NextBillion - A WDI Publication

IFC Works with Intellecash

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is partnering with IntelleCash to help start-up microfinance institutions in low-income states of India respond better to the needs of their customers, promoting responsible microfinance while providing better client protection. IntelleCash is the first initiative in India to apply the principles of business franchising to the microfinance sector. Through the IntelleCash Network Program, it helps microfinance institutions get started and...

Source

IIFL (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

McKinsey Announces Winners in Social Innovation Video Contest

Embrace A one minute video about Embrace, a social enterprise that aims to help millions of vulnerable babies through a low cost infant warmer. Unlike traditional incubators that cost up to $20,000, the Embrace Infant Warmer costs less than 1% of this price. The device can work with or without electricity, has no moving parts, is portable and is safe and intuitive to use. You can fin...

Source

McKinsey & Company (link opens in a new window)

Africa Beckons as the Next Pot of Gold for the Cellphone Telecoms Industry

Africa’s lag in land-based telecoms infrastructure has propelled the continent directly into the mobile age, opening up unparalleled short-term growth prospects. Sector players have seen growth especially in mobile Internet and banking services, as people use cellphone technology for lack of landlines or cable Internet. "Africa is the last market to emerge. China’s emerged, India’s emerged. So where else outside Africa needs emerging? The growth opportunity is right he...

Source

Taipei Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Wise Ethical Investment Seeks Profit

Like motherhood and apple pie, socially responsible investment warms most people’s hearts. But during a two-year cycle trip across Africa, Swiss investment banker Klaus Tischhauser realized the SRI industry was failing in a key challenge-fighting poverty. Ten years on, the grassroots style of social investing he helped pioneer is wooing many wealthy investors The rich are different, and not just because they have more money. Wealthy individuals often have a wider sense of responsibi...

Source

The Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Agriculture

Eyes Down for a More Revealing Insight into Economic Development

A group of people had just disrupted a baseball game by running naked across the field. After the disturbance, legendary player Yogi Berra was asked whether they were men or women. He replied: "I don’t know. They had bags over their heads." That story illustrates what is perhaps the biggest issue in development economics today: the inability of many researchers to look in the right place when searching for answers. I have just returned from east Africa, where change is stimulating t...

Source

Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)

Global Microcredit Summit 2011 Report

Monday, November 14th 2011 saw the culmination of several years of delicate preparation in a packed conference centre in Valladolid, Spain. The fifth Global Microcredit Summit (held every few years - with regional conferences in between) kicked off in the magnificent Centro Cultural Miguel Delibes, with an opening ceremony full of music, pomp, and a great deal of gratitude - in the particular direction of Sam Daley-Harris, the outgoing Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign. Queen ...

Source

Microfinance Focus (link opens in a new window)

Region

Europe & Eurasia

IFC Stakes 18.9% Equity in ACCION

ACCION International, parent company of Accion Nigeria and a pioneer in global microfinance, has signed an agreement with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group focused exclusively on the private sector, in which IFC will invest approximately $1 million in ACCION’s Chinese affiliate, ACCION Microfinance China (AMC). The investment will enable ACCION to strengthen the operations of AMC, which it launched in December 2009 in Chifeng Prefecture, Inner Mongolia, to deliver financial serv...

Source

Vanguard (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

Chutes, Ladders, and Safety Nets: How Microinsurance Helps African Development

James Abuh-Prah had owned a used electronics shop in a small market in Accra for 17 years before a flood took everything. It was late one night in October, and the torrential rains hadn’t stopped for hours. "By 5 a.m. the water was up to my chest," he says. He had taken out a $2,400 loan from his bank, Opportunity International, to use as capital to buy used televisions, stereos, and other electronics. Now, everything was destroyed. It’s like a game of Chutes and Ladders,"...

Source

GOOD (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa