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March 30, 2023
DEBIT: Unpacking women’s choice of financial channels
MSC unpacked women’s choice of channels for financial transactions in India, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Indonesia. The result is a tool – the DEBIT framework
March 30, 2023
Do Formal Savings Accounts Lead to Better Results for Low-Income Users?: Lessons from Two Customer-Centric Research Studies in Africa
The Savings Learning Lab was a six-year initiative that supported learning among Mastercard Foundation’s savings-focused financial inclusion programs across Africa
March 30, 2023
Bringing Agricultural Insurance to Climate-Vulnerable Farmers: A Unique Pilot Program in Nepal Shows How to Unlock the Benefits of Index-Based Insurance for Smallholders
Nepal is uniquely vulnerable to natural disasters, including climatic ones like floods and droughts, and non-climatic ones like earthquakes and epidemics
February 18, 2023
Microfinance Survived the Pandemic but Challenges Lie Ahead
The right actions by microfinance institutions and governments can ensure a promising outlook for microfinance in Asia this year
February 18, 2023
Delivering on Mass Market Insurance in Africa: Debunking the Myth of Low Demand
Africa’s insurance penetration rate in 2019 was only 2.78%, significantly lower than the global average insurance rate of 7.23%. Insurance penetration in Africa is concentrated among the urban elite
February 18, 2023
Fintech for Good: Surviving Financial Emergencies
Limited access to affordable financial services for many Americans is deepening the wealth divide across the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve
January 27, 2023
Could digital cash transfers help tackle gender-based violence?
Digital payments are more efficient and user-friendly. But what many of us probably didn’t know is that this design choice – like many others – likely also has implications for gender-based violence (GBV) within households
January 27, 2023
How women entrepreneurs are growing their small businesses using digitally enabled financial tools
Large sunflowers and vivid roses line the sidewalk in front of Paulina’s storefront in Ambato, Ecuador. “put them out and children began to pass by and would ask for a rose, so I would give them a bouquet,” she said. Soon, more and more people began purchasing her floral arrangements […]
January 27, 2023
Adopting a segmentation approach to serve enterprises in Kenya: Insights from the FinAccess Household Survey 2021
We used the FinAccess data to develop a composite score-based index. This index helped us segment these MSMEs based on their sophistication levels to identify their business needs and growth opportunities and maximize their business sophistication levels. In this blog, we discuss our findings from this segmentation exercise
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Eight Lessons Learned: Inputs for policy considerations in developing resilience against climate risks for small scale farmers in semi-arid regions, full report
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GST 2.0 and Tax Cuts: Can They Make Growth Fairer and Greener?
India's latest GST reform, being termed as GST 2.0, is more than just slashing rates. By simplifying the tax structure, cutting levies on essentials, and supporting renewable infrastructure, it's open..
Reimagining Sports in CSR: From Tokenism to a Vehicle for Multiplying Impact
In 2023–24, Indian companies spent about ₹1,396 crore of their CSR budgets on sports — just 4% of the total ₹34,909 crore Indian corporates spent on CSR that year. Most of the rest went to edu..
Interactive SHG Map of India: 7.5 million Women Self Help Groups are spread across 27 States and 6 UTs in India
Under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), India has 7.5 million Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) spread across 27 states and 6 Union Territories. Each of these small, self-governed, and peer-co..