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Artificial Intelligence can help empower underserved low-income households, FSD Kenya CEO says
Building livelihoods
Blogs and publications

Building livelihoods: Participant journeys and impacts

The building livelihoods programme is a modified financial graduation project that emphasises market-based programme components to increase cost-effectiveness and potential for scale. The aim of the programme is to help those living in extreme poverty build sustainable livelihoods through business to enable them to live above the ‘survival threshold’, whereby households can meet basic food needs without external assistance (Fitzgibbon & Cabot Venton, 2014).

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6th FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2020 – Julie Zollmann
Annual lectures
Blogs and publications

6th FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2020 – Julie Zollmann

On the afternoon of Thursday, November 19th, 2020, Researcher Julie Zollmann defied the COVID-imposed absence of a live audience to deliver FSD Kenya’s 2020 Public annual lecture on inclusive finance, via YouTube from the University of Nairobi’s Chandaria Auditorium.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Kenya launches the Year of Climate Action (#YoCaKenya)

On the morning of November 3rd, 2020, I was honoured to be part of the launch of the Year of Climate Action in Kenya (#YoCaKenya).

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Blog
Blogs and publications

For maximum value, financial innovation must address real world problems

Kenya has received world-wide recognition as leader in financial innovation. This is a laudable achievement because finance holds the potential to unlock solutions to the real-world problems that Kenyans face in their daily lives.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

“Maybe someone is out there fighting for you.”

In this series of mini-interviews, researchers and respondents in the Kenya Financial Diaries reflect on their experiences. 

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Blog
Blogs and publications

A bridge too far? Paying for school in an economic crisis

Parents across Kenya are receiving ambiguous messages about the timing of school re-openings amid the coronavirus outbreak.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

The opportunity for financial inclusion in health insurance coverage

In 2019, FSD Kenya and Turaco – a Kenyan microinsurtech startup providing simple, low-cost health and life insurance products to emerging market consumers – collaborated on a three-month pilot project in with a leading digital lender in Kenya. The study found that 80% of respondents were most interested in an in-patient cover to cushion the cost of hospital admissions, saying getting such insurance for free is incentive enough to repay their loans on time. Almost 50% of the treatment group opted in to having insurance payments added to their future loans, citing the idea of low-cost insurance from a financial service provider they know and trust as a key incentive.

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Article
Blogs and publications

6th FSD Kenya Public annual lecture 2020 – A glimpse into how scarcity shapes life in Kenya

The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the point in time when COVID-19 paralysed the world.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

How are things now? Summary of September/October COVID diaries findings

Between 7 September and 14 October, our team spoke with 207 participants from the Kenya Financial Diaries, tracing the ways COVID-19 was impacting their lives.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Investors and Indigents: Divergent trajectories of Kenyans in the COVID era

As we completed a new round of COVID-19 Diaries interviews in mid-October, we noticed a shift in the story of economic hardship.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Finance bends; will it break?

On average, families in the Kenya Financial Diaries started to see improvements in their economic situation as of October 2020, but incomes are still far from normal.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

From financial inclusion to inclusive finance: The power of frameworks to catalyse change

Below, we’ll discuss the power of frameworks in shaping research and providing insights for financial inclusion policy and investment.

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Agriculture & processing finance
Blogs and publications

Money to the grassroots: Rethinking agricultural finance models

Why is agricultural sector the least funded sector in Kenya by the formal financial sources despite being the largest sector in terms of GDP contribution (at over 50% GDP contribution directly and indirectly)?

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Set sights on informal sector recovery

The Covid-19 pandemic is throwing a curved ball at us. It has made planning virtually impossible.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Njoroge’s story: How Kenya’s informal economy is struggling in the shadow of COVID-19 and graft

After several years of “hustling,” my friend Njoroge saved money enough to construct his own little fruit shack in the Hurlingham suburb of Nairobi.

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Affordable housing finance
Blogs and publications

The cost of an extra parking space

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Combining new and traditional mechanisms in Northern Kenya to cope during COVID-19

In mid-July we interviewed a subset of FSD Kenya/CARE’s Building Livelihoods programme beneficiaries in Northern Kenya to understand the extent to which resources built up through the programme are supporting resilience of beneficiary households during COVID-19, and how these compare and interact with traditional pastoralist coping mechanisms.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Debts in distress: how ordinary people are finding the liquidity they need to survive COVID

“Things are getting bad,” Vanessa told us. When we spoke with her in late June, her family had just about run out of food and were waiting for the next harvest.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

COVID-19 impact-recovery pathways for the economy: Features and implications

As COVID-19 continues to ravage economies across the world, a key point of emerging macroeconomic focus is its variated impact at sectoral level.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Corona case studies: Loss of income, loss of pride

They were making only about Ksh 4,000 per month (about $40) the last time we saw them in 2015.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

The buck stops with women

How Kenyan mothers are keeping food on the table through the coronavirus crisis

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Blogs and publications
Blogs and publications

Challenges facing women and youth grocery retail traders in Kenya

The main objectives of this study was to explore the challenges faced by retail traders in Kenya, specifically women and youth traders, as well as the potential barriers and opportunities for women and youth to use digital solutions in their businesses. The research methodology included both qualitative and quantitative elements including an analysis of survey data and in-depth interviews with retail traders

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Blog
Blogs and publications

Kenya enhances its cash transfer programmes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

As the world reels from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a key lesson it has taught us is the universality of our vulnerability.

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Blog
Blogs and publications

COVID-19 and digitisation: Will digitisation drive inclusion or inequality?

The economic fallout engendered by COVID-19 has already been dire with many going without food and/or accruing different types of debt to stay afloat.

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