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Can Africa Really ‘Build Back Better’? How Financial Inclusion Must Evolve To Enable a COVID-19 Recovery
Sub-Saharan Africa has long been one of the financial inclusion sector’s top success stories. But according to David Ferrand, the former director of FSD Kenya, the overall impact of that newfound financial access has been disappointing. In this Q&A, he discusses the current challenges and future outlook of sub-Saharan Africa’s financial sector – and how financial inclusion players can help the region emerge stronger after COVID-19 subsides.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Learning From Emerging Markets Entrepreneurs During COVID-19: What Lockdowns Teach Us About Resilience
How can entrepreneurs in emerging markets build their resilience to the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19? What tools enable them to adapt when everything around them has changed? Wendy Chamberlin at the BOMA Project and Larry Reed at Soul of Finance discuss ways to support – and learn from – African business owners during the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Social Enterprise, Transportation
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Press Release: BRAC Receives $60 Million as 2020 Audacious Project to Lift 21 Million People From Extreme Poverty by 2026
Over the next six years, BRAC's Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative will work with governments in countries with the greatest potential to scale BRAC's Graduation approach to help millions more people to lift themselves from extreme poverty.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Education, Finance, Health Care, Investing, Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Is Government the Key to Scaling up Graduation Programs? Results From an Impact Evaluation in Latin America
Graduation programs fight poverty by offering participants the tools and resources they need to create a viable livelihood. But while these programs have shown impressive results, they're costly to bring to scale. Tatiana Rincón and Adriana Insaurralde at Fundación Capital explore whether the graduation approach can be rolled out by governments without compromising its impact, based on evidence from a ground-breaking impact assessment.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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A Generational Challenge: What We’ve Learned About Addressing Youth Unemployment
Youth unemployment is a pressing issue in developed countries, but in emerging economies, the situation is even more dire. Unemployment rates of 20 percent or higher are common, with some countries reaching as high as 50 percent. Effective solutions will require an urgent, concentrated and collaborative effort, say Emily Coppel of BRAC USA and Patricia Langan of Save the Children. They outline three key lessons for addressing this challenge, previewing a Sept. 24 forum where some of the top development organizations, research institutes and donors will discuss a path forward.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Press release: Village Enterprise Promotes Campaign to End Poverty in Times Square
"Village Enterprise provides rural Africans living in extreme poverty with the tools and resources they need to start sustainable businesses and savings groups," said Village Enterprise CEO Dianne Calvi. "With the profits and savings from their businesses, entrepreneurs can send their children to school, feed their families more nutritious food, and break cycles of poverty that can span generations."
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Press release: Village Enterprise and African Wildlife Foundation Team Up to Alleviate Poverty and Protect Bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo
This first-of-its kind project unites the two organizations in a dual mission to improve the livelihoods of residents in the Lomako area while protecting the Bonobo population.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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‘The Dumbest Waste of Time Ever’: How the Development Sector is Failing MSMEs
Low-income business owners often keep poor records and don't always keep close tabs on their profits versus expenses – a side effect of by-necessity entrepreneurship. Global development organizations naturally want to help - yet too many programs offer skills development as one-off training. According to business development consultant Donna Rosa, helping entrepreneurs create business plans only to abandon them to fend for themselves is "the dumbest waste of time ever." She explains why in this thought-provoking post.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing