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Behind Credit Suisse’s foray into microlending to the global poor
In its early days, Grameen Bank put microfinance on the map by making tiny loans to communities of female small-business owners who put social pressure on one another to repay the loans. Microfinance has come a long way since then. Today, data-enabled microloans are made to small-business owners, farmers and consumers all over the world, often through smartphones and loan officers wielding iPads.
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- Uncategorized
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Viewpoint: Marginalized Returns: Impact investing has been seduced by a false narrative of combining social impact with financial gains
Impact investing was originally created to improve the lives of others; that impact investing could also deliver financial returns to investors was a means to that end. But nowadays, achieving predefined financial returns has become the primary goal, with the needs of investors taking priority over the interests of the communities their funding seeks to benefit. This trend has fueled a growing mismatch between the supply of impact investment and the demand for funding from enterprises working to improve conditions for marginalized communities.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Australia’s decreasing foreign aid budget offers chance for private companies to cash in
A handful of companies are cashing in on Australia's dwindling foreign aid budget, securing billions of dollars to do some of the work the Government used to do itself.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Rwanda: Indian Firms to Open Operations in Rwanda, Transfer Tech to Local Start-Ups
An Indian technology-led business delegation, India-Rwanda Innovation Growth Programme (IRIGP), has announced that up to 500 Indian firms will be interlinked with local start-ups as they set up shop in the country.
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- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Long Game: How Developing Countries Can Get Microfinance Right
In developing economies such as Myanmar, microfinance is often viewed as a means for lifting people out of poverty. As of 2015, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) comprised 99% of the country’s businesses, and many of those are micro-businesses.
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- Uncategorized
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African tax authorities consider how to boost revenue
The report argues that if tax revenue grows faster than the economy, African nations will have greater funds at their disposal for public investments in areas such as education and health care.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Study finds microfinance can help, even if goals aren’t met
"We can't just think about what the projects are doing for people but should also examine what people do for projects," Beck said. "We need to look at how policies get transformed on the ground."
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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Bringing poverty-alleviating solutions to market in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda
2017 D-Lab Scale-Ups are tackling energy access, small farm irrigation, portable medical diagnostics, online education, and support for local artisans.
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