Base de données de publications

Research Paper #8 estimates the role of information in insurance take-up using data from a randomized experiment in rural China where information was either offered directly through financial education or accessed indirectly through social networks. Unlike previous studies, the experimental design allows to not only identify the causal effect of social networks, but also to differentiate the various channels through which they operate, including improvement of negotiating power, imitation, and social learning of insurance benefits. The results show that social networks have a large and significant effect on insurance take-up decisions mainly driven by the social learning of insurance benefits. The policy implication is that offering financial education to a subset of households in a village community selected for their strong friendship links with others, their recognized farming skills, and leadership roles, and relying on social networks to extend its effect on more farmers through social learning, is an effective way of improving insurance take-up.

In Research Paper #1, researchers from Harvard Business School, IGIDR and Wharton School conducted a field experiment in which rainfall insurance, a financial derivative for managing rainfall risk in agriculture whose payouts are linked to the amount of rainfall measured at a designated station, was offered to 600 farmers in India. A customized financial literacy and insurance education module communicating the need for personal financial management and formal hedging of yield risks was offered to randomly selected farmers. The effect of the financial literacy training and six marketing treatments are evaluated using a randomized control trial. The study provides some of the first evidence that financial education can influence financial behaviour. Results also reveal extremely low financial awareness, cognitive limitations and poor comprehension of rainfall insurance among the farmers being studied. 

This report includes a set of 31 case studies on IFC’s portfolio companies with inclusive business models. The presented companies are profitably providing goods, services, and livelihood opportunities to the Base of the Pyramid. In the case studies the reader gets an insight in the specific background of the companies, the business models as well as drivers for the specific business models and results of the latter.

Stories of Change is Ashoka’s electronic book series profiing stories of "changemakers in the Ashoka community", Fellows, Youth Venturers, staff and partners. This report includes interviews with 10 young "changemakers" from Ashoka's Youth Venture program. The young people of different countries shortly present their diverse projects.

This report reviews the Grameen Koota financial services and Hippocampus Learning Centres (HLC) partnership which provides fee-based quality education combined with an enjoyable experience of learning for children living in rural areas of Karnataka, India. It outlines the programme design, financial implications, challenges and pilot findings from 18 villages.

This document represents a contribution made by the Tripartite Committee comprising the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to the fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas Initiative, in Santo Domingo, on 5 October 2011. The report sets out lessons learned and success stories, both in the region and elsewhere, concerning the priority area of promoting the development of micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SME). It includes the fields of productive linkages for SME, preparing a modern labour force, trade facilitation, technological modernization, environmental governance and cooperation and improving policies.

This report highlights issues, opportunities and challenges for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in fulfilling the rights to education for all - particularly the poor - in East Asia and the Pacific. It discusses the benefits and risks associated with PPPs, and essential factors for establishing successful partnerships.

This study commissioned by DFID assesses the current state of the education market in Lagos State, Nigeria with a detailed assessment of low-cost private schools. It outlines the structure of a proposed M4P programme, including intervention areas and budget required, and a risk analysis which includes mitigation strategies.

This publication is the product of an international learning event where development NGOs and businesses from the North and the South reflected on their partnerships. Its backbone is a series of five Insights that highlight the main challenges of a partnership and how to address them. This report is written from the perspective of a development NGO, but targets professionals from both Civil Society- as well as Private Sector. It supports a better understanding of the intrinsic organizational and capacity issues that occur when a development NGO engages into a partnership with a business.