In this joint op-ed, Grameen Foundation’s Bobbi Gray and FHI 360’s Ellen Galdava discuss how data-driven agriculture can improve the lives of smallholders farmers.
Gigi Gatti explains how Grameen Foundation works with neighborhood shops and telecom operators in the Philippines to extend financial services to underserved communities.
Prabhat Labh of Grameen Foundation India calls for a paradigm shift in India that moves financial inclusion from "providing financial literacy to building financial and digital finance capability."
A Grameen Foundation/Freedom from Hunger India Trust program is helping to reduce malnutrition rates and boost women’s confidence in India.
Building Resilience in Burkina Faso (BRB) takes a multi-sectoral approach to improving household resilience and food security and features the innovative use of community-based women’s savings groups as a platform for providing an integrated package of agricultural, nutrition, financial services, and women’s empowerment programming to help thousands of savings group members overcome many of the geographic, cultural, social, and economic constraints that hamper their resilience in the face of shocks and disasters.
In 2018, Grameen Foundation authored a landscape assessment on the use for data in support of smallholder farmers and agricultural development. This infographic summarizes a few of the main findings, and can serve as a launching pad for those considering how to harness the power of big data and digital technology for agricultural innovation. For a related blog, "Big Data and Smallholder Farmers," click here.
Offering digital financial services to women and men in low-income and rural areas requires much more than a technology solution. It also involves activities that encourage client adoption, a robust agent network and reliable digital platforms, and a viable business for financial technology providers. This report shares key lessons from Grameen Foundation’s Community Agent Network (CAN) in the Philippines with respect to these areas.
Grameen Foundation’ Community Agent Network (CAN) in the Philippines embodies a new approach to extending financial inclusion to people in poor, remote areas that is applicable across many countries. Combining a mostly female agent network with a digital financial services platform that connects people with banks, utility companies, government agencies, and other businesses it has enabled up to one million low-income people in the Philippines to benefit from formal financial services.
In the Philippines, more than three million coconut smallholder farmers supply a multi-billion dollar export industry. Yet, they are among the poorest households in the country. Grameen Foundation developed FarmerLink, using digital technology and field agents to provide farmers with complimentary resources: agricultural training, connections to high-value markets, support for organic certification, training in financial management, and access to financing.
Grameen Foundation has launched a campaign to provide families in Bénin with the information, services and financing they need to make informed decisions about family planning.