Author: Robert Cornet

NEW DELHI — The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) India are about to receive a significant boost in funding. This increase is due to the IndusInd Bank which will use the proceeds from a $225 million loan from the U.S.’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to finance the sub-continent’s small business sector. At least 25 percent of the OPIC loan to India will be used to fund women entrepreneurs and the “unbanked” populations. MSMEs are the backbone of the Indian economy but historically have had limited access to bank financing. At the same time that OPIC announced its loan, Wells Fargo Bank…

ACCRA, Ghana — With the help of a new $300,000 grant from the Whole Planet Foundation, the nonprofit ID Ghana will be able to extend its innovations in microfinance to entrepreneurs in Accra, the West African nation’s capital. ID Ghana received the first tranche of funds in April. ID Ghana will use the three-year grant to serve more than 1,400 new entrepreneurs. It has already provided small business loans to 9,300 people in the Accra area and aims to expand that number to 15,000 during the next three years. Like all microfinance ventures, the ID Ghana program offers small, short-term…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As President Trump begins his second hundred days in office, analysts remain divided in their views about the likely effects his trade and tax policies will have on emerging markets and their rising middle classes. Some analysts see the policies harming emerging markets, which could slow the growth of the middle classes, and some see them helping emerging markets. In the meantime, investors themselves are giving a vote of confidence to emerging markets by fueling the best yearly start for emerging market stocks and currencies in 11 years. What very well may be at stake for emerging…

NAIROBI — If Africa’s middle class is to expand and realize its potential, then financial institutions, regulators, NGOs and donors need to focus stimulation efforts on the lower middle-class. This segment is called the “cusp” or “floating” group in the economies of sub-Saharan African nations. Cusp populations neither live on the edge of survival, nor have a secure place in the middle class. Financial institutions and policymakers can achieve that secure place and create a true middle class for sub-Saharan Africa by developing healthy credit markets. That’s the view of policy analysts from Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa), a…

SEATTLE — For David Croft, global sustainable development director with drinks brand Diageo, one major way to reach the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is by better connecting global companies and smallholder farmers in Africa. Through a stronger connection, smallholder farmers can gain access to reliable customers for their products, and their customers like Diageo can source local ingredients for local products. These are usually at a lower cost than sourcing them in global markets. A major aim of the SDGs is to end poverty around the world by 2030. Reaching that goal will mean improving the lives of smallholder…

SEATTLE — When Syrian refugees make their way toward safety, everywhere they go they need water, food, shelter and secure wifi for their cellphones. Their phones help keep them connected to their loved ones and provide them access to relief agencies and immigration authorities along with their migration route. Making sure they can stay connected is a core mission of NetHope, a nonprofit providing information communications technology in the Syrian refugee crisis with the support of companies like Cisco, Microsoft and Google. The war in Syria has displaced 11 million of its people and forced 7.5 million from their homes.…

SEATTLE — The immediate threat of starvation and famine for more than 20 million people across Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and northeastern Nigeria has been called the “largest humanitarian crisis since the end of WWII.” If and when governments, organizations and individuals in developed nations step up to face this crisis, they will be able to do so because of the foundation laid down for humanitarian relief by organizations like the World Food Program and Oxfam. Hardest hit is Yemen, which has been engaged in a civil war for the past two years. There, nearly 19 million people need food…

SEATTLE — In a move that the World Bank hopes will be a win-win, the bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is brokering deals between emerging market infrastructure projects and pension funds from developed countries. The deals will help emerging nations make up a trillion-dollar funding gap for such projects and help pension funds achieve the kind of returns that will assure their long-term sustainability. For the poor in emerging countries, the investments in infrastructure will underpin economic growth. The need for investment — and the opportunity for investors — is great. Growing populations in developing countries drive the need for…

SEATTLE, Washington — While the world’s major alcoholic beverage companies are consolidating around the world, they are also investing locally in emerging markets. Investments by Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), Diageo and Heineken, among others, include sourcing from local, smallholder farmers and working with them to improve farming techniques. In this way, brewers advance the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The latest major consolidation brought together AB InBev and SABMiller, the world’s first and second-largest brewers respectively. While the sheer size of the acquisition — the third largest in history — has captured headlines and global attention, the deal is also significant for…

PAPEETE, French Polynesia — Scattered across the west South Pacific like a broken strand of pearls, the 130 islands of French Polynesia have long seemed a paradise. Yet within that paradise there is substantial poverty in French Polynesia and its most-known island, Tahiti. French Polynesia is the largest and most populated of France’s three territories in the South Pacific. It is made up of five archipelagoes with a total land area of 1,622 square miles, stretched across more than 965,000 square miles of ocean. It is home to about 295,000 people, with the greatest concentration on Tahiti and in the…