{"title":"Greater Rural Opportunities for Women (GROW): A multifaceted approach to poverty alleviation at scale","authors":"J. Denomy, Jennifer Gurbin Harley","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.22-00004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.22-00004","url":null,"abstract":": How did the Greater Rural Opportunities for Women (GROW) project reach over 23,000 smallholder farmers in northern Ghana and achieve impact? This case study describes the project’s multifaceted approach to poverty reduction, which combined adaptive management and a comprehensive communications strategy to work toward poverty alleviation at scale. With an initial focus primarily on improved nutrition and food security, the project evolved to include a greater emphasis on women’s economic empowerment and leadership. Group formation was an important strategy for providing services at scale, including increased access to market linkages, agronomic information and practices, and financial services.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46669869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sustainability of youth self-employment schemes in Central Gondar, Amhara, Ethiopia","authors":"Degsew Melak, W. Mekuria, Agere Belachew","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.21-00048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.21-00048","url":null,"abstract":": This study examined survival of youth self-employment using primary data. Relevant factors are identified that influence youth’s dropping out of self-employment. The findings of the study indicated that young women-managed small businesses are more likely to survive and be profitable than young men-managed businesses. Youth-managed small businesses with frequent technical support have more chance of long-run survival. Furthermore, attainment of a positive perception of readily available business options is related to the long-term survival of youth self-employment. Finally, small businesses operating according to a business plan with sufficient access to working places have better chances of long-run survival. Consistent multidimensional support before and after entry into self-employment is suggested for effective micro and small enterprise development.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42021659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"J. Peprah","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.2022.33-2.ed","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2022.33-2.ed","url":null,"abstract":"WITH the apparent design of preserving open shop conditions 1 for its \"great industries,\" the Jersey City administration has attempted systematically to insulate employees from outside influences and to stifle any self-expression which might be directed against employers or municipal authorities. Mayor Hague's specific tactics have achieved nation-wide notoriety. At first they were directed particularly against labor organizers and sympathizers. Some","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49570658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Efficiency and competitiveness of a South Africa grant support programme for small, medium, and micro-sized enterprises","authors":"Timothy Olaniyi Aluko","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.21-00041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.21-00041","url":null,"abstract":": The paper investigates the efficiency and competitiveness of a state grant support programme for small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa. A balanced scorecard measurement framework through key performance indicators (KPIs) was applied using aggregate firm level datasets from 2012 and 2017. Empirical results show that the state grant support programme does not have a significant approval rate. Incomplete procedural requirements and overextended turnaround time between the approval and conversion processes contributed to the negative performance of the programme. This implies that the programme policy is overridden or partially set aside, contributing to inadequate allocation and inappropriate distribution of the programme funds to the targeted beneficiary. Further, the programme access choices are distorted, with qualifying beneficiaries prioritized against the targeted group. Funding programmes established for political reasons lead to programme distortion and inefficiency. Therefore, there was a trade-off between fiscal allocation, disbursement, performance, and efficiency.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48487665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The use of fintech in microfinance: the fight against poverty globally and in Egypt","authors":"H. El-Hadidi","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.21-00049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.21-00049","url":null,"abstract":": Microfinance has long been seen as a remedy for global poverty, although it has had mixed success, as the literature demonstrates. While poverty remains, with the introduction of digital technology and the relaxation, in many areas, of the regulations controlling banking following the financial crisis of 2008, innovations in the financial services sector, known as fintech, could have a significant impact. This article examines the research literature on the topic and provides a case study from Egypt before making recommendations on policy change, and how fintech and microfinance might develop if they are to have an impact on poverty both globally and within Egypt. solution the the means to the","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43892720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mobile money: a gateway to achieving financial inclusion in Ghana","authors":"M. Kodom, W. Steel, C. Ackah, G. Bokpin","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.22-00011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.22-00011","url":null,"abstract":": While emerging studies on mobile financial inclusion have focused on the factors driving