Browsing Topics
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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- 20/20
- Agribusinesses (value chain actors)
- Asset financing
- Capital Markets
- CGAP
- Client Demand
- Client Voice
- Climate-Smart Agriculture
- Cost Efficiency
- COVID—19
- Credit Assessment
- Data Analytics
- Delivery Channel
- Digital Financial Services
- ECLOF-Kenya
- Ecosystems for SHF finance
- Evidence on Impact
- Farmer Organizations
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Report: Over the course of six months, the Lab and Dalberg Design worked with partners to understand their learning challenges and co-design potential solutions to those challenges. The learning solutions we co-designed were piloted by three partners and are compiled in the newly released, “Dynamic learning playbook: Intentional learning practices to achieve social impact.”
Spotlight: A sector update on the state of smallholder agricultural insurance and the opportunities for elevating those solutions.
Analysis: Key insights from ECLOF-Kenya CEO, Mary Munyiri, on her experience aligning smart business practices with social impact goals.
Spotlight: Can new technologies reduce the cost of training for Africa’s smallholder farmers, with a significant positive impact on agribusinesses and, therefore, on the farmers they work with? The jury is still out, but the idea was tested recently when AgDevCo’s Smallholder Development Unit (SDU) hosted a Knowledge Sharing Workshop in Kampala.
Analysis: 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.
Analysis: In early December, the Lab pulled together key stakeholders from across the rural and agricultural finance community to learn more about the opportunity for data analytics (DA).
Report:
The changes involved when a financial institution ‘goes digital’ touches all levels of...
Analysis: Highlights from a guest blog by IDH and the Lab, focusing on our research on sustainable business models.
Analysis: The fifth Learning Brief in the Lab’s research series, this brief aims to provide a high level understanding of how data analytics is used for smallholder farmers, introduce a new framework to understand the economics of data analytic investments, and highlight key innovators in the space.
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.
Analysis: The Strengthening African Rural Smallholders (STARS) program, a five year initiative of ICCO Cooperation and in partnership with The Mastercard Foundation, aims to transform the lives of 210,000 farmers, 50% of them are women, in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Senegal and will have an overall impact in the lives of over 1 million people.
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.