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New Commission Aims to Further Business Engagement on SDGs
Can another group aimed at demonstrating the role of business in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals actually make a difference?
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- Environment
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Seven Wishes from Seven Thought Leaders for Financial Inclusion in 2016
2015 was an important year for the world of financial inclusion. To better understand and build on the year's successes, BRAC approached the Microfinance CEO Working Group to inquire about their wishes for financial inclusion over the coming year. Here’s what seven industry thought leaders shared with them.
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- Uncategorized
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62 People Own the Same as Half the World, Reveals Oxfam Davos Report
The Oxfam report An Economy for the 1%, shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010, a drop of 41 percent. This has occurred despite the global population increasing by around 400 million people during that period. Meanwhile, the wealth of the richest 62 has increased by more than half a trillion dollars to $1.76tr. The report also shows how women are disproportionately affected by inequality – of the current ‘62’, 53 are men and just nine are women.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday: Would You Give Up Your Cellphone to Save a Child?
Last fall, University of San Francisco professor Bruce Wydick presented his students with a confounding challenge: If everybody in the classroom were to make a $50 direct cash transfer, he said, they could potentially save a poor Ugandan child's life. In fact, he added, a donor had pledged to give $50 through GiveDirectly for every student, on one simple condition: They had to part with their cell phones for two weeks. Wydick describes the fallout in this thought-provoking post.
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- Technology
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Stanford to Launch Entrepreneurship Training Initiative in East Africa
The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED) announced the opening of a research, training and innovation facility in Nairobi, Kenya by June 2016.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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10 Takeaways from the World Bank Forum on Microcredit’s (lack of) Social Impact
"For a researcher working on microcredit, this is kind of a defining moment." That’s how Abhijit Banerjee described the six recent studies on microcredit’s social impact (or lack thereof). NextBillion has compiled 10 takeaways (and 11 tweets) from the research and the sector’s reaction to it, based on the World Bank event.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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New Report Calls for Scale-Up of Financial Services “Pathways” to Help End Extreme Poverty
The Microcredit Summit Campaign released its 17th annual survey of the global microfinance industry December 9th at the Inclusive Finance India Summit held in New Delhi, India. Campaign Director Larry Reed featured the publication, "Mapping Pathways out of Poverty: The State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report, 2015," in his presentation on Wednesday to attendees of India’s premier financial inclusion conference.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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IFC Invests in Postal Savings Bank of China to Promote Financial Inclusion for Underserved
The FINANCIAL -- IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, on December 10 announced an investment in Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC). The investment will help promote access to finance in a country, which according to World Bank Group data, is home to 12% of the world’s unbanked, some 235 million people, many of whom live in rural areas.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia