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The ‘Strange Bedfellows’ Myth: How Fintechs and Financial Institutions Can Partner for Mutual Benefit – And Greater Financial Inclusion
The classic tech-meets-tradition narrative often portrays fintechs and established financial institutions as natural adversaries. But research from the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) and the Institute of International Finance found quite the opposite to be true. CFI's Sonja E. Kelly explores the report's findings, which detail the surprising scope for collaboration among these players – and the potential impact on low-income customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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New Paper: Key Considerations for Mobilizing Institutional Capital Through Blended Finance
The new report from Convergence provides an analysis of the investment motivations, requirements, and constraints of six segments of institutional investors.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, research
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How to Address the Power Imbalance in Impact Investing? Shut Up and Listen
It started with a USD 22 million investment in a farm in Ghana’s Afram Plains District. The investment was designed to reduce hunger, create jobs and provide economic opportunities for 80,000 smallholder farmers. That's not how it turned out. Gayle Peterson of Oxford's Impact Investing Programme and her colleagues explore a real-world case of impact investing gone wrong.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, research
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What was the Most Influential NextBillion Post of 2017? Vote for Your Favorite
“Fast away the old year passes.” That lyric from “Deck the Halls” always hits home this time of year – and in 2017, it resonates particularly strongly. Across the social sectors, the year often felt like a race against time (or against competing societal forces) and many of our most popular posts reflect that sense of urgency. Here are the most influential posts from the last twelve months, one from each month, in our sixth annual holiday contest. Vote early, vote often.
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Beyond ‘Send Money Home’: The Complex Gender Dynamics Behind Mobile Money Usage
In Kenya, gender doesn’t factor as strongly in accessing mobile money accounts as it does for formal sector accounts. This is surprising because in Africa women are less digitally connected than men. However, the networked nature of mobile money explains why more women adopt the technology. Susan Johnson writes that financial inclusion analysis and policy must factor in how women use their money, how it connects them to family and how financial services can facilitate this.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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The UBI Debate: What We Know – and Don’t Know – About Universal Basic Income
Policymakers from Nairobi to Silicon Valley have lately been considering the same approach to reducing poverty: universal basic income (UBI). Evidence from ongoing randomized evaluations will be key to understanding the impact of UBI, and how this disruptive concept might fit into a broader portfolio of social policies. In the meantime, there is much we already know from impact evaluations of related interventions that can help make sense of the debate. Alison Fahey at J-PAL provides an overview.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Yes, Microcredit Requires Subsidies … and That’s Great News
Recent research should finally put to rest the assertions that affordable microcredit aimed at poor households does not require subsidy: Serving poor customers well is always going to be expensive. On the plus side, the subsidies are quite small and, according to Timothy Ogden, those who perceive this as anything other than great news bought into the inflated expectations around microcredit.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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From All-Inclusive to Socially Inclusive: Travel and Tourism’s Big Shift is Under Way
Tourism is one of the world's largest industries – but how can it best be leveraged to move nations from poverty to prosperity? That was a key question at the recent "Global Conference on Jobs & Inclusive Growth: Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism," organized in Jamaica by the UN's World Tourism Organization. NextBillion was a media partner at the conference, and we share some major themes (and a few controversial remarks) ranging from the impact of the sharing economy and Airbnb, to the problems with building "five-star hotels in three-star communities."
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- employment, research, tourism
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