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mercredi 23 mai 2012

Symbiotics NewsWatch #211, 22 May 2012



May 22
Grameen Foundation, KfW and CARE’s Access Africa Fund announced they have each purchased a 25 percent stake in Musoni Kenya, the first microfinance institution to provide financial services to the poor entirely via mobile phones. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, it provides microloans largely to people who are underserved by the formal financial sector.
Source: Microfinance Africa
May 22
Microfinance seems the flavour of choice among financial service providers today in Sri Lanka. Almost all financial service providers ranging from licensed commercial banks, finance companies, Non-Government Organisations, cooperatives, money lenders, pawn brokers, cheetu schemes (Rotating Savings and Credit Associations – ROSCAs), registered voluntary social service organisations, registered societies, etc. are all promoting themselves as providers of microfinance to the poor and the marginalised.
Source: Daily FT - Be Empowered
May 21
Development co-operation needs to shift focus from poverty eradication to a broader, more inclusive framework. The term "sustainable development" emerged in the 1970s and 80s as awareness grew of the natural limits within which human development takes place. Despite near-universal recognition that it is a powerful unifying concept, bringing together social, economic and environmental factors, it has spent the 20 years since the first Rio Earth summit languishing in environment ministries.
Source: Poverty Matters Blog, The Guardian
May 17
Bangladesh on Wednesday set up a commission on the future of pioneering microfinance institution Grameen Bank and 54 related businesses headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Yunus was sacked as the head of Grameen Bank last year and the new commission is likely to raise fears about further interference in his anti-poverty work, which has earned plaudits around the world.
Source: Haveeru
May 17
Loan sharks and micro-finance offices have mushroomed in South Africa's inner-city centres. The lure is attractive - borrow R10,000 and create your dream life by growing your business. But in a country where half the population lives in poverty and much more live in debt, a greater understanding of how they use money could lead to more appropriate financial services.
Source: allAfrica
May 16
Over the last several years, the world has woken up to the enormous market potential of serving 2-3 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid. A growing cadre of investors recognizes that we can create new ways to meet the needs of this huge population in a sustainable, business-like way. A new wave of socially responsible funds, institutional investors, microfinance investment vehicles, banks and even conventional venture and private equity funds collectively have raised billions to invest in social enterprises.
Source: Forbes

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