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Calling Africa’s Social Entrepreneurs
Africa may seem to be a bit lost on the inclusive-market-social-entrepreneurship-map. Most big MFI funds have only small portfolios in the area, and the BIG success stories cited are often from India. But there’s a LOT going on. A team from Queen’s University has set out to find out how much, what, and where - and will make their insights public.
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- Social Enterprise
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Where’s the Bank? Proximity is Critical, So Why Aren’t Academics Writing About It?
Most academic papers on access to finance focus on behavioral economics and product design issues, but skip proximity and cost of access. Yet if there is one common element in all successful microfinance schemes it’s been finding ways to get closer to customers. An argument for learning how the nuances of distance influences market behavior.
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- Education
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Microfinance at a Crossroads: BRAC USA’s Davis on Microcredit, Then and Now
At a time of over-indebted clients, and fear in the face of microfinance exploiters and "loan sharks," Susan Davis, founding CEO of BRAC USA and industry veteran, is adamant: "If your mission is only to offer consumer finance, I wouldn’t call it microfinance. If your core mission is to try and defeat poverty ... then we’re talking."
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Microfinance at a Crossroads: Balancing Good Intentions with Critical Industry Structuring
As the microfinance industry matures, the cracks in the model have become more apparent. When an idea built from good intentions scales, hidden costs begin to grow and the call for more structure becomes louder. These cracks are not just on one side of the equation, and need to be addressed through collective effort by borrowers and lenders.
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- Social Enterprise
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Friday Roundup – 9/23/11: Microcredit Rethought
This week Muhammad Yunus told NextBillion writer Sadna Samaranayake if he could do it all over again, he would not have let the "profit-makers" join the microcredit movement. But would there have been a movement without hard-nosed margin seekers in the first place? For the next few weeks, we’ll be taking a closer look at microcredit.
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- microfinance
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NextThought Monday Gearing Up for SOCAP11: Milaap’s Service-Focused Journey
Anoj Viswanathan is co-founder of Milaap, a pioneering online platform that enables people across the world to lend to India’s working poor. He drew inspiration from Lilla Watson?s quote, ?if you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
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- Finance
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- microfinance
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The Evolution of Financial Inclusion: A Survey of the Future
ACCION International’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) released an important report this week that has people in the microfinance sector taking notice." Opportunities and Obstacles to Financial Inclusion" is a comprehensive survey of 301 industry participants from around the world on "how to make full financial inclusion a reality."
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Friday Roundup 7/1/11: Kiva Launches First ’Kiva City’ in Detroit
The new Kiva City initiative combines the power of civic leaders, community organizations, and financial institutions. Rolling out first in Detroit, Kiva has partnered with Michigan Corps and ACCION USA to bring financial inclusion to a city that is wholly determined - from the government level to the individual level - on working collaboratively.
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- Uncategorized
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