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Southern Africa Taps $380 Million in World Bank Financing to Facilitate Regional Trade and Investment for More Inclusive Growth
The new Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity Project (SATCP) will benefit both countries and local communities through investments.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Launching India’s Microinsurance Revolution: How the Sector Can Build Upon Growing Customer Awareness Due to COVID-19
Since the start of COVID-19, customers in low- and middle-income countries like India have had an increased understanding of the value of insurance. But as Moin Qazi explains, typical insurance schemes are often unsuited for the unique needs of this population. He explores how microinsurance can better address these needs, and how providers and policymakers can capitalize on low-income customers' growing awareness of insurance's benefits – while navigating the business challenges of serving these communities.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
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‘The First Wealth is Health’: Exploring the European Microfinance Award 2021’s Focus on Inclusive Finance and Health Care
For the global poor, health is often the dividing line between the path to prosperity or a slide into destitution. Daniel Rozas and Sam Mendelson of e-MFP explain how precarious incomes and the absence of high-quality universal health care can push low-income households into a deeper cycle of poverty. As a response to the issue, the European Microfinance Award is seeking to highlight initiatives that facilitate access to quality and affordable health care with this year's €100,000 award, which focuses on the topic of "Inclusive Finance and Health Care."
- Categories
- Finance, Health Care
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Transforming Microcredit After COVID-19: Why ‘Building Back Better’ Will Require a Radical Reboot of Local Financial Systems in the Global South
Microcredit advocates have expressed the expectation that the industry can play a major role in economic and social recovery in the Global South after the COVID-19 pandemic. But economist Milford Bateman argues that shifting these micro-lending programs into community-owned financial institutions would make a more substantial impact. He shares a roadmap for empowering community-focused economies, and explores how a plan modeled after elements of the U.S.'s New Deal could transform local finance.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Social Protection Goes Digital: Lessons From an Innovative, WhatsApp-Driven Outreach Campaign in Paraguay
The COVID-19 lockdown has reshaped social policy in Paraguay, as programs that depended on face-to-face contact to reach participants suddenly found themselves unable to conduct their usual outreach. Cristina Heisecke, Carolina de Miranda and Mauricio Royg of Fundación Capital share lessons from an innovative solution to this challenge: a digital campaign that used WhatsApp to offer a remote alternative to the in-person training and coaching of the country's flagship cash transfer program.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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Kenyan Startup Finplus Passes $500 Million Transaction Value Mark
Kenyan fintech startup Finplus Group has announced its software has now processed over US$503 million in combined transaction value in less than four years of operations.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Western Union: Emerging Market GDP, Innovation Depend On Remittances
In the payments industry, they’re known as remittances. But for the recipients of the cross-border money transfers and peer-to-peer (P2P) payments usually associated with developing economies, they are lifelines.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Innovation for Adaptation: How a New Fund Is Helping Service Providers Navigate the Challenges of COVID-19
The impact of COVID-19 has been amplified at the local level in Kenya and Rwanda, where non-profit service providers working with vulnerable populations are finding it more difficult to support their beneficiaries. Michael Kiema and Linda Ndungu Wambua at Instiglio explore learnings from the COVID-19 Adaptation Fund, which is providing funding to nine qualifying service providers to help them implement innovations that will support their efforts to serve beneficiaries during the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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