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Charting the Financial Inclusion Groundswell in India: The NPCI’s top innovations
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is aggressively leading the Indian government’s efforts to bring banking to all sections of society. After nearly a decade of research and trials, many of these financial innovation measures for the poor are starting to make their way to the marketplace.
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- Technology
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Special Series (Part 5): BPO for the BoP – The Path Towards Sustainability and Scale: Lessons on Expansion from a Mature Impact Sourcing Provider
In part five of our six-part series on Impact Sourcing, we highlight Digital Divide Data (DDD), an internationally acclaimed social enterprise that employs more than 1,100 people and operates in several countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Kenya. It recruits, trains and employs youth to perform BPO work, while also providing them financial support for higher education.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
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In Microsoft’s ‘4Afrika’ launch, a surprising game-changer
In the next three years, the Microsoft Afrika Initiative aims to “help place tens of millions” of smartphones in the hands of African consumers, bring 1 million small and medium-size African businesses and nonprofits online, train 100,000 African university graduates (and find jobs for 75,000 of them), and pilot low-cost wireless broadband in Kenya using “white-space” spectrum.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Identifying Digital Opportunities for African Youth
For the past two and a half years, The Rockefeller Foundation has been supporting work to foster the development of Impact Sourcing – outsourcing jobs for poor or vulnerable people without the opportunity for alternative employment. With a $512 billion, and growing, global outsourcing market, this work seeks to enable more equitable growth by allowing youth in Africa to tap into potential job opportunities.
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- Education, Technology
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Special Series (Part 4): BPO for the BoP – Work+Study=Job: Understanding of employment impact of a mid-stage Impact Sourcing Service Provider in Africa
As we continue to profile innovative Impact Sourcing Service Providers (ISSPs), this post focuses on Daproim Africa, a mid-stage firm based in Nairobi, Kenya. Daproim, which was has been in operation since 2006, is on a mission is to provide high- quality business process outsourcing services that are geared to providing jobs and ensuring a transformational impact.
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- Education, Technology
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Special Series (Part 3): BPO for the BoP : The trials and successes of an early-stage Impact Sourcing Service Provider in Africa
Impact Sourcing Service Providers (ISSPs) constitute a critical component of the emerging Impact Sourcing space. ISSPs are business process outsourcing (BPO) organizations with the specific social objective, often outlined in their mission, to hire workers from poor and vulnerable communities to perform BPO work. ISSPs are emerging in rural areas as reaction to rising costs in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in developing countries.
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- Education, Technology
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Kenyans Prioritizing Mobile Phone Over Food, Transport
NAIROBI — A recent study commissioned by the World Bank suggests that increasing numbers of Kenyans in the poorest socioeconomic group are foregoing food and transport or opting for cheaper alternatives, to buy credit to use mobile phones. Mobile phones were once considered luxury goods in Kenya. But with decreasing prices, people of all socioeconomic levels have come to rely upon them for both personal and professional needs.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Mobile health: donors should follow, not lead
No more preempting local demand with substandard products, the mHealth sector needs donors willing to learn from local actors and invest in sustainable business models.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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