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Stand Up For Africa’s Farmers
When times are tough, it’s important to stay focused on what matters to you. At Opportunity, we remain focused on delivering microfinance services that make a real impact on our clients living in very difficult economic situations. In particular, our agricultural finance programs in Africa enable smallholder farmers to pay their bills throughout the growing Read more…
Tagged Advocacy, Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Banking on Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, Ending Poverty, Facebook, Farmer, Financial services, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, ONE, ONE Campaign, Opportunity Blog, Opportunity International, Political advocacy, Poverty, Smallholder farmer, Social Media, Twitter
Melinda French Gates on the Impact of Agricultural Finance
Want to do more to impact global poverty? In an interview in the August issue of Smithsonian magazine, Melinda Gates outlines the techniques the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is using to fight global poverty in the 21st century. (“Melinda French Gates on Saving Lives,” by Terence Monmaney) It’s part of the magazine’s 40th-anniversary issue, featuring ”40 Things You Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Agriculture Microfinance, Agrifinance, Asia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cell phone banking, Clients, Community, Crop insurance, Education, Ending Hunger, Ending Poverty, Farmer, Farmers, Financial services, Green Revolution, Healthcare, Hunger, Insurance, Loans, Malawi, MasterCard Foundation, Melinda Gates, MFI, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Mobile Banking, Opportunity International, Savings, Schools, Smallholder farmer, Students, Technology, The MasterCard Foundation, Training, Weather-index crop insurance, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
Spotlight on Agricultural Finance: An Interview with an Agriculture Finance Officer
“Most of the world’s poor are smallholder farmers and their families. By targeting them, we can dramatically reduce extreme poverty and food insecurity.” -UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, addressing the Malawian parliament on May 29, 2010. Through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation, Opportunity is now offering greater financial Read more…
Tagged accra, Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, andrew koehler, Ban Ki-moon, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, Community, Education, Ending Poverty, Farmer, Farmers, Financial Times, Ghana, Insurance, Loan Officer, Loans, Malawi, MasterCard Foundation, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Savings, Smallholder farmer, Technology, The MasterCard Foundation, Training, Uganda, United Nations
Crop Insurance: Protecting Farmers Against the Effects of Climate Change
Jeffrey Ebarrita (right) uses a GPS device to survey the land of Rodolfo Felipe, an Opportunity crop insurance policyholder in the Philippines. A recent UPI wire story, which highlights Opportunity International’s weather-index crop insurance, hails microinsurance as an exciting new tool to help communities in the developing world face the worst impacts of climate change. The article, Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Asia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Climate Change, Drought, Farmer, Koko Warner, Malawi, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Shadreck Mapfumo, Smallholder farmer, United Nations, UPI wire story, Weather-index crop insurance
Opportunity Clients “Living Green”
One thing that I love about Opportunity International is that we listen to our clients. And when it comes to living sustainably, it’s a good thing we are because there is a lot to learn! In honor of Blog Action Day, I’d like to share what we are learning. As Opportunity expands its services into Read more…
Tagged Agriculture, Blog Action Day, Clients, Community, Community Based Entrepreneurship Development Program, Ending Poverty, environmental sustainability, Farmer, Living Green, Malawi, Opportunity Bank in Malawi, Opportunity International, Philippines, Poverty
Equipping Countries to be Agriculturally Self-Sustainable
There is a green revolution occurring in the developing world led by passionate individuals with a heart for change. Within this revolution, Opportunity International is equipping nations to do something radical–to feed themselves. In honor of www.blogactionday.org, I would like to introduce Lucas Chingore. Lucas is a farmer in Mozambique. His desire was to farm Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agriculture, Agrifinance, Blog Action Day, Climate Change, Community, Enough, Farmer, Financial Access, Financial services, Food security, Food Sustainability, Ghana, Green Revolution, Kenya, Loans, Lucas Chingore, Malawi, Mozambique, Roger Thurow, Rwanda, Savings, Scott Kilman, South Africa, Sustainable development, Tanzania and Uganda
