Please join us on Tuesday, July 30th at 9:30-10:30am EDT / 1:30-2:30pm GMT for a webinar on building a data protection strategy.

To sign up, please use the following link:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2335246549346892299

About the Webinar

We’ve developed a Data Protection resource that guides early- and growth-stage companies through assessing company’s data risks, understanding how to address those risks, and taking steps to implementing a data protection plan that fits your company’s needs.

During the webinar, we’ll discuss how companies can ensure they’re developing an effective data protection strategy, and how investors and ecosystem stakeholders can work with the broader fintech ecosystem to ensure that the necessary data privacy and security standards are being adopted and sustained.

The webinar will feature Earl St. Sauver, co-founder and CTO of Apollo Agriculture, and Neil Welman, co-founder and CTO of Lulalend. Both Earl and Neil have developed their companies’ data protection strategies and infrastructure, and manage strong tech and data science teams. They’ll share lessons learned on data protection implementation as well as how they’ve built strong data protection cultures across their companies and how they’ve evolved their strategies to keep up with company growth.

Please send your questions, comments and feedback to: ecoles@accion.org

Smallholder farmers are critical to global food security and economic growth, however they have largely been overlooked by the private sector, constraining their productivity and income potential. To successfully engage the private sector and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, it is critical to gain a refined understanding of which solutions work – and which do not. There is a need to ascertain the extent to which donor support to private companies can catalyze entry, expansion, and commercial sustainability within the smallholder market segment. It is also important to examine how design and implementation of these programs can promote (or inhibit) their impact on partner companies and smallholder farmers.

Partnering for Innovation (P4I), a USAID-supported program, provides a rare opportunity to delve deeper into these questions. Over the last six years, the program has supported 50 private sector companies with over USD 92 million to scale and market innovative agricultural technologies and services to more than a million smallholder farmers. Partnering for Innovation provides companies with investments tied to milestone-based outcomes, and tailored support services designed to build managerial and operational capacity. The ultimate goal is to sustainably improve smallholder farmers’ income and food production.

USAID enlisted the Investment Support Program implemented by Dalberg Advisors (“the ISP team”) in early 2019 to conduct a review of P4I to expand the evidence base around engaging the private sector to achieve development outcomes. Through interviews with nearly half of the P4I partner companies and investors, the team produced a report: “Partnering with the Private Sector to Reach Smallholder Farmers: Lessons on Private Sector Engagement from USAID’s Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation Program.” Members of the ISP team will be presenting insights and lessons from this report during a webinar on Wednesday Aug 7, 2019 from 9:30-11am ET.

Click here to register for the webinar.

There are 1.7 billion people who are outside of the formal banking and financial system, more than half of which are in Asia and the Pacific. They struggle with high fees and risky systems to undertake even simple financial transactions. In order to improve the lives of poorest and most vulnerable, it is crucial to connect these marginalized populations with the broader economy. As we have entered the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the use of digital technology in financial services can offer new ways to bring them out of financial darkness.

The Third Asia Finance Forum will envision the future of inclusive finance by discussing how these new technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain, as well as the rapid expansion of mobile-phone banking, are helping to bring financial services to unbanked communities. These digital technologies can boost financial inclusion by expanding how people financially transact, beyond traditional banking. Efforts in several specific areas can make a big difference, including identification, internet and electricity, interoperable payment systems, customer relationships, equality of opportunity for women, and remittances, pensions, and insurance.

The ADB Fintech Academy will also be conducted during this week to provide insight and knowledge on key hot topics surrounding financial services and the application of technology such as alternative credit scoring, central bank digital currency, cyber security, blockchain and the like.

Target Audience: Regulators, policymakers, fintech companies, finance experts, academia and think tanks.

Register>>

Location: Online Webinar
Date: 27th of August 2019
Time: 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
Organizer: The SEEP Network

Across sub-Saharan Africa, young people account for half of the financially excluded. In Northern Africa, they represent a smaller proportion but are still disproportionately unserved or underserved. The most distinctive group are the youth still living in the parental home. Transitioning into full adulthood, they are expected to become heads of household. They are increasingly literate and much more digitally savvy than their parents. Given high levels of mobile literacy, young people in Africa offer an untapped opportunity for financial service providers. It is critical that providers innovate and change the way they target this segment to address their personal financial needs.

This webinar will present key findings from recent research in three rapidly-growing countries – Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal. It will focus on three key questions:

• What are the true financial needs of unserved young people?
• How do young people manage their money?
• What are the opportunities for financial service providers?

The research focused on young people[1], which includes three clusters – mid-teens (aged 15-17), youth (18-24) and young adults (25-30). It examines their experience in respect to financial inclusion, support structures and opportunities for young entrepreneurs. The main methodologies employed included a 13-week diary study, macro-quantitative analyses of publicly available data and qualitative research. It was commissioned by Scale2Save, a partnership between WSBI and Mastercard Foundation to establish the viability of small-scale savings in six African countries.

Click here to register.

Date: 16 Sep- 17 Sep 2019
Location: New Delhi, India
Registration Deadline: 10 Sep 2019

This conference marks two decades of Sa-Dhan. The National Conference will be an ideal platform to commemorate this moment with its members and stakeholders. The conference provides a unique platform for dialogue, deliberation, information sharing and forging partnerships. It aims to provide stakeholders with a platform to deliberate on specific sectoral concerns and challenges in the implementation of India’s Financial Inclusion program.

Click here for more information.

Date: Thursday, August 8th 2019 
Time: 15:00-16:00 CEST
Location: Webinar

Over the past decade, sustainable and impact investing has grown from a niche form of financing to being implemented by practically every major financial institution.

Companies such as COFCO and Wilmar have secured substantial loans tied to their sustainability efforts. Similarly, BNP Paribas announced it would use $10 billion in capital by 2025 for projects that are committed to improving social and environmental impact in developing countries. The World Bank also recently doubled its five-year climate investments to around US$200 billion.

However, the impact of this growing interest in sustainable finance still remains unclear and there is still no real consensus on how to measure it.

In this hour long webinar, we will assess how finance is engaging in sustainable commodities and ask our speakers questions such as:

• Has sustainability finally started to take centre stage within financial institutions?
• What type of information, metrics, targets and KPIs are investors seeking?
• Which sustainable financing options are now available?
• How are investors factoring climate impacts into their decision making?

Speakers:
• Dick Ligthart, associate director – green, social and sustainability bonds, ABN AMRO
• Maria Lombardo, head of responsible investment EMEA, Invesco
• Anita McBain, head of responsible investment and ESG, M&G

Investments Moderated by Tobias Webb, founder, Innovation Forum If you can’t make the time, sign up anyway and we will send you a recording

Click here to sign up for the webinar.