Publication database

Global evidence of a strong business case for investing in women and leveraging their potential as entrepreneurs is emerging. The ‘Women Investing in Women’ movement can play a significant role in addressing the systemic access to finance challenges that women entrepreneurs contend with. The report takes stock of the access to finance challenges experienced by women entrepreneurs in India and the resulting financing gap. It explores the potential of the ‘Women Investing in Women’ movement to address those challenges and enhance access to finance for women-led start-ups and small businesses. The core objective of the report is to identify a strategic roadmap for strengthening this movement in India to further the adoption of gender lens investing. This report will be a valuable resource for a range of ecosystem stakeholders including regulatory agencies and government policymakers, development agencies, foundations, private sector companies who aim to strengthen the women entrepreneurship ecosystem in India. It is expected to inform policy formulation and intervention design targeted at strengthening gender lens investing in India.

This publication documents the success stories of the ASEAN Inclusive Business Awards finalists and nominees from various sectors across the region. It aims to inspire companies to embrace change and innovation in their corporate culture. The case studies presented can serve as a guide for other emerging inclusive businesses.

Fintech in Africa is evolving quickly. Today, there are hundreds of fintech startups across the continent – but how has the sector changed in recent years? This report takes a look at the next generation of fintech in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Impact investing market map, provides three basic but crucial benefits to the impact investing industry: (1) a common definition of a thematic investment that is aligned with at least one international organisation, global market leader and/or data provider; (2) basic criteria that explain a theme in practical terms, including thematic and financial conditions to identify specific businesses and investments aligned with the definition provided;  (3) a list of KPIs used by the impact investing community to track and assess the environmental and social performance of a specific theme.

CGAP set out to examine pathways to inclusive payment ecosystems in two Sub-Saharan African countries, Tanzania and Ghana, to learn from their experiences. While this analysis could have highlighted the experiences of any number of countries that have succeeded in developing inclusive payment ecosystems, the Tanzanian and Ghanaian experiences hold unique and complementary lessons.

Digital bulk payments have the potential to connect millions of poor farmers to digital financial services. This report from CGAP and UNCDF recounts UNCDF's efforts to digitize payments to coffee farmers in Uganda, where just 29 percent of adults actively used mobile money in 2014. It shares lessons for donors, financial services providers and agricultural firms that are interested in digitizing agricultural value chains.

What lies behind a successful customer-centric organization? This case study looks at the process by which customer centricity has evolved and has been shaped over time within AMK, a Cambodian microfinance institution (MFI). It shows the crucial role that leadership and upper management play in building and sustaining a customer-centric culture and practice. 

Developing solutions that address ill health can be a triple win for clients, society and financial service providers. Keeping clients and their families healthy makes business sense, but while there is great demand for such solutions, only a few providers have focussed on tackling health challenges. Our latest paper includes case studies and outlines the scope for financial service providers to develop holistic health solutions.

Bringing essential services to the poor, whether in remote rural areas, provincial towns, or in the slums of megacities, is a great challenge for governments in developing countries. Endeva has supported the World Bank’s Innovation Unit to systematically assess innovative business models that provide products and services to the poor, thus better understanding how to raise awareness of problems and solutions, designing products that address their needs, and making these products available and affordable.

Meeting the mobile money needs of the unbanked in emerging markets is a vast opportunity. However, firms seeking to tap the mobile money opportunity are faced with a landscape of unknowns. How will the mobile money value chain work in practice? What do we know about consumer behavior? To answer some of these questions, and understand how digital payments providers can capture the opportunities while benefiting those without access to financial services, this report looks at the actual financial data of a sample of mobile money providers, all on a blinded basis.