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Empowerment Mainstreamed: Applying Gender Equity Across the ESG Standard
With the emergence of impact investing, the time is ripe for a transformation in global business practices regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment. But for that to happen, businesses and investors will need to expand gender considerations beyond the narrow confines of the social dimension of ESG, says Linda Jones of Mennonite Economic Development Associates. She explores MEDA's innovative framework for helping enterprises apply gender goals across the ESG standard.
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- Investing
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The Secret Ingredient in Product Design: How Crossing the ‘Emotional Gateway’ Can Boost Financial Services
Banks can be intimidating places for people who have never set up an account, let alone stepped foot in one. But people love and trust their savings groups, which are a mainstay of financial security in dozens of countries. Innocent Ephraim at the Financial Sector Deepening Trust and Daryl Collins at Bankable Frontier Associates (BFA) ask: How can formal providers offer financial services that appeal to users in the same way?
- Categories
- Finance
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The countdown begins: Top fintech trends that India can expect in 2018
The year has pretty much offered what everyone expected. It has cemented the significance of the fintech sector in India. From increased momentum behind digital payments to product innovation in digital loan disbursement platforms, the entire sector is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the nation functions the way it does and achieves the two-digit growth rate that it has persistently been longing for.
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- Finance
- Region
- South Asia
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What was the Most Influential NextBillion Post of 2017? Vote for Your Favorite
“Fast away the old year passes.” That lyric from “Deck the Halls” always hits home this time of year – and in 2017, it resonates particularly strongly. Across the social sectors, the year often felt like a race against time (or against competing societal forces) and many of our most popular posts reflect that sense of urgency. Here are the most influential posts from the last twelve months, one from each month, in our sixth annual holiday contest. Vote early, vote often.
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Will Microfinance Still Exist 10 Years From Now? Thoughts from European Microfinance Week
Does microfinance still have a place in global development? Grassroots Capital Management President Paul DiLeo tackled the subject in the closing plenary of the 2017 European Microfinance Week, which asked where microfinance – and MFIs – would be in five or 10 years. He discusses three key takeaways from the discussion, which included some surprising insights into the role the often-maligned industry can still play in poverty alleviation.
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A Milestone in Innovative Finance: Exploring the First-Ever Outcome-Based DIB for Poverty Alleviation in Africa
The graduation approach to poverty alleviation has been effective in helping raise incomes and savings over the long term. But traditional funding models don't provide enough flexibility or performance incentives to boost this impact, since funding is typically tied to activities rather than outcomes. To address this challenge, Village Enterprise and Instiglio have partnered with USAID and DFID to launch the first-ever outcome-based development impact bond for poverty alleviation in Africa.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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There’s No App to Fix Farming – A Lifelong Smallholder Shares What Social Business is Getting Wrong
When it comes to farming, the social business world is getting it all wrong, says Gaita Kariuki, a lifelong smallholder and CEO of Selina Wamucii, a Kenya-based fresh produce startup. From overselling the impact of off-grid solar and access to loans, to underestimating the importance of middlemen, he says much of the social business sector's approach to agriculture makes little sense to smallholders.
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- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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Beyond ‘Send Money Home’: The Complex Gender Dynamics Behind Mobile Money Usage
In Kenya, gender doesn’t factor as strongly in accessing mobile money accounts as it does for formal sector accounts. This is surprising because in Africa women are less digitally connected than men. However, the networked nature of mobile money explains why more women adopt the technology. Susan Johnson writes that financial inclusion analysis and policy must factor in how women use their money, how it connects them to family and how financial services can facilitate this.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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