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Choose a primary topic (based on our learning agenda) or popular topic at the right, or click "all topics" to view the full list of topics. Posts can be also be filtered by format or region.
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Analysis: The eleventh blog in the Pulse series aims to outline key insights from a recent ISF survey on the growing ecosystem of Business Development Services (BDS) to help financial service providers (FSPs) better reach smallholders.
Report: A new landscape report by ISF Advisors, with support from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, highlights the current status and future development of agricultural insurance for smallholder farmers. Based on interviews with more than forty-five key agricultural insurance stakeholders, our research paints a picture of an industry that shows great potential but struggles to achieve the necessary scale and product-level refinements.
Spotlight: Closing the USD 150 billion smallholder finance is no easy feat – but it is possible. With 450 million smallholders worldwide, key stakeholders such as financial and digital service providers, will need to develop new solutions and scale existing ones to help close the gap.
Spotlight: Each year, more than 10 million young people across Africa enter the job market, competing for just three million formal jobs. As the continent’s youth population swells steadily towards a projected total of 800 million by 2050, this demographic crisis will intensify even further.
Analysis: On October 5, 2017 the RAF Learning Lab hosted a RAF Partner webinar to discuss and share learnings from our Annual Learning Review. View the deck below for more information.
Analysis: Part 6 of the Pulse series highlights early learnings around the smallholder finance enabling environment and makes recommendations for future research.
Analysis: Part 4 of ISF's and RAF Learning Lab's Pulse series draws insights from the evolving Technical Assistance (TA) landscape in agricultural finance.
Spotlight: Across Africa, 80% of agricultural production comes from smallholder farmers, most of which are rural women. Yet, in countries like Senegal, only 20% of women have access to financial services and less than 30% of them are involved in governance for their Producer Organizations (POs). As a result, many women struggle to scale their farms and build their businesses. This blog explains how the ICCO STARS program, a Learning Lab partner, is working to address this challenge and empower female farmers through stronger access to finance.
Report: The MIX – with support from The MasterCard Foundation, UNCDF, and IFC – has published a new report on alternative delivery channels and their impact. The research from MIX also helped support the insights explored in The MasterCard Foundation's report on lessons learned from alternative delivery channels, which can be viewed here.
Report: In their latest study, The Mastercard Foundation shares emerging lessons learned using alternative delivery channels for financial inclusion.
Analysis: Part 2 of ISF's and RAF Learning Lab's Pulse series shares insights and trends on progressive partnerships across sectors and at the last mile in the rural and smallholder finance sector.
Analysis: New research from Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA) and Nathan Associates highlights agricultural lease finance as a way to expand access to finance for smallholders, allowing for greater mechanization of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. This blog summarizes some of the key opportunities and barriers to uptake and usage of lease finance - concluding with the recommendation of a potential fund that would help share the initial costs of agricultural equipment.