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IDB-UNDP report identifies steps to leverage Islamic finance for impact investing
Given that impact investment is growing rapidly and has become an important source of funding the SDGs, a blending with Islamic finance provides a formable partnership that could play a significant role in achieving the SDGs.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Billionaire Michael Dell Announces $1 Billion Commitment To Support Social Entrepreneurs, Nonprofits
The funding will go toward the financial support of causes like social entrepreneurship in India, college success for low-income students in the U.S. and South Africa, and data-driven education across the regions, Dell's wife Susan, who joined him during the talk, said.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- North America
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More and more, women are combining profit with purpose to create a better world
"Society has a gendered perspective of how we're going to change the world," Oberti Noguera said. "When a woman says she's going to change the world, society thinks she's going to start a nonprofit. When a man says he's going to change the world, society thinks he's going to start a business."
- Categories
- Investing
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How Big-Donor Philanthropists Can Get Results
According to The Bridgespan Group, a Boston-based consultancy for philanthropists, only 20% of philanthropic commitments of $10 million or higher go to organizations or initiatives making a social change—such as improving public health, the justice system, the environment, or international development.
- Categories
- Investing
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Why Low-Income Families Don’t Send Their Children to College. Hint: It’s Not Always About Money.
Household income is not the only limiting factor as to why children of low to upper-low income families do not attend or save for university. Significant behavioral reasons are also involved, and ESCALA, which helps families save for higher education, worked with BFA’s customer insights team to identify and develop a plan to help overcome a few of them.
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The High Cost of ‘Data Darkness’ in the Developing World
The developing world is data dark, writes Tara Thiagarajan of Madura Microfinance; gathering even the most elementary data is a monumental task, requiring feet on the ground, paid employees and auditing systems. Without it, however, products don’t have good market fit, customers don’t get what they really need and the cost of customer acquisition and delivery is higher.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania Join World Economic Forum in Promoting Financial Inclusion in East Africa
This effort aims to develop collaboration between policy-makers, private-sector providers of financial services and their clients, and other relevant actors. East Africa has already made significant strides towards financial inclusion, leveraging digital and other means to raise the number of adults that have an account to 34 percent in 2014, up from 24 percent in 2011.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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A quarter of African children to be privately educated by 2021
Innovative private sector teaching models, such as that employed by controversial for-profit school chain Bridge International Academies, enjoy high-profile backing, including from some of the world's most esteemed donors and aid organisations like philanthropist Bill Gates, the World Bank and the UK’s Department for International Development.
But not everyone agrees. NGOs, teaching unions and a United Nations expert are among those that have decried the increasing reliance on such low-cost private schools,- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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