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We’re Expanding Financial Access to Rural Malawi. Here’s How You Can Help.
Travel in your mind to the shores of Lake Malawi. In this remote region, extreme poverty is widespread. But because of the donations, hard work and advocacy of Opportunity supporters and staff, the Malawians here have been empowered financially. To reach the unreachable, Malawi has replicated its successful “hub-and-spoke” approach by opening a hub branch Read more…
Tagged Africa, Branch staff, Conference, credit life insurance, Crop insurance, Ending Poverty, fall microfinance conference, Financial services, fundraisers, Fundraising, Insight Trip, Insight Trips, Insurance, Latin America, Loans, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Mobile Banking, mobile banking vehicle, mobile branches, Online fundraising, Opportunity International, Opportunity Malawi, opportunity microfinance conference, OptINnow, Poverty, Satellite bank branch, Savings, Savings account, small business loans, Training, Transportation, Washington D.C.
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
Food & Microfinance: Helping Farmers Reap Rewards
Opportunity International is prominently featured in an article entitled “Food & Microfinance: Helping Farmers Reap Rewards” in today’s Financial Times. The article highlights Opportunity’s leadership in providing both agricultural finance and microinsurance to smallholder farmers to help them increase production, support their families and feed their communities. It also references “Feed the Future,” USAID’s new Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Agrifinance, Climate Change, Education, Farmers, Financial Times, John Magnay, Leaders, Loans, Malawi, MFI, Microensure, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, Poverty, Roger Thurow, Savings, USAID, Women
#Mifimon: BRAC’s "Microfinance Plus" Approach
The following is a guest post by Jessica Elisberg from Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX). Interested in learning about microfinance? Follow our biweekly Twitter discussion group #mifimon (because Microfinance Mondays was too long for Twitter’s 140-character limit!) The aim is to host an exchange of ideas about issues relevant to the microfinance industry. You’re welcome to Read more…
Spotlight from the Field: Filipino Farmers Weather Life’s Typhoons
Having been ravaged by four back-to-back typhoons, the Philippines is enduring a humanitarian crisis on a national scale. Farmers have lost entire crops, families have lost thriving businesses and community members have had to lean on one another for support. The good news is that MicroEnsure, Opportunity International’s microinsurance subsidiary, and TSKI, one of Opportunity’s Read more…
Tagged Crop insurance, Farmers, MFI, Microensure, Microinsurance, Philippines, Smallholder farmer, TSKI
