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Access to markets is crucial for small and growing businesses to effectively meet consumer demand for their products and services. However, India’s 13.5 million women-led businesses face challenges due to lack of experience, smaller business sizes, and discriminatory social norms. MSC’s partner, the SEWA Cooperative Federation, addresses these obstacles through its digital platform, SEWA Saamarth, which helps women-led collective enterprises sell their products online. Learn more about how they support women-led collective enterprises on our blog.
Africa has the highest rate of women’s entrepreneurship, at 24%, ahead of South-East Asia Pacific and Europe at 11% and 9%, respectively. Moreover, women’s entrepreneurship in Africa contributes to 7% to 9% of its GDP or some 150 to 200 billion dollars. However, women still face many barriers when they attempt to develop their businesses. Access to finance is one of the major issues. What are the possible solutions to this challenge? Read this blog to find out.
Did you know why women comprise of only 30% of the tech workforce and only 10% in leadership? In the previous blog of this series, we discussed that most designs in the digital world center around men. The digital world’s design is often gender-biased and, excludes women’s needs and experiences. In this part, we analyze the reasons behind the gender gap and discuss the impact of including more women in design teams where use cases are conceptualized and developed.
With government-to-person (G2P) payments, governments increasingly disburse welfare benefits directly to individuals or households. While promising, digital G2P payments remain in their early stages, and face challenges, such as friction in payments, information gaps, and contextual barriers. The MUKTA program in Odisha, India, is an example of a multi-stakeholder collaboration to reengineer digital systems and government policies and processes to operationalize digitally-enabled Smart Contracting and Just-in-Time funding systems (JiT-FS).
As MSC turns 25, this blog looks at our journey amid developments in technology and climate change. It traces our evolution as an organization at the forefront of driving positive change through effective financial and social inclusion solutions. We also examine the support low-income and marginalized groups need to use technology and financial services to improve their lives and livelihoods, especially considering the risks posed by climate change on these vulnerable communities.
MSC started its journey 25 years ago as MicroSave-Africa. Over the years, we helped several financial service providers and emerged as impactful thought leaders in financial inclusion. We tailored a market-led approach to derive insights into the needs and aspirations of poor people and codified it into the acclaimed “Market Research for MicroFinance” (MR4RF) toolkit. It is used by hundreds of MFIs and consultants worldwide today. Today, we collaborate with governments across six countries in areas, such as food security, agriculture, health, and energy. Our impact spans financial inclusion, digital transformation, innovation, and beyond, which has made us a respected player in the field