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An Emerging Cornerstone of Last-Mile Distribution: The Power of Data and Process Digitalization
Social enterprises at the last mile are working relentlessly to close the gap in achieving the SDGs. But since their customers are generally underprivileged, they're also very sensitive to a product’s price, which means boosting efficiency is key to increasing these businesses' profitability. Thibault Lesueur and Simon Schaffner at Solaris Offgrid explore how process digitalization and interoperable software systems can streamline last-mile distribution and help these enterprises scale.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise, Technology
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COVID-19: Burden or Boon for Financial Inclusion?
When the Alliance for Financial Inclusion outlined its “Five Key Financial Inclusion Policy Trends for 2020” on January 17 of this year, the spread of the novel coronavirus was still in its infancy. Now that COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the global economy, Robin Newnham at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion revisits those trends, viewing them through the prism of the pandemic – and finding both new risks, and new opportunities.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Lana Has Launched in Latin America To Be the One-Stop Shop for Gig Workers’ Financial Needs
Lana, a new startup based in Madrid, is looking to be the next big thing in Latin American fintech.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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The Game-Changing Potential of a Regulatory Sandbox: Why Creating a Safe Space for Digital Innovation Is a Necessity for Financial Inclusion in Bangladesh
While Bangladesh has made notable progress in accelerating financial inclusion, around 50% of Bangladeshis still remain unbanked. As Jakirul Islam at Bank Asia points out, this highlights a need for more technological disruption – and more regulatory innovation. He explores the potential of a “regulatory sandbox” approach, in which the government provides a safe harbor for businesses to test inventive new products, services and business models.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Bank Mitras in India: How Agents of Financial Inclusion Were Neglected During the Pandemic
The bank mitras continue to work without defined working provisions and under inadequate remuneration, observed the AIBEA in a letter addressed to the bankers’ body.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Analysis: Financial Inclusion Helps Youth Mitigate COVID-19 Impact
Recognizing this, financial regulators and policymakers should consider a series of factors when developing financial inclusion policies in the context of COVID-19 and beyond.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Viewpoint: How Mobile Wallets Fend Off Economic Shocks
Households as well as companies can mitigate economic risks better by adopting mobile-based transactions, a new study finds.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Avoiding Another Crash: How Global Standards Set after the 2008 Crisis Prepared the Financial System to Weather COVID-19
International standard-setting bodies have been working to strengthen global financial stability ever since the 2008 crisis. And according to Robin Newnham at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, they are now playing vitally important roles in the global response to COVID-19. He explores how the global financial system is seeing the benefits of the reforms of the past decade – and how these efforts can expand in the future.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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