Global hunger is near a ten-year high. Almost 821 million people—one out of every nine persons—are chronically hungry and roughly one-third of women of childbearing age suffer from anemia, a form of malnutrition that heightens risks of maternal and infant mortality and saps energy. In Asia, 515 million are hungry, in Africa, 256.5 million.
Grameen Foundation Insights
The global movement to end poverty and hunger depends on the constant exchange of experience and ideas. That’s why we are eager to share our experiences with people like you.
Our Insights blog shares lessons learned from leaders in the field; examines efforts to bring resources and services to poor communities; and reviews how poverty-focused organizations are using data for greater impact.
Latest Posts
Women are the bedrock of agriculture and produce most of the food in rural communities.
10/16/2018 by Lauren Hendricks
Digital data can be transformational for poor communities, if managed responsibly.
10/02/2018 by Steve Hollingworth
How much is your personal data worth? It depends on whom you ask. Last year, advertisers paid Facebook $40 billion to promote their products to us using that very data.
Farmers from Kasapin, Ghana and their fermenting cocoa beans
09/27/2018 by Bobbi Gray
Defining a farmer is not a simple task
Who’s your farmer? This sounds like a simple question for any agricultural intervention, but it is fraught with complexity, especially for those of us who are trying to support women through agricultural programs. Why is that and why does it matter?
Savings groups help members meet their financial goals, while providing a safety net in times of uncertainty.
08/29/2018 by Sybil Chidiac, Senior Regional Director at Grameen Foundation
At SEEP's recent Savings Groups 2018 Conference, Sybil Chidiac spoke at a session called "Reflecting to Improve: Looking Back on Savings Groups for Vulnerable Populations." The Gateway caught up with her after the conference to learn more about this topic.
Young Girl from Mali is happy that she is in school.
08/08/2018
Ask any parent what they want for their children and you'll invariably get the same answer: a better life than they had. A better job, a nicer house, a healthy family, happy children. And most see education as the path for getting there.
Drought and poor harvests in Burkina Faso are constant reminders that building resilience to shocks is a long-term game. (Photo: ChristianAid/Andrew Testa)
08/08/2018 by Bobbi Gray
Daffodils symbolize rebirth and new beginnings. For those of us that garden, they signify the entry into Spring, although snow may still cover the ground. When the green leaves start to peek through the frozen soil, you wait in anticipation for the yellow and white flowers to finally bloom, knowing that one morning, you’ll wake up with a beautiful flower to greet you.
Woman in India visits the local Sonata Bank branch where the AePS system is in use..
07/24/2018 by By Rahul Ranjan Sinha is Associate Program Manager of Client Insights and Social Performance at Grameen Foundation India and Gaurav Chakraverty is Associate Director of Innovations in Digital Finance at Grameen Foundation India.
This blog post was originally published on the Microfinance Gateway blog.
Small-scale farmers in Ghana preparing land for planting (Photo: Grameen Foundation/Nana Kofi Acquah)
06/19/2018 by Steve Hollingworth
How much would ending poverty hurt the environment?
Smart use of technology and robust policies will enable farmers like Bennett to transform their small-scale farming into thriving agri-businesses.
06/12/2018 by Alfred Kojo Yeboah
Bennett comes from a long farming tradition and grew maize much the same way as his Ghanaian father. So he was skeptical when Opoku, a young agricultural extension agent, said he would help improve Bennett’s farm. Opuku carried just a mobile tablet loaded with practical farming advice and agribusiness information. No farm equipment. No seeds. No fertilizer.
Agents used Edna Bacquiano's farmer profile to create a management plan to help her improve productivity on her coconut farm.
04/17/2018 by Steve Hollingworth
We’ve just scratched the surface. The spread of mobile technology combined with remote-sensing data, distributed computing and unprecedented cloud-based data storage capabilities creates new opportunities to bring precision agriculture to poor smallholder farmers and to integrate them into the broader food and financial systems.