tags
- COVID-19, digital payments, e-commerce, MSMEs
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UNICEF and Microsoft Launch Improved, Scalable Technology to Protect Vulnerable Children and Women Amid Rise in Domestic and Gender-Based Violence Due to COVID-19
Primero, an innovative online and offline application, empowers social workers to help more children.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing, scale, youth
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Maker Spaces vs. COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is Bringing the Small Manufacturing Revolution to the Development Sector
When COVID-19 first struck, it soon became apparent that there wasn’t enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to go around. As Kuldeep Bandhu Aryal and Nishat Tasnim at BRAC point out, this has resulted in price gouging and acute scarcity, in Bangladesh and other developing (and developed) countries. They explore BRAC's innovative solution to this problem: collaborating with maker spaces and other small manufacturers to produce PPE locally and affordably.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Technology
- Tags
- COVID-19, manufacturing, scale
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COVID-19 Impact on Women-Led Micro Business Widens Socio-Economic Gap in India: Survey
The adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on women-led micro businesses in India has exacerbated the vast socio-economic gap, finds a survey.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific