M4D Insider

With data science strengthening its power and influence over us, a certain community is growing increasingly curious: why do most data collected belong to White or Asian persons? Why are data analysis and research highly limited to user experience improvement? Why, despite the private sector utilising data so well to improve their business, are public sector organisations, NGOs, and social enterprises unable to use data science to do something good for humanity? Ronda Zelezny-Green has spent years researching ways to bridge this gap between the usage of data between the private and public sectors and highlighted four different pathways for people interested in data science if social impact is their passion: people new to data science and social work, existing data professionals wanting to move to social impact work (transitional talent), people with skills for social impact but learning data science skills to their portfolio, and people with the skills to become a leader with their data science and social im

What advancements could the agricultural sector anticipate due to the developments in the mobile industry? The mobile revolution has favoured many sectors of the economy, with industries as varied as fashion, gaming and real estate, to name but a few, all finding innovative ways to leverage its growth. One industry sector that's worth taking a closer look at is agriculture. As Arunjay speaks with our guest for today's episode Rishi Raithatha, who's a financial specialist and writer, you'll learn how the agricultural industry can team up with mobile network operators and mobile money technology to build climate resilience through accurate climate and weather predictions and devise financially inclusive insurance schemes for farmers. As a digital finance specialist with extensive experience working in technology offering insurance to smallholder farmers, Rishi has devoured multiple kinds of research that reduce financial inequalities in the farming industry. Today's conversation will introduce you to the techni

With the ongoing pandemic calling out for increased mobility in every industry, the mobile money and fintech sectors are moving fast to cater to its diverging market. Director of Strategic Projects at MFS Africa, Nika Naghavi, joins hosts Janet Shutlist and Arunjay Katakam on the Last Billion podcast to offer her extensive knowledge about the past, present, and future of mobile money. Mobile money is ALL the rage these days. In less than ten years, it has grown from an interesting idea to a worldwide phenomenon. In this episode, we explore the latest stats and trends in mobile money and how agents re-emerged stronger post COVID. We dig into the advances made with fintech in the past year, re-visit three major mobile money trends from 2016, and find out the reasons for mobile money dominance in Africa. Skeptical about the unimagined push to digitalization today? Tune in to also understand why questions pertaining to unprecedented digital transformation need to be better addressed. Time-stamps: [00:43] - Nik

In this episode, host Janet Shulist facilitates a debate between Arunjay Katakam, futurist and entrepreneur and Nika Naghavi, Director of Data and Insights for the Mobile Money Program at the GSMA. Arunjay and Nika debate the future of mobile money in developing countries, with Nika representing the MNOs and Arunjay representing Fintechs and over-the-top players. Guest bios: Nika Naghavi is the Data & Insights Director for the Mobile Money Programme at the GSMA. In her role, she provides the programme and its stakeholders with intelligence and analysis on future trends and opportunities within the Mobile Money sector with a focus on emerging use cases, business models, disruptive innovation, best practices and social impact opportunities. Nika joined GSMA in 2013 and has held various roles, including overseeing Mobile Money Programme’s publication and projects as well as designing an overarching data strategy to ensure that the Programme keeps providing the most relevant analytics and insights to meet the

Welcome  to the last billion podcast. This is a regular podcast that shines a  light on the people, programs and tools that aim to end poverty for the  last billion people in the next 10 years.

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through recent news: 1. Tech speeding up aid operations in 2019 http://news.trust.org/item/20191217232954-gshlg/ 2. The threat to MNOs is finally here, it's not Banks, it's not Facebook/WhatsApp/Google, etc and it is not mainstream Chinese players Alibaba and Tencent (at least not yet). The treat is coming from other Chinese actors. https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/17/operas-africa-fintech-startup-opay-gains-120m-from-chinese-investors/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/12/palmpay-launches-in-nigeria-on-40m-round-led-by-chinas-transsion/ 3. Designing to close the gender gap https://www.womenandmoney.design/#opportunities Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast. Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through recent news: 1. MTN Nigeria launches mobile money agent service https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/money-home-banner/mtn-nigeria-launches-mobile-money-agent-service/ 2. Thinking through an EdTech Readiness Index https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/new-global-edtech-readiness-index 3. The group overseeing Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency apply for a payments license in Switzerland https://nextbillion.net/news/the-group-overseeing-facebooks-libra-cryptocurrency-will-apply-for-a-payments-license-in-switzerland/ 4. Pooled demand for mobile channels - new DIAL paper https://digitalimpactalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Mobile-Channels-SSA-final.pdf Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast. Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com

This week we have a special guest on the show: Nika Naghavi (@naghavinika) to discuss GSMA's m360 Africa conference last month in Kigali, Rwanda. Nika is the Data & Insights Director for the Mobile Money Programme at the GSMA. In her role, she provides the programme and its stakeholders with intelligence and analysis on future trends and opportunities within the Mobile Money sector with a focus on emerging use cases, business models, disruptive innovation, best practices and social impact opportunities. Nika also led advocacy engagements related to the role of mobile money in reducing the costs of international remittances and collaborated with Harvard Business School to publish the first-ever large-sample quantitative analysis of the expansion of digital financial services. More blogs: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/person/nika-naghavi/ Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweetin

This week, our hosts Jenny Frydrych (@jennyfrydrych) and Arunjay Katakam (@arunjay) talk about digitising humanitarian payments, based on a paper Jenny wrote: Humanitarian Payment Digitisation: Focus On Uganda’s Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement You can download the full paper here: http://bit.ly/2LQLUl0 Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.  Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com

Our hosts Janet Shulist (@janshu) and Arunjay Katakam (@arunjay) take you through this week's news: 1. Digital governance innovation in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh (India)  https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/digital-governance-krishna-glimpse-future-working-paper.pdf  2. Big Data, Big Opportunity: Is Data Science the Key to Universal Energy Access? https://nextbillion.net/data-science-and-universal-energy-access/ 3. HealthTech on the rise: 54gene funding round in Nigeria https://qz.com/africa/1660709/nigeria-health-startups-54gene-mdaas-global-raise-big-funding/  4. An update on Facebook's Libra 5. Afro-Asia FinTech fest https://afroasiafintech.net/ and apply for funding at https://matchi.biz/hackcelerator2019.html Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.  Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsid

This week we have a very special guest on the show: Nika Naghavi  Nika is the Data & Insights Director for the Mobile Money Programme at the GSMA. In her role, she provides the programme and its stakeholders with intelligence and analysis on future trends and opportunities within the Mobile Money sector with a focus on emerging use cases, business models, disruptive innovation, best practices and social impact opportunities. Nika also led advocacy engagements related to the role of mobile money in reducing the costs of international remittances and collaborated with Harvard Business School to publish the first-ever large-sample quantitative analysis of the expansion of digital financial services. More blogs: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/person/nika-naghavi/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/naghavinika Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.  Let us know

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through this week's news: 1. Mobile payments are revamping the way that education is financed: https://t.co/fM2b5fwnPI?amp=1 2. UK aid (DFID) partners to launch world's biggest EdTech hub: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-aid-funds-worlds-biggest-educational-technology-research-project 3. Libra currency draws instant response from regulators 4. Pilot on using drones to map farm plots in Benin: https://www.crs.org/sites/default/files/tools-research/uavs_-_walking_vs_flying_-_benin_study.pdf 5. MSMEs are the backbone of developing economies: new research shows how digital platforms can boost their impact: https://nextbillion.net/msmes-developing-economies-digital-platforms/ Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.  Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com

Our hosts Jenny Frydrych and Arunjay Katakam take you through this week's news: 1. Facebook announces its crypto coin: Libra 2. The impact of Huawei ban for Africa 3. Female Focus Fintech prize  https://dfslab.net/f3prize/   https://live.ft.com/Events/FT-IFC-Transformational-Business-Conference-and-Awards-Dinner-2019 and Insights from the DRC: Agent Network Accelerator Research https://www.microsave.net/2019/02/04/agent-network-accelerator-research-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/ Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.  Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com

Our hosts Janet Shulist and Arunjay Katakam take you through this week's news: 1. Results from the 2019 Global ICT4D Survey 2. LeapFrog breaks impact investing record, with $700M emerging markets fund, surging past its $600m target 3. Facebook picks London to drive WhatsApp mobile payments Globally 4. UN Global Pulse is using AI to analyse radio conversations to give remote communities more of a voice 5. Mastercard and Angaza are partnering to increase access to affordable necessities, like solar home systems, water pumps, by leveraging QR technology Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the development love by sharing or tweeting this podcast.  Let us know your thoughts @m4dinsider and join the discussion by signing up at www.m4dinsider.com

A brief introduction to M4D Insider - a regular podcast covering the latest news, research and analysis of mobile, digital and ICT tools for improving development outcomes around the globe.