-
The Final Countdown: Where are MetLife’s Financial Inclusion Grants Landing?
In 2013, the MetLife Foundation made a $200 million commitment over five years to move global financial inclusion forward. The foundation, along with its partners launched projects around the world beginning with low-income communities in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
A New Class of Toilets
“Excuse me. May I use your toilet?” Meseret Workneh takes great joy in hearing this ordinary request. Only five months ago, this twenty-seven-year-old mother of one could barely make ends meet from selling coffee on the side of the road. Now she manages her own public pay-for-use toilet in Africa’s largest open air market, Merkato, in Ethiopia’s capital.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
De-Mythifying Financial Education
Many organizations have discovered that it's difficult to bring comprehensive and sustainable financial capability to the BoP. Recognizing that financial education is complex and influenced by the clients' environment, MicroSave has developed a framework for those planning interventions, including four key lessons that should be at the forefront of any design.
- Categories
- Education
-
Social Business Roundup: A $1 Smartphone, the Upshot of Disparity and the Quizzing of Presidents
If you manufacture a phone that comes with apps advertising to low-income consumers, can you sell it for as little as $1? The folks at SocialEco think so. Other items NextBillion's editors came across for this week's Roundup included a concentration on wealth concentration, an unhappy birthday for M-Pesa, plus a presidential Q that will hopefully result in an A.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
-
Paying for School: Six Insights for Better Financial Services
The inability to pay fees and other education expenses keeps many children out of school. What is the extent of these challenges, who is affected and what kinds of financial services could help? These questions are explored here by Michelle Kaffenberger and Lauren Braniff, and in a new CGAP publication, “Digital Finance and Innovations in Financing for Education.”
- Categories
- Education
-
Creative Climbing: How Impact Enterprises are Overcoming Obstacles in East Africa
In 2016, Intellecap undertook a study to better understand how East African impact entrepreneurs manage to design viable business models despite the various market challenges. The insights from the study can inform inclusive development in the region and across the global south. The study classified impact enterprises across three levers based on their interaction with the BoP: access, ability and knowledge.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
-
EdTech Startups are Flashy, But Teacher Relationships Remain Critical
In this Q&A, Amy Ahearn and Santiago Melo of Acumen explain how the use of education technology, or "edtech," is evolving in emerging markets. For one thing, it's become obvious that in addition to building technology, organizations that hope to reach scale must also build relationships with teachers, and approach districts and governments as customers.
- Categories
- Education
-
Will demonetization reach C.K. Prahalad’s bottom of the pyramid?
What after demonetization? Can the Modi Government use it to empower the poor and turn the economic initiative into a definitive political initiative? The economists are divided on the issue. The Late Professor C.K. Prahalad the author of the much acclaimed book Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid suggested some pathbreaking methods over a decade back that the economists backing demonetization could take heed off.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
Subscribe to Our 'Business in Global Development' Newsletter!
Our new weekly LinkedIn newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with curated news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage of impact-focused business in emerging markets.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.