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A Mixed Bag in Kenya: Safaricom’s products have moved far beyond M-PESA – but are they reaching the poor?
With amounts equivalent to over 40 percent of Kenya’s GDP flowing through M-PESA, Safaricom’s success in person-to-person mobile money transfers is legendary. And over the last two years, the telco has added innovative financial services beyond basic P2P transfers that have reached millions of customers. But research from InterMedia suggests that these products aren’t yet being adopted by the groups that need them most.
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- Education
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Janssen announces new group targeting unmet global health needs
“To solve today’s greatest public health challenges, it’s essential that we emphasize the needs of the developing world in equal measure to those of the developed world,” said Paul Stoffels, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson and Worldwide Chairman of Janssen.
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- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- research
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The Implications of Scarcity for Microfinance: Grameen Foundation’s Alex Counts, on how understanding scarcity’s impact can improve microfinance practices
Behavioral economics could transform international development, says Grameen Foundation CEO Alex Counts. In some cases, it may reaffirm current practice. In others, it could suggest that these “best practices” are counter-productive. In this thought-provoking post, Counts explores the implications of scarcity for microfinance, when looked at through a behavioral economics lens.
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- Education
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The Power of Heuristics: New white paper from ideas42
In a new paper by ideas42, Antoinette Schoar and Saugato Datta argue that using heuristics (effective rules of thumb) can “enable people to make ‘reasonably good’ decisions without needing to understand all the complex nuances of the situation.” ideas42 is building on their findings to develop financial heuristics programs for microentrepreneurs around the globe.
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- Education
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Can telcos predict Mobile Money hotspots?
A study by CGAP looks at the relationship between voice call routes and money transfer, trying to help telcos focus their investment in mobile money solutions.
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- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Microfinance as a tool for empowering conflict-affected communities
At a recently-held seminar organised by the Pathfinder Foundation in Colombo, a paper and three presentations were publicised under the theme ‘microfinance as a tool for empowering conflict-affected communities’.
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- Education
- Region
- South Asia
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Contemplating Scarcity: Grameen Foundation’s Alex Counts on how the phenomenon of scarcity impacts microfinance and poverty alleviation
Alex Counts, president and CEO of Grameen Foundation, discusses new research on the phenomenon of scarcity – how having too little of anything important to the human experience can impact policy and practice in microfinance and poverty alleviation.
- Categories
- Education