Ovais Naqvi Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa: Opening the Floodgates Stimulating entrepreneurship is intrinsic to creating both sustained economic value and jobs. It is also clear that no more critical a goal exists in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region than creating stability and common prosperity through the long-term employment—and positive deployment—of youth. Studies make extensive connections between entrepreneurial activity

Susan Davis Enabling Entrepreneurial Ecosