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Analysis: Could Digital Currencies Make Being Poor Less Costly?
Blockchain-based payment systems can bring the more than 1.7 billion people who are unbanked or underbanked (including 25% of U.S. households), into the formal economy. And in doing so, they can render obsolete the expensive, usurious payment and informal financial services those people use to make ends meet.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Report: Research Explores the Impacts of Mobile Phones for Maasai Women
Mobile phones have the power to change the lives of women living in remote communities by reducing barriers to information and increasing access to local economies. However, the introduction of new technologies can hamper efforts to empower women by increasing disparities in power dynamics.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Viewpoint: Securing Property and Land Rights in India
Secure property rights are fundamental to the economic and social development of any country. However, in India, we are faced with a curious conundrum where more than 70 percent of a household’s assets are held in land and housing, yet there is insufficient data and research on people’s property rights.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology, WASH
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Kenya’s Mobile Money Use Surges on COVID-19 Prevention Measure
The use of mobile money in Kenya has surged to a new high boosted by one of the measures declared by the government in the war against COVID-19.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Liberia: MTN Liberia Launches International Remittances Direct to Mobile Money Accounts
Lonestar Cell MTN, one of Liberia's leading GSM and Mobile Financial Services companies, announces that, as of August 3, 2020, Mobile Money customers can receive money from their family and friends anywhere in the world directly to the MoMo accounts, free of charge with the launch of International Remittances.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Analysis: Zimbabwe Hopes Rural Electrification Can Stop Deforestation. Here’s Why It Might Not Work
Researchers say bigger issues — poverty, corruption, inequality — can undermine rural energy programs if unaddressed.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing, Technology
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Engie and Eib Partner on Off-Grid Solar Scheme in Uganda
Millions of people in rural Uganda are set to access reliable and cheap electricity for the first time under a new off-grid solar scheme.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing, off-grid energy, SDGs, solar
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COVID Coin?
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the long-term shift away from cash, and monetary authorities risk falling behind. A recent report from the G30 argues that if central banks want to shape the outcome, they need to start thinking fast.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology