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MIT D-Lab Awards Fellowships to Six East African Social Entrepreneurs
“We are excited to work with a vibrant cohort of East African entrepreneurs whose expertise is grounded in their lived reality,” says Jona Repishti, who manages the fellowship. “Working with local founders has certain advantages — they reflect the demographics of the markets they serve; their lived experience helps them identify unique, scalable, market-based solutions overlooked by outsiders."
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Good News for Microfinance: Grameen America Discusses Promising New Research on its Anti-Poverty Impact
In an atmosphere of considerable skepticism about microfinance's anti-poverty impact, Grameen America recently released some positive findings: Early results from an RCT on its group lending model show solid impacts on areas ranging from members' credit scores to their business operations. NextBillion spoke with Marcus Berkowitz, VP of Technology & Innovation at Grameen America, to discuss these results and their implications for microfinance in the U.S. and globally.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, NextBillion Originals
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Paycheck, Please: Why Jobs Are Better Than Charity
Those of us who “won the zip code lottery” by being born in a prosperous country often take for granted something that’s out of reach for many people around the world: a stable and satisfying job. Suzanne Skees explores how the Skees Family Foundation leverages the power of dignified, secure jobs to fight poverty – and highlights what they've learned from partner organizations about how to maximize the impact of job creation efforts.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Viewpoint: Learning from Financial Inclusion Research: What Should We Expect?
There is a real puzzle in the world of financial inclusion: Where’s the impact? The question is not unique to financial inclusion, but it is a particularly pressing one.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Major New UN Report Calls for Overhaul of Global Financial System
The report is a joint product of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development, which is comprised of more than 60 United Nations Agencies and international organizations.
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Viewpoint: Winning the War on Poverty
According to recently released data, between 2015 and 2017, Canada reduced its official poverty rate by at least 20 percent. Roughly 825,000 Canadians were lifted out of poverty in those years, giving the country today its lowest poverty rate in history.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- North America
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How Can Fintech Serve the Poor? A Q&A with CGAP CEO Greta Bull
As fintech innovation transforms the financial sphere, what are the implications for low-income and unbanked individuals? Greta Bull, CEO of CGAP, explored this question in a widely read essay earlier this year, and NextBillion followed up to get a deeper sense of her views on fintech's potential (and practical) impact. Her thoughts offer an important barometer of an organization and an industry in transition, as the tech revolution continues to reshape financial inclusion.
- Categories
- Finance
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The Development Challenge You’re Overlooking: Seven Things You Need to Know About Land Rights
Approximately 72 percent of the world’s population – more than 4 billion people – live on property for which they do not hold formal rights. This presents obstacles to social cohesion, financial inclusion and economic growth – in fact, in many countries, landlessness is the best predictor of poverty. Yet the problem remains under-recognized in many global development discussions. Tim Rann, a partner at Mercy Corps’ Social Ventures team, lays out seven things you should know about the issue.
- Categories
- Environment
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