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The Mismatch: Customers Seek Holistic Solutions, Financial Service Providers Operate in Silos
Digital financial service providers too often operate in silos, designing products to solve particular financial needs. Meanwhile, users tend to blend a mix of formal and informal financial services to meet their needs. The challenge for FSPs is to recognize users' behaviors and respond accordingly, particularly to their need for flexibility and timeliness.
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‘Her Hands Trembled’ When She Borrowed Her First $64; Now She’s Giving Advice to BRAC
BRAC, which has been gradually integrating mobile money into its microfinance operations since 2011, has introduced a number of new initiatives, including investing heavily in client protection, customer service and financial education, and developing mobile money use cases. Here, as part of FI2020 Week's spotlight on keeping clients first in a digital world, a long-time client gives her perspective on this evolution.
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Weekly Roundup: $5 Beats Free, SunFunder Rises, and Asia’s Investors Love Impact
Why it's not crazy for a global health organization to refuse free vaccines, where the world's most socially conscious investors live, which major funder might be planning to alter some old investment restrictions, and what's needed to support the Sustainable Development Goals. That and more; it's all here in our Weekly Roundup.
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- Health Care
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Making Microfinance More Effective
For the 2.5 billion people who live on less than $2 per day, shocks such as illness, crop failures, livestock deaths, farming-equipment breakdowns and even wedding or funeral expenses can be enough to tip them, their families, or even an entire community below the poverty line. A major challenge for international development efforts is determining which financial tools provide durable buffers against such setbacks.
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Neeri’s stove reduces smoke, promises better rural health
With the World Health Organisation identifying indoor pollution being significantly responsible for the declining rural health and high mortality rate in India, National Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (Neeri) has developed "Neerdhur," a novel multi-fuel domestic cooking stove.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Who Pays and What Works? The Changing Market of Inclusive Business Development Services
There are more development services for inclusive businesses than ever before. But how effective are they and what still needs to be done to improve the market? The Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business and the Inclusive Business Accelerator have been exploring these questions and more in a new series.
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Opinion: How can we get pharma companies to do more for global health? Try ranking them
The Global Health Index measures drug impact in terms of Disability Adjusted Life Years saved. Companies are paying attention to it because it can affect brand perception.
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- Health Care
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Live from SOCAP, Wednesday
Team NextBillion – Scott Anderson and James Militzer – is reporting from SOCAP16 in San Francisco, conducing a series of Facebook Live interviews, attending sessions and meeting some of the many "doers" in attendance at the world’s largest conference on social enterprise and impact investing.
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- Social Enterprise