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Three Ways the Mobile Finance Ecosystem Can Reach the Next Level: Grameen Foundation takes a look ahead
Mobile finance has spread around Africa and the world, but many still live beyond its reach – especially in rural areas. And both technical and business challenges still make it hard to reach them. In the final post in their series on how microfinance can go digital, Grameen Foundation explores three ways progress will need to be made for the global mobile finance ecosystem to take the next steps.
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How Do You Know You’re Really Reaching the Poor?: Tips for microfinance providers considering digital services
Though many microfinance institutions operate in impoverished areas, they often have little or no objective poverty data on the clients they’ve reached. Pride Microfinance wanted to avoid this problem when it rolled out its digital financial services programs this year, so it worked with Grameen Foundation to measure its social impact. The lessons it learned can be valuable to other MFIs considering going digital.
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Twitter Top Ten
This week brought a number of developments in global health, social enterprise and financial inclusion - some promising, some disturbing, and one bittersweet. As usual, we’ve highlighted a sample of the reaction to these events on Twitter, along with some long-form pieces that vividly describe some of the big challenges and small triumphs in the sectors we cover.
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- Education, Entrepreneurship, Health Care, NextBillion Originals
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Alex Counts to Step Down As President and CEO of Grameen Foundation
A little more than 18 years ago, I began my journey as the founding President and CEO of Grameen Foundation (GF). Professor Muhammad Yunus provided me with $6,000 in seed funding and enormous amounts of his time and wisdom, and of course the Grameen brand. Since then, thousands of people and organizations joined me on this journey to contribute to the global movement to eliminate poverty. Grameen Foundation became a daring and caring community of practical idealists that applies the values embodied by Professor Yunus and his team at the global level.
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- Education
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The Human Touch Behind Digital Success: Microfinance institutions that go mobile need to support the people behind the technology
Technology is the enabler of digital services, but people are still the backbone. This is important for microfinance institutions to remember, since transitioning to mobile services requires considerable changes from staff. In the latest post in their series on how MFIs can go digital, Grameen Foundation explores best practices for making this transition.
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Going Digital Sustainably: How microfinance providers can balance business needs, technology constraints and the customer value proposition
A strong digital financial services model can reduce distribution costs and increase revenue for financial institutions that serve the poor. But the transition to digital requires an understanding of the full implications of the new service, and a strategy to encourage customer behaviors that will yield a successful investment. Grameen Foundation offers tips in the latest post in their series on what it takes for MFIs to go digital.
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More Than Just Good Advertising: Challenges and best practices in driving digital financial services adoption
Despite the large sums of money being poured into digital financial services around the world, enrollment and usage remain low. Few services reach those who need them most. Grameen Foundation researchers Emilia Klimiuk and Joel Muhumuza have studied why, and they share several tactics to drive adoption.
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‘By making it available to people, you are almost by definition doing good’: Grameen Foundation CEO Alex Counts, on microfinance’s past and future
Microfinance has careened from hero to villain status over the years, before settling into its current persona as a useful but not transformative anti-poverty tool. Alex Counts has had a front-row seat in the sector’s turbulent development, as founder and long-time president/CEO of Grameen Foundation. He shares his frank perspectives on microfinance’s past and future in this video Q&A.
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- Impact Assessment
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