the adoption of mobile money, little evidence exists on how the service is facilitating the use of formal financial services. Using the World Bank Findex data, we estimate the effect of mobile money adoption on the use of formal accounts, savings, and credit in Ghana. The results of the recursive bivariate probit analysis showed a significant symbiotic relationship between mobile money adoption and the probability of operating a formal account. Mobile money adoption has a positive effect on savings and access to credit but does not affect the avenues to savings and obtaining credit respectively. Mobile money users save in their wallet and obtain microcredit through the mobile money platform but not through formal channels. These findings reinforce the hypothesis that mobile money is the surest financial tool for achieving universal financial inclusion in developing countries. regressors (Wilde, 2000). The error terms ( v i and ε i ) are assumed to be distributed bivariate normal with a mean of zero and a constant variance, and corr( v i , ε i ) = ρ . The error terms capture all the other factors that affect ownership of MoMo and access to formal financial services in Ghana. The estimates of the probit model are consistent when ρ = 0 or are statistically insignificant.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49661737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial: Housing","authors":"P. McAllister","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.2021.32-3.ed","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2021.32-3.ed","url":null,"abstract":"I have an early memory of entering my childhood home: entering through a screened back door, I pass a door frame where my height, along with that of my brother and sisters, was faithfully recorded through the years in ascending pencil marks and corresponding dates. In the kitchen, with its garish 1970s red and orange wallpaper, I recall seeing my mother waiting for me with some delicious snack. Over the years, I have called 19 different places home, on four continents, and could conjure such evocative memories for each.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44669860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Taking Shelter: Housing Finance for the World’s Poor, edited by Patrick McAllister and Daniel Rozas","authors":"E. Rhyne","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.21-00032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.21-00032","url":null,"abstract":"Taking Shelter: Housing Finance for the World’s Poor, edited by Patrick McAllister and Daniel Rozas. Considering that decent shelter is essential to the quality of human life, the meagre attention given by the development finance sector on how to provide it is shocking. The need for a secure place to live garners surprisingly little focus outside the relatively small housing subsectors of urban development, and water and sanitation.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48483978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital credit scoring for affordable housing finance: Syntellect and Reall in urban India","authors":"Andrew Jones","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.21-00012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.21-00012","url":null,"abstract":"A promising field of housing finance innovation is digital approaches to assessing the creditworthiness of low-income borrowers, based on the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to ‘alternative’ customer data. These reduce the risk of lending to underserved customers, many of whom work in the informal sector and lack formal credit histories. This article introduces and explores the emerging application of digital credit scoring technologies to affordable housing in India, through the practitioner lens of Syntellect – a Mumbai-based fintech firm – and their investor Reall, an innovator in climate-smart affordable housing. Syntellect has developed proprietary software called RightProfile – a unique customer profiler that caters to the unbanked, new to banking, and new to credit segment with a focus on informal micro-entrepreneurs. The article shares Syntellect and Reall’s experience to date, situating these within broader affordable housing trends and reflecting on the transferability of RightProfile outside India.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41355831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Merrill, Erin R. Markel, A. Scarampi, Meghan Bolden, Sheldon Yoder
{"title":"Beyond building: how social norms and networks shape mason construction practices in incremental homebuilding","authors":"S. Merrill, Erin R. Markel, A. Scarampi, Meghan Bolden, Sheldon Yoder","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.21-00014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.21-00014","url":null,"abstract":"How do low-income households and masons make house construction decisions? A three-country study examined social norms, networks, and information flows that influence construction practices in Kenya, India, and Peru. The study used a suite of qualitative research strategies, including desk research, site observation, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews, to examine households and informal construction service providers, and the interactions between them. The research sought to answer the following questions: 1) How do households and individuals make housing decisions? 2) What are the information flows, key influences, and social norms that steer these decisions? and 3) How can programmes leverage knowledge about norms to improve the quality of home construction? Findings covered areas of gender, disaster resilience, and construction labour – this article focuses on the latter. Ultimately the paper argues that designing impactful programmes for low-income housing markets requires understanding and incorporating these social norms, networks, and information flows.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45007703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}