Microfinance is a rich text for students of rhetoric. In practice, each shift in wording has brought a shift away from concerns with poverty and social justice toward finance for less poor populations.
Read MoreViewing all posts with tag: financial inclusion
WATCH: Plunging Into the Digital Economy, but Still Tied to Cash
In this video we created for Financial Inclusion Week, we sift through data to tell the story of businesses straddling the borderlands between the cash and digital economies after COVID-19.
Read MoreResources on Digital Money and Upcoming Webinars
When is Fintech Pro-Poor? 4 Key Takeaways on Risk, Transparency & Sector Priorities
Goodbye to Financial Literacy Month
This post is co-authored by Timothy Ogden and Julia Brand.
Why April 2021 should be the last Financial Literacy Month, and what we think should replace it.
Can Migration Patterns Help Predict COVID Outbreaks in South Asia?
Authors: Jean Lee (World Bank), Mahreen Mahmud (Oxford), Jonathan Morduch (NYU), Saravana Ravindran (UCLA), and Abu Shonchoy (Florida International U.). Click here for a PDF of this blog post.
Within one week in March, the lockdowns ordered by South Asian governments to combat the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reversed rural-to-urban migrant flows. Our team’s early analysis shows that migration patterns may help predict the location of COVID outbreaks.
Read MoreThe Most Vulnerable Small Businesses and Communities Will Be Left Behind Without Targeted Action: The Fed and Treasury Can Make Sure They Are Not
By Bill Bynum, Joyce Klein, and Tim Ogden.
This blog post was originally published on the Aspen Institute.org.
You’ve heard about how important small businesses are to the economy and the nation. You’ve heard various figures being proposed to help those small businesses: $300 Billion, $350 Billion, $500 Billion.
What you likely haven’t heard is who typically receives small business stimulus funds. Even with the vast figures being proposed those funds won’t reach the most vulnerable businesses or the most vulnerable communities. We know because we’ve seen it in the past.
Read MoreNew Publication: Exploring the Business Models Behind Microsavings
In a new paper, Exploring the Business Models Behind Microsavings, FAI affiliate Daniel Rozas seeks to disentangle some of the existing complications in the microsavings story by exploring several key questions:.
- How might one define the different models by which MFIs provide savings?
- How are they distinguished, where are they more prevalent, and which institutions are more likely to adopt them?
- And is there a difference in outcomes—in terms of cost, outreach, and profit?