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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: “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
“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
Opportunity International in Today’s USA Today
We are so excited to announce that Opportunity International has been featured in a special supplement in today’s edition of USA Today entitled, “Investing in Women and Girls: 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day.” This is a great opportunity for you to read all about our Banking on Women initiatives that help women gain financial freedom and change Read more…
Tagged Africa, Banking on Women, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chicago, Christy Turlington Burns, Clients, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Gates Foundation, Kenya, Loans, Mary Robinson, Melinda Gates, MFI, Microfinance, Mothers, New York, Nicholas D. Kristof, Opportunity International, Poverty, San Francisco, USA Today, Washington D.C., Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
What We’re Watching: Bill Gates On Aspirational & Actionable 2011 Annual Letter
I believe it is in the rich world’s enlightened self-interest to continue investing in foreign aid. If societies can’t provide for people’s basic health, if they can’t feed and educate people, then their populations and problems will grow and the world will be a less stable place. –Bill Gates’ 2011 Annual Letter Bill Gates’ third annual Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Education, Ending Poverty, Financial services, food aid, Food security, Gates Foundation, Ghana, Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, Global Poverty, HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS prevention, Loans, Malaria, Microfinance, Opportunity International, polio, Poverty, strategic partners, Teaching, vaccines, videos, WFP, what we're reading, Women, World Food Programme
What We’re Watching: At Davos, Bill Gates and the Needs of the Developing World
Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg interviews Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 28, 2011. Gates answers viewer questions and addresses the global need for expansive immunization, advanced agricultural techniques and the importance of traveling to see firsthand the needs of the developing world. For this and more, click the screenshot above to watch the Read more…
Tagged Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Davos, Facebook, Gates Foundation, Health, Insight Trip, Melinda Gates, Poverty, Social Media, strategic partners, Switzerland, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, videos, World Economic Forum, World Economic Forum on Africa
What We’re Reading: “Haiti: Could Mobile Banking Be a Legacy of the Earthquake?”
Every Wednesday, we highlight an article, book or a blog in our “What We’re Reading” series. We feature works that are noteworthy, inspiring, educational or relevant to the work we do at Opportunity International. We welcome your comments in the comment field below–-tell us what you’re reading, or respond to the piece we’ve highlighted. The Read more…
Tagged ATMs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cell phone banking, CGAP, cgap technology blog, Earthquake, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Fonkoze, Gates Foundation, Haiti, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile phone banking, natural disasters, NGO, Opportunity International, point-of-sale devices, Port-au-Prince, POS devices, Poverty, Technology, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, what we're reading, World Bank
