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Analysis: How Poverty, Insecurity is Crippling Nigeria’s Economy and Businesses
Apart from Nigeria's poor economy, the rate of financial insecurity in the country in recent times is a serious source of worry.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Accomplishing the Impossible: Lessons on Scaling From BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
Countless books and articles have addressed the challenges of going to scale in the development sector — yet a systematic approach to scaling remains out of reach. However, as Scott MacMillan at BRAC USA explains, BRAC founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed was arguably more successful than anyone at scaling effective poverty programs. He shares insights from his new book on Abed's life and work, which sheds light on how BRAC has created and scaled programs to an extent that no other nonprofit or social enterprise has managed to achieve.
- Categories
- Education, Finance, Health Care
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The Power of Results-Based Funding for Poverty Alleviation: What We Learned from Africa’s First-Ever Development Impact Bond – and What’s Next
Development impact bonds (DIBs) are an innovative, results-based funding model with the potential to reduce poverty and make aid more effective. To assess their impact, a randomized controlled trial was conducted on Africa's first-ever DIB for poverty alleviation, which supported a poverty graduation program implemented by Village Enterprise. Dianne Calvi at Village Enterprise and Brian Boland at the Delta Fund (one of the nine philanthropic investors in the DIB) discuss the results of this study, what they mean for the sector, and how results-based funding can evolve to maximize its impact.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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A Portfolio Approach to ESG and CSR: Why Supporting Social Entrepreneurship Accelerators Makes Sense for Corporate Funders
Many corporations seek to support social enterprises as a way to meet their environmental, social and governance (ESG) or corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals. But as Brigit Helms at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship explains, corporations often find it challenging to identify and engage with these enterprises one at a time, and instead prefer to work with social enterprise accelerators. She shares insights from a recent Miller Center white paper that attempts to quantify the benefits corporate partners can obtain from supporting these accelerators.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Applying Behavioral Science to Program Staff: An Under-Explored Path to Strengthening Global Anti-Poverty Programs
Evidence suggests that applying behavioral science to global anti-poverty programs can increase their impact—typically by encouraging positive behaviors among program participants. But Mukta Joshi and Faraz Haqqi at ideas42 point out that the behavior of program staff has not received the same level of attention, even though staff directly shape a program's potential for impact. They explore how behavioral science can be used to optimize the behaviors of anti-poverty program staff, offering a powerful new channel for improving lives and livelihoods.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Companies Brace for Impact of New Forced Labor Law
Billions of dollars could be at stake as a law banning imports of some products from China goes into effect.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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India’s Women Business Correspondents are Struggling: Three Steps to Increase Their Viability – And Boost Financial Inclusion
India is home to 17% of the world’s total female population, yet persistent gender gaps exist in the country's labor force – and its financial inclusion efforts. As Gaurav Sinha and Manpreet Kaur at Grameen Foundation India explain, these gender issues also impact India's Business Correspondents (BCs) – retail agents engaged by banks to provide financial services outside of bank branches or ATMs. They discuss how Grameen Foundation's Mittras program is addressing the obstacles faced by women BCs, and explore three ways to better support them.
- Categories
- Finance
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Building a Transformative Gender Approach into Graduation Programs: Lessons Learned from a Three-Year Initiative in Latin America
Latin America is home to 86 million people living in extreme poverty – and women in the region are particularly impacted. Graduation programs have shown their effectiveness at addressing the multi-dimensional challenges of poverty, but Laura Morínigo and Carolina de Miranda at Fundación Capital argue that these programs must do more to address gender inequalities. They discuss the results of an initiative that integrated a transformative gender approach into poverty graduation, and explore how this approach can amplify these programs' impact on women.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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