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What We’re Reading: “Ten Biggest Positive Africa Stories of 2011,” The New Yorker
“…Yes, there is tragedy in Africa, and you will always find it there, and we must take those tragedies seriously, but there is also extraordinary opportunity. And if you see this continent as the continent of the future, it sort of reframes it. This is a continent that, by 2050, will be the largest and Read more…
Tagged Africa, Arab Spring, Bono, Cell phone banking, DR Congo, elections, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, famine, Ghana, Healthcare, Horn of Africa, Kenya, Liberia, life insurance, M-PESA, Microensure, Microinsurance, mobile phone banking, Nobel Peace Prize, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, The New Yorker, Tigo, what we're reading
MicroEnsure Wins Financial Times/International Finance Corporation Sustainable Finance Award
The following news announcement appeared on MicroEnsure’s website on Friday, June 17. MicroEnsure has won the FT/IFC Sustainable Finance Award in the category Achievement in Financing at the Base of the Pyramid. The awards, organized by the Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, were announced on Thursday, Read more…
Tagged Cell Phones, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Financial Times, funeral insurance, Ghana, Global Poverty, Healthcare, Insurance, International finance corporation, life insurance, Loans, MFI, Microensure, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Mobile Banking, Mobile Phones, Opportunity International, Poverty, Richard Leftley, what we're reading, World Bank
What We’re Watching: New Short Film by MicroEnsure on Cashless & Low-Cost Health Insurance in India
The following video was published in a blog post on microensure.com on June 14. MicroEnsure, a subsidiary of Opportunity International, is the world’s first microinsurance intermediary, and it serves people living in poverty with innovative products in crop, loan, health, life and property insurance, offering clients and their families a safety net when an unexpected Read more…
Mobile Banking Reaches Remote Microfinance Clients in Malawi, Tanzania
Mobile banking including mobile phone banking continues to be one of the great success stories in poverty alleviation for geographically remote microfinance clients in sub-Saharan Africa. Yesterday, the Bureau of International Information Programs at the U.S. State Department published an online article highlighting the ways in which mobile banking is reaching more geographically remote clients in Tanzania and Read more…
Tagged Africa, Banking on Africa, CARE, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Clients, Dar es Salaam, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Financial Times, Healthcare, Loans, M-banking, M-PESA, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile banking vehicle, mobile phone banking, Mobile Phones, OIBM, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi, Opportunity Malawi, Opportunity Tanzania, Poverty, Rural banking, Rural Outreach, Savings, State Department, sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania, Technology, USAID
ONE Blog: “Cada madre cuenta!”
In honor of World AIDS Day this month, celebrity activist Christy Turlington Burns reports on her ongoing work with (RED) and the ONE Campaign on the No Child Born with HIV campaign. At Opportunity, we’re inspired by her commitment to improving the lives of women in the developing world with these health initiatives. The following blog post, ”Cada Read more…
Tagged (RED), Advocacy, Children, Clients, Community, community health, Education, Ending Poverty, Guatemala, Health, Healthcare, Latin America, Maternal Health, Millennium Development Goals, Mothers, Nonprofit, ONE, ONE blog, ONE Campaign, Opportunity International, Political advocacy, Poverty, Un millennium development goals, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
World AIDS Day: How Does Microinsurance Make an Impact?
Today, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day. 2.4 billion people around the world live on $2 a day or less and of those only 80 million people have access to microinsurance. In areas where HIV/AIDS is prevalent, people often cannot afford the healthcare they desperately need. Campaigns manager Lydia Baldridge Meier interviewed Richard Leftley, the president Read more…
Tagged Africa, Chennai, Clients, Ending Poverty, Financial services, funeral insurance, Health insurance, Healthcare, HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS prevention, India, Lydia Baldridge Meier, MFI, Microensure, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Richard Leftley, Trust Groups, World Aids Day, World Aids Day 2010
ONE Blog: “Day Two in Guatemala: An Inside Look at Health Programs that Work”
With World AIDS Day coming up on Dec. 1, celebrity activist Christy Turlington Burns reports on her ongoing work with (RED) and the ONE Campaign on the No Child Born with HIV campaign. At Opportunity, we’re inspired by her commitment to improving the lives of women in the developing world with these health initiatives. The Read more…
Tagged (RED), Children, Community, community health, Guatemala, Health insurance, Healthcare, HIV/AIDS, Latin America, Maternal Health, Maternal morality rates, Microensure, midwife, nurse, ONE, ONE blog, ONE Campaign, Opportunity International, Poverty, USAID, what we're reading, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
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
Global Poverty: Melinda Gates Discusses What Can Be Done
In an interview with Melinda French Gates in the July/August issue of Smithsonian, the co-chair of the world’s largest philanthropic organization discusses what can be done and what is being done about global poverty and health. As part of the $22.7 billion the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given to development, education and health Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Children, Clients, Community, Education, Financial services, Health, Healthcare, Kenya, Malawi, MasterCard Foundation, Melinda Gates, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, Opportunity International, Opportunity Malawi, Poverty, Savings, Schools, Students, Technology, The MasterCard Foundation, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
Melinda Gates Highlights Opportunity International
Earlier this week, Opportunity International was honored to host Melinda Gates as she visited some of our clients and experienced our banking services in Malawi. With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Opportunity is expanding access to savings accounts, loans, training and insurance to people struggling to work their way out of Read more…
