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Microinsurance Expanded through New Strategic Investors
Opportunity International announced today that it had divested its majority stake in microinsurance organization MicroEnsure. This will bring additional capital and relationships in order to scale the successful MicroEnsure microinsurance model to serve even more clients in poverty with crop, health, life and property insurance products. New investors in MicroEnsure include International Finance Corporation (IFC), Read more…
Tagged Asia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, Eastern Europe, Financial Times, Gates Foundation, International finance corporation, Microensure, Microinsurance, Omidyar Network, Opportunity International, Poverty, Richard Leftley, sustainable finance award, telecommunications, Telenor Group, Vicki Escarra
What We’re Reading: Our Incoming CEO Vicki Escarra in The Non-Profit Times‘s Power & Influence Top 50
What are we reading? This exciting list, of course! Our incoming CEO, Vicki Escarra, as president and CEO of Feeding America, built that nonprofit into a $1.2 billion organization during a time when more Americans than ever were suffering from hunger and food insecurity. In honor of her outstanding work, she’s been named one of The Read more…
Tagged American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, CEO, Ending Hunger, Ending Poverty, Feeding America, Food security, Girl Scouts of America, great nonprofits, Hunger, Leaders, Nonprofit, Opportunity International, Poverty, Social Media, The Non-Profit Times, United Way, Vicki Escarra, what we're reading, Women Leaders
One-Year Anniversary of Grand Opening of Opportunity DRC
One year ago, celebrated the grand opening of its operations in the DR Congo with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the heart of Kinshasa’s Masina market. Three weeks ago, on Tuesday, May 22, 42 local and international staff, dignitaries and supporters gathered to celebrate the one-year anniversary of this milestone at a special luncheon in Kinshasa Read more…
Tagged Africa, anniversary, ATMs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Caterpillar Foundation, Cell Phones, church, Clients, Colin McCormack, Democratic Republic of Congo, donor, DR Congo, DRC, DRC Grand Opening, Gilbert Lagaillarde, Harry Turner, Keith Flintham, Kinshasa, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Nadine Pembele, Opportunity DRC, Opportunity International, point-of-sale devices, SAJE Foundation, Savings, Training, UNCDF, UNDP, Women
What We’re Reading: “Tapping into the Potential of the Unbanked in the DRC”
This post, “Tapping into the Potential of the Unbanked in the DRC,” was originally published Wednesday morning on ACCION International‘s Center for Financial Inclusion Blog, written by Kadita Tshibaka, a member of ‘s . Kadita was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and spent 33 years working around the world in Read more…
Tagged Accion, Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Blog, Board of Directors, Center for Financial Inclusion, Center for Financial Inclusion Blog, Citigroup, Clients, Dartmouth College, DR Congo, DRC, DRC Grand Opening, Financial Access, Financial services, FINCA, Formal Labor Force, Gallup Poll, Gates Foundation, Global Findex, Kadita "A.T." Tshibaka, Kinshasa, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity DRC, Opportunity International, Portfolios of the Poor, Poverty, ProCredit, Savings, savings club, sub-Saharan Africa, Technology, unbanked, World Bank
Conference LiveBlog: Jeffrey Spector, Chief of Staff at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This Saturday morning plenary session continues with a presentation by Jeffrey Spector, Chief of Staff for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Highlights from Jeffrey Spector’s Presentation Innovations are not only happening in labs or on computers. I’ll give two examples: A few years ago, I was tasked with scaling up Gates’s organizations. We made Read more…
Tagged Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ending Poverty, Financial Services for the Poor initiative, Gates Foundation, Global Poverty, Jeffrey Spector, OIC2011, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, strategic partners
Watch it Live! Opportunity International Conference Video Stream Starts Friday 8:30 a.m. PST
Unable to join us in person for the Opportunity International Conference? No problem. Just tune in tomorrow-Friday, Oct. 14 at 8:30 a.m. PST–as we stream live video from the conference until Saturday, Oct. 15 at 12:00 p.m. Go to opportunity.org/live to watch it live. Here are just a few of the plenary and breakout session Read more…
Tagged Africa, Alliance to End Hunger, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Draper, Board of Advisors, Daryl Collins, Dikembe Mutombo, dikembe mutombo foundation, Feed the Future Guide, Jeffrey Spector, John Ortberg, Julie Howard, Laura Pincus Hartman, OIC2011, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day, Reeta Roy, Steven Levy, The MasterCard Foundation, Tony Hall, videos
What We’re Reading: Roger Thurow on Bill Gates at the Symposium on Global Agriculture & Food Security
The following post, “Expert Commentary–The Importance of Innovation” by Roger Thurow, was published today on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs‘ Global Food for Thought blog about the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security that took place today in Washington, D.C.. Bill Gates came to the Chicago Council’s Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Ending Hunger, Ending Poverty, Events, Feed the Future Guide, Food security, Global Agriculture and Food Policy, Global Food for Thought blog, Innovation, market linkages, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Roger Thurow, sub-Saharan Africa, Technology, Twitter, Washington D.C., what we're reading
“Why Farming?” Today’s Symposium on Global Agriculture & Food Security in Washington, D.C.
Today in Washington, D.C., the Chicago Council on Global Affairs‘ “The Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security: Progress to Date and Strategies for Success” with noted experts in agricultural policy, global development, philanthropy and more. Keynote Speakers: Bill Gates, Co-chair and Trustee, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Rajiv Shah, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Agriculture Microfinance, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Dr. Rajiv Shah, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Food security, Gates Foundation, Global Agricultural Development Initiative, Global Food for Thought blog, Global Poverty, Loans, MasterCard Foundation, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Rajiv Shah, Roger Thurow, Rural Outreach, Smallholder farmer, The MasterCard Foundation, Tom Vilsack, USAID, USDA, Washington D.C.
The MasterCard Foundation on Opportunity Ghana’s Agricultural Microfinance Initiatives and Diversification for Smallholder Farmers
The following post was written by Reeta Roy, President & CEO of The MasterCard Foundation, and was published on The MasterCard Foundation blog on Wednesday, April 13, entitled “Financial Services and Diversification for Small-Holder Farmers.” Roy traveled to Ghana with Rewa Misra, Program Manager of Microfinance for The MasterCard Foundation, and Jannalee Anderson, National Director Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, cocoa, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Gates Foundation, Ghana, Global Poverty, Guest Post, Jump for Opportunity, Loans, MasterCard Foundation, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity Blog, Opportunity Canada, Opportunity Ghana, Opportunity International, Poverty, Rural Outreach, Savings, Smallholder farmer, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The MasterCard Foundation, Trust Groups
The Christian Science Monitor on Biometrics & Mobile Money at Opportunity Malawi
The Christian Science Monitor today posted an article entitled, “Villages Leapfrog the Grid with Biometrics and Mobile Money,” which lauds these technologies as a way for people at the bottom of the economic pyramid to access financial services and protect themselves in the case of drought and disasters. Today’s story is part of a series Read more…
Tagged Africa, Aleksandr-Alain Kalanda, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, biometric technology, biometrics, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Crop insurance, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Fingerprint, funeral insurance, Gates Foundation, Kenya, life insurance, M-banking, M-PESA, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile phone banking, Mobile Phones, OIBM, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi, Opportunity Malawi, Poverty, South Africa, Technology, The Christian Science Monitor, what we're reading
