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Women Are Paying More for M-Pesa: A Gender Analysis of Mobile Money Fees in Kenya
The cost of using financial services is a key barrier to their adoption and use in low- and middle-income countries — and when it comes to mobile money transactions via M-Pesa in Kenya, those costs are greater for women, according to a recent study. Bryan Pon at Caribou Data shares details about the study's findings, and explains how understanding these gender differences could illuminate some of the obstacles women face when using digital financial services – and help inform policy or system design approaches that could address these challenges.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Winning the Low-Income Market: Assessing the State of Product Development in the Nigerian Financial Service Industry
Nigeria's financial inclusion goals have gone unmet, and the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress even further. Olayinka David-West and Ibukun Taiwo of the Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services initiative of the Lagos Business School share the results of their 2020 study on the state of the Nigerian market, exploring the product development practices of the country's financial service providers – and how they could be improved.
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- Finance
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India Needs Over $900 Billion in Climate Finance by 2030: This Roadmap Can Mobilize Private Sector Investment
India is committed to lowering its greenhouse gas emissions, but its goals under the Paris Agreement are not ambitious enough. Simmi Sareen at GreenFunder and Shravan Shankar at the BIG Green Collaborative argue that the country must focus on increasing energy storage and efficiency, decreasing agriculture and manufacturing emissions, and adapting to a more hostile climate. They explore how innovative and scalable technology can address these priorities by 2030 — and how strengthening India’s climate financing structures can help generate the $100 billion in yearly private investment this will require.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
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Press Release: Impact Investors Approaching Performance and Capital Allocation With Increasing Sophistication to Maximize Financial and Impact Objectives
GIIN’s new report uncovers insights into the decision-making approaches of impact investors targeting risk-adjusted, market-rate returns.
- Categories
- Investing
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Addressing the Unanswered Questions of Sustainable Development: How ‘Lean Experimentation’ Can Boost the SDGs
The deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals is growing closer, and with many targets well behind schedule, extraordinary efforts will be necessary to achieve them. Toshi Nakamura at Kopernik argues that these efforts will require the development sector to quickly answer an important question: Which interventions are effective – and which are not? To that end, he explores the value of Kopernik's "lean experimentation" approach, which can be used to assess a wide range of interventions, to quickly determine which are worth scaling or replicating.
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- Impact Assessment
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Surveying the Landscape for Social Investments in Africa: A Major New Study Assesses the Current State of Play on the Continent
The social investment sector in Africa is dynamic and growing – but it’s struggling to close the enormous Sustainable Development Goals financing gap. The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) explored the opportunities and obstacles facing social investors on the continent in an ambitious new study, “The Landscape for Social Investments in Africa.” NextBillion interviewed AVPA’s CEO, Frank Aswani, to discuss the study’s findings, and what they say about the current state of social investment in Africa.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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2020 MOST INFLUENTIAL ARTICLE CANDIDATE: Impact Measurement and Management During COVID-19: Tips and Resources to Help Social Impact Organizations Adapt
As the scope of the COVID-19 economic crisis becomes clear, social impact organizations are scrambling to cut costs. According to Matthew Guttentag and Mallory St. Claire at ANDE, this might lead them to reduce their focus on impact measurement and management (IMM). They explain why this would be a mistake – and how organizations can adapt their IMM activities during the crisis.
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- Coronavirus, Impact Assessment
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From Financial Inclusion To Inclusive Finance: The Power of Frameworks To Catalyse Change
In this age of information, we increasingly rely on data to inform our decisions. But as Amrik Heyer at FSD Kenya points out, the utility of data for guiding policy and investment depends on the paradigms and frameworks which influence our thinking. She discusses the power of frameworks in shaping research and informing financial inclusion policy and investment, using the example of the FinAccess survey in Kenya.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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