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Scaling Big Data for Social Good: Weighing the Benefits and the Risks
Each day, the world generates about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, and the entire digital universe is expected to hit 44 zettabytes this year. According to Hayden Dahmm at SDSN TReNDS, this data can provide major benefits if it's shared between the public and private sectors – but the risks are equally significant, particularly in emerging markets. He explores how to ensure that big data is used safely and ethically.
- Categories
- Technology
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Data Around COVID-19 Is a Mess and Here’s Why That Matters
Aid organizations use data to help understand needs and target their interventions – but their analyses and responses are only as good as the data at hand.
- Categories
- Coronavirus
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The Informal Economy is Complicating Government Responses to COVID-19: Will the Crisis Push Millions Toward Formality?
As COVID-19 devastates the global economy, many governments have designed support measures to help businesses and workers survive. But as Jill Lagos Shemin and James Dailey point out, this support may be ineffective in lower-income countries, where most small businesses and their employees work in the informal economy, lacking bank accounts and even valid ID. They explore some solutions governments can pursue – and trade-offs they will have to accept.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Finance
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Insurance in the Age of COVID-19: The Pandemic Highlights the Need for a New Approach
With much of the world on lockdown due to COVID-19, many businesses are closing down – either temporarily or permanently – with devastating effects on individual welfare and entire economies. This has amplified the importance of insurance, says Kate Rinehart-Smit at Cenfri. She explores how the sector can make a greater impact – not only on the resilience of businesses and individuals, but on broader economic development.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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Viewpoint: Let FinTech Help Jumpstart The Economy
There is no doubt that the $2.2 trillion U.S. government stimulus package in the form of The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) will help deal with at least some of the economic consequences resulting from this pandemic crisis. The package includes unemployment benefits, loans to small businesses, $1,200 direct payments to individuals and a $500 billion Federal initiative to corporations. But there are several challenging issues with the administration of the CARES Act with which FinTech companies could prove extremely helpful, if given the opportunity to help.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
- Region
- North America
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Reducing the Costs of Migration: How Better Data Can Lead to Better Policy – and Better Prices – in Migrant Remittances
International migration has become a pressing global issue, and one that's likely to grow in the coming years. One way to help economies absorb migrants with minimal disruption is to improve their access to affordable, formal cross-border remittances. But according to Damola Owolade at FinMark Trust, this goal may be easier said than done, as accurate data on remittance pricing can be surprisingly hard to acquire.
- Categories
- Finance
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Why Africa is at Risk of a Coronavirus Catastrophe
The coronavirus pandemic spreading across the globe has been slow to spread through Africa, but public health experts are worried that what appears to be an inevitable outbreak on the world's poorest continent could become a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Distribute Cash, not COVID-19: Five Ways Policymakers in Sub-Saharan Africa Can Provide Cash Transfers Safely
As COVID-19 spreads around the world, 35 countries have introduced new cash transfer programs in response to the pandemic. Cash is one of the most effective ways to support people during a crisis, say Martin Gould and Nate Vernon at IDInsight. But administering cash transfers in low-income countries can raise some big questions for policymakers. They discuss five ways governments in sub-Saharan Africa can manage these programs safely and effectively.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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