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March 26, 2024

From Proxy IDs to Autonomous Payments: Why the Future of Financial Services is Hyper-Efficiency

Despite the rise of digital banking and other technological advancements, financial services are still plagued by significant inefficiencies. Author and serial entrepreneur Arunjay Katakam explores the causes and consequences of these inefficiencies — including their impact on lower-income customers — and discusses some emerging innovations that are addressing them. He explains why the sector's growing efforts to streamline back-end processes, reduce transaction costs and enhance operational efficiency will be pivotal in shaping the future of financial services.

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March 22, 2024

Private Sector Engagement: The Missing Ingredient in Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Plans

At the World Health Assembly's annual meeting in May, delegates will discuss and agree upon a plan to respond to future pandemics. In advance of this crucial meeting, Frida Njogu-Ndongwe and Emily Coppel at IDinsight argue that COVID-19 and other disease outbreaks have highlighted a clear need for the private sector to help finance and implement emergency response plans for future epidemics and pandemics. They explain how engaging the private sector in these plans can enable timely, broad-reaching action that could prevent — or minimize the impact of — future outbreaks.

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March 18, 2024

How Can the Financial Inclusion Sector Serve the World’s Growing Number of Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People?

There were over 108 million people worldwide estimated to be forcibly displaced as of 2022. Sam Mendelson, Fernando Naranjo Galindo and Daniel Rozas at e-MFP argue that the financial inclusion sector can and should play an important role in addressing the challenges of forced displacement. They explore how financial service providers and other stakeholders can better serve these communities, and announce the launch of the European Microfinance Award 2024, which will focus on “Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees & Forcibly Displaced People.”

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Finance

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March 8, 2024

Energy Poverty is Not Gender Blind: How Companies, Funders and Policymakers Can Empower Female Energy Consumers Across Africa

While both men and women in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity and clean energy technologies, women pay a bigger price for this lack of access in nearly every imaginable way. Mutale Ngaba, Katie Brauer, Nathalie Gogue-Ebo and Duda Slawek at Open Capital argue that this crucial aspect of the energy access conversation is often overlooked. They explore the gender inequities in energy poverty, and share learnings from Open Capital's work that can guide the efforts of energy companies, funders and policymakers to put women’s needs at the center of energy access efforts in the region.

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March 6, 2024

Leveraging Market Systems Development for Women’s Economic Empowerment: Four Tools for Designing Programs That Promote a Gender-Inclusive Economy

Market Systems Development (MSD) interventions are a promising way to boost women's economic independence in emerging markets. But as Sarah Bove, Teresa Oliveira and Julieta Ocampo at TechnoServe explain, since most MSD programs haven’t specifically targeted women, there's little evidence on how this approach can address their exclusion from key sectors. They offer insights from TechnoServe's Women in Business MSD initiative in Mozambique, sharing a set of tools that can be used by other MSD programs to maximize women’s economic empowerment.

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Social Enterprise

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March 4, 2024

Aligning Empowerment with Profitability: Three Business Practices That Support Both Women and the Bottom Line

Women are more career-focused than ever, but their representation in global business leadership is not keeping pace. Verónica Lawson Vilches at The Word on Record argues that empowering women in the workplace shouldn’t be viewed merely as a social goal. She highlights three business practices at Girl Power Talk, an India-based social enterprise that provides women and other young people with job skills and work opportunities, to show how efforts to boost women's empowerment can also give businesses a competitive edge.

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February 29, 2024

Making ICT4D Green: Three Focus Areas for Improving the Environmental Impact of the Information and Communication Technology for Development Sector

The global digital transformation is generating many positive impacts, and digital technologies have become essential tools for climate and environmental action. But according to Nora Lindström at Catholic Relief Services, the growing use of digital technology is also causing some significant environmental challenges — and the “Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)” sector must address them. She discusses several ways to increase the tech industry's sustainability, focusing on three key elements of ICT: generative AI, broadband access and electronic equipment.

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February 26, 2024

An African Approach to Online Education: An Innovative Platform Aims to Prepare the Continent’s Youth for the Jobs of the Future

By 2050, one in every four individuals in the world will be African. In response to this demographic shift, it's essential to ensure that young Africans possess the necessary skills to compete in the global job market. But according to Adewale Yusuf at AltSchool Africa, conventional educational approaches have failed to meet these students' unique needs. He explains how AltSchool Africa developed an online platform based on African approaches to learning, and how the platform provides young students with the job skills they need to succeed in an increasingly global economy.

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NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Guest Articles.

From Proxy IDs to Autonomous Payments: Why the Future of Financial Services is Hyper-Efficiency

Private Sector Engagement: The Missing Ingredient in Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Plans

How Can the Financial Inclusion Sector Serve the World’s Growing Number of Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People?

Energy Poverty is Not Gender Blind: How Companies, Funders and Policymakers Can Empower Female Energy Consumers Across Africa

Making ICT4D Green: Three Focus Areas for Improving the Environmental Impact of the Information and Communication Technology for Development Sector

An African Approach to Online Education: An Innovative Platform Aims to Prepare the Continent’s Youth for the Jobs of the Future

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