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Implementing Market Systems Programs in Fragile Contexts
Many farmers operating in a market system broken by conflict have been propped up by global humanitarian efforts. However, Andy Hunter, a market systems practitioner, says that replacing essential commercial services with donor-funded direct delivery options is a market distortion that ultimately ensures a complete collapse of a functional market system.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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G20 Leaders Welcome Launch of Inclusive Business Platform
Leaders at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China emphasized the need for sustainable and inclusive growth, and welcomed the launch of the G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business. The platform is a global partnership that seeks to accelerate the adoption of inclusive business policies and programs.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Five Imperatives to Help Address the Challenges of Sustainable Rural Economic Development
More than two-thirds of the populations in the least-developed countries live and work in rural areas, where the proportion of people living below the poverty line is generally double that of urban areas. That makes the development of rural economies critical for poor countries to meet their sustainable development goals. Peter Harlock of VisionFund lays out five imperatives to optimise that development.
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- Uncategorized
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MTN South Africa May Pull Plug on Mobile Money
South Africa’s second largest mobile network by subscribers, MTN South Africa, has stopped signing up new Mobile Money customers as it studies the feasibility of the product.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Microfinance Business Model: Enduring Subsidy and Modest Profit
Microfinance institutions aim to serve customers ill-served by traditional commercial banks and thus the associated business model is challenging by definition. And yet the industry has achieved impressive scale reaching 211 million customers globally in 2013. Paradoxically, recent evidence suggests that the benefits of microcredit to borrowers may be modest. For example, six prominent randomized controlled trials found small impacts of access to microcredit on the incomes and consumption levels of marginal borrowers, though the studies found some “potentially important” (though modest) impacts on “occupational choice, business scale, consumption choice, female decision power, and improved risk management.” (Banerjee et al., 2015, p. 14).
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- Uncategorized
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The Volatile ‘Face’ of Digital Financial Services in Zambia
Mobile money operators in Zambia – a country where only half of the residents are even aware of the concept of mobile money – don’t seem to stick around for very long; in fact, 90 percent of them have been in the business for less than one year. What can stop the churn? Research shows that higher income would help, and that can result from better training.
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- Uncategorized
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Can Microfinance Still Make a Difference?
It's the Yangon entrepreneurial dream: a teashop in the suburbs to call your own. But for Ma Thandar, a 39-year-old mother of two, it is just a dream – and one she’s unlikely to be able to attain.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Rwanda Finalises Process to Interlink Financial Sector
The government of Rwanda is in final stages to interlink its financial sector, a move that will see the banking, microfinance, pension, insurance as well as capital market linked together.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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