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The New Face of Poverty: Why Unemployment isn’t the Issue – And How Financial Inclusion Can Help
When you think about poverty, what does it look like? Many people might picture an undernourished African child, or an elderly beggar sitting in the street. But as Oakam CEO Frederic Nze explains, the reality can be far different. Poverty today often involves the struggles of the working poor, and it’s defined less by extreme deprivation and more by lack of access – to clean water, to power, to basic education, and increasingly to the internet. Nze explores the implications of this shift for the financial inclusion and development sectors.
- Categories
- Finance
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Why Focus Groups Aren’t Enough: A Surprising Lesson in Marketing Insurance in Africa
Building a customer-centric company naturally requires engagement with end users. But as digital insurance provider Inclusivity Solutions discovered, sometimes just speaking to customers is not enough. Tyler Tappendorf discusses how the company combined customer feedback with more quantitative data, after focus group input conflicted with real-world results in marketing campaigns in East Africa.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press release: IFC and Itaú Unibanco partner to improve financial education for women entrepreneurs in Brazil
IFC and Itaú will work to design and implement an eLearning video course directed to women entrepreneurs - owners or shareholders of businesses of all types and in any stage of maturity- in partnership with EduK, one of the largest online learning platforms in Latin America. The content of the course will include methodologies to evaluate the profitability of businesses as well as classes on growth strategies and techniques, and financial management.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Latin America
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Wall St. Journal Financial Inclusion Challenge Seeks Innovative Enterprises – Application Deadline Feb. 23
Financial instability plagues millions of Americans. Many cannot pay their monthly bills and have no retirement savings or no idea how to manage what they do have. The Wall Street Journal has launched a Financial Inclusion Challenge aimed at both nonprofits and for-profit organizations who have socially impactful solutions to the problems of low- and moderate-income people in the U.S. The deadline for entry is Feb. 23.
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Avoiding the ‘Ick Factor’: Four Easy Steps to Align Your Investments With Your Values in 2018
Morgan Simon, the author of "Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change," lays out four simple steps to avoid what she terms the "ick factor." That's the unpleasant feeling that comes when your social values and financial investments aren't aligned – for instance, when your big-name bank is using your money to invest in things like private prisons and fossil fuels. Simon provides an overview of some strategies and socially responsible institutions that can let you earn attractive returns, while feeling good about the impact you're making with your money.
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Digital Isn’t Always the Answer: Building Choice into Financial Inclusion Solutions for Smallholder Farmers
Smallholder farmers often live in remote villages, located hours away from towns and cities where they might be able to access consistent mobile networks, bank accounts or other formal financial access points. So while many farmers are curious about the idea of receiving the payment for their cash crops in digital formats, the options for them to use that digital currency are limited. Instead of pushing technology for technology’s sake, financial inclusion projects ought to seek diverse solutions that are appropriate and accessible for customers based on their needs.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Sesame Street goes global to teach kids about money
The outreach has so far been a whopping success in terms of the numbers reached, Sesame Workshop concluded at a summit last month that brought together country directors. The most difficult challenge they identified was how hard it was to translate money messages across different countries and cultures.
- Categories
- Education
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Grupo Financiero Santander México Launches “Tuiio” A Financial Inclusion Program For Low Income Individuals
"Tuiio", which will have its own operating model, infrastructure and brand, is a robust financial inclusion program that will leverage technology to support the needs of Mexico's low-income segment. It aims to generate measurable social impact through productive micro-lending, a digital savings account, its own branch network, staff, ATMs, point-of-sale terminals and electronic banking.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Latin America
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