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Agricultural Mobile Finance: Understanding patterns of daily life at the BoP to leverage market solutions
The growth of mobile technology can lead to disruptive business model innovations in many sectors. One such innovation is agricultural mobile finance that can benefit all the participants in the field-to-fork value chain. But connecting farmers to formal banking on their mobile phones will require multi-stakeholder alliances, market research and an end-user design approach, says Lee Babcock.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
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GSMA Releases Initial Findings Of 2013 Mobile Money Adoption Survey
The GSMA today issued the initial findings of its 2013 Mobile Money Adoption Survey.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- research
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Exploring the Role of Venture Capital in Latin American Economic Development: Dalberg, IDB study assesses VC’s social impact
In advanced economies, it’s easy to see the positive impact of venture capital: Facebook, iPhones and FedEx packages all came from companies that were once venture-backed. But can venture capital also help fight poverty or spur social and environmental well-being in the developing world? Dalberg explored this question in a study commissioned by IDB on the impact of venture capital in Latin America.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- research, venture capital
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Ethnographic Design: The best ideas come from your users
In this second post in Grameen Foundation’s series on designing products and services for the BoP, Julius Matovu reviews the use of design ethnography in early research phases to gain insights into the financial needs of the poor. He describes what to do - and what to avoid - when spending time with potential users to gain a deep understanding of their wants and needs.
- Categories
- Education
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Practical Insight: Studies support mobile money decision making
Contextual, demand-side research can make all the difference when mobile money providers make decisions about what products and services to offer and how to attract and keep customers. In many developing countries, however, such research is often in short supply. Recent studies conducted by InterMedia shed light on the mobile money markets in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, providing insight that is not always intuitive.
- Categories
- Education
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New Evidence on How Poverty Affects Decision Making: And what the business, development community can learn from it
Many previous studies of poor populations show a relationship between poverty and counterproductive behavior. But new research in the August issue of Science magazine presents some very important evidence on how poverty affects decision making through a different channel.
- Categories
- Education
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TB Is Changing: The approach to its treatment must, too
The Indian government has made progress providing free TB diagnosis and treatment to all patients in the public health sector. But more than half of all Indians seek initial care for most health concerns, including TB, in the private health sector, which has made less progress improving access to quality TB diagnosis and medicines.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- public health, research
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New Report: Bringing Impact Investing From the Margins to the Mainstream
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, today launched From the Margins to the Mainstream: Assessment of the Impact Investment Sector and Opportunities to Engage Mainstream Investors. The report provides a market assessment and recommendations for how mainstream investors can more actively engage in impact investing.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- impact investing, research