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IDB Loans $10M to Paraguay’s Vision Banco to Fund Water, Sanitation Facilities for Low-Income Populations
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a US-based multilateral finance institution that operates in Latin America and the Caribbean, recently approved a loan of USD 10 million to Vision Banco, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Paraguay. The loan will be disbursed from IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority Sector facility, which lends, invests equity, offers technical advice and provides partial guarantees and risk-sharing facilities to “companies, financial intermediaries … [and] non-profits that are willing to engage with the base of the socioeconomic pyramid”[4].
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Partners in Food Solutions Announces New Corporate Partner, Expanded Impact in Africa
An international public-private partnership is expanding its efforts to strengthen Africa’s food system. The Hershey Company is joining Partners in Food Solutions, a Minnesota nonprofit, as its newest corporate partner.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- nutrition
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3 Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Medicine for Parasite-Fighting Therapies
Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering “therapies that have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases,” the Nobel committee announced on Monday.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
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Zimbabwe to Reform Banking Industry
Zimbabwe is finalising new laws aimed at strengthening its fragile banking industry through measures such as imposing shareholding restrictions and revamping oversight functions to guard against insider loans.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending
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New Research Explores the Value of Data to Women’s Financial Inclusion
Governments and agencies around the world are increasingly prioritizing full financial inclusion of women, but moving the needle is impossible without data on how many women actually have access to financial services and through what channels. The Global Banking Alliance for Women (GBA), in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Data2X, today is releasing a draft report for public comment [http://gbaforwomen.org/download/draft-report-measuring-womens-financial-inclusion/], based on interviews with over 50 regulators, policymakers, International Finance Institutions (IFIs) and bankers from around the world that reveals just how this data could inform better policies and prompt the private sector to take on this missed market opportunity.
- Categories
- Education
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Viewpoint: Why Is Financial Inclusion So High on the Development Agenda?
In the sustainable development priorities for the next 15 years adopted by heads of states in New York this week, the United Nations has highlighted financial inclusion as an important enabler for poorer households in the informal economies of the global south to increase resilience and better capture opportunities.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Technology to Be Key Enabler of Financial Inclusion: Samit Ghosh
While ten entities are on the cusp of becoming small finance banks, aiming to bring the financially excluded population of the country under the banking purview, technology will be the game changer in the space, said Samit Ghosh, chief executive officer and managing director, Ujjivan Financial Services Private Limited.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Scientists ID Genes That Protect African Children From Malaria
Scientists have identified specific genetic variations that protect some African children from developing severe malaria and say their discovery will boost the fight against a disease that kills about half a million children annually.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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