New AKF—World Bank partnership in Afghanistan to build financial resilience for lenders and small businesses, women’s economic inclusion
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Small businesses are the backbone of a thriving economy. They create jobs, stimulate innovation and production, and attract new investors in a healthy cycle of growth. But financiers and entrepreneurs need to feel confident they can manage the risks that come with operating in a fragile business environment.
In Pursuit of Good Governance – In West Africa, Creating More Inclusive Financial Systems
This is the last installment in our series, In Pursuit of Good Governance, with stories from our new annual report. The four-part series examines a question that our partners face every day: How do communities access and organize basic services to ensure a better quality of life? Reliable hospitals, schools and community centers. Flourishing economies. […]
Seeing Change in the Happiness of Microfinance Clients
We wrap up our Giving Tuesday series, How I See Change, with the story shared by Simplice Amani, an operations manager with Première Agence de Microfinance (a microfinance bank) in Ivory Coast. Read on to see how your support helps people like Simplice work with communities to improve their quality of life. Do you have […]
Mobile Microfinance Solutions in West Africa
This blog was originally posted by Daniel Vidal on Whole Planet’s “Stories from the Field” blog, which you can read here. Additional funding from Whole Planet Foundation (WPF) grows the partnership with Aga Khan Development Network for mobile microfinance solutions and improving the options for families in West Africa. In one of the world’s poorest regions, WPF and its partners are […]
Financing for the Poorest, and New Directions for Microfinance
This commentary by Joanna Ledgerwood, Senior Advisor on Access to Finance for the Aga Khan Development Network, is adapted from a discussion during a visit to the Aga Khan Foundation USA’s Washington, DC office. Her new book, The New Microfinance Handbook, will be published in early January 2013 by the World Bank. For the most part, […]
Facilitating Farmers’ Access to Markets in Mali
Mopti Coordinated Area Development Program Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A., with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Food for Progress Program, supports the Mopti Coordinated Area Development Program, now in its third phase. The program aims to improve the quality of life for people living in Mali’s central Mopti region, a remote area near the […]
Access to Microfinance in West Africa
The Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. (AKF USA), with a grant from Whole Planet Foundation (WPF), is developing a mobile banking platform to expand access to financial services, in particular savings, to rural clients. In one of the world’s poorest regions, the partners are exploring how to expand savings services to communities, including the use of mobile technology, to help […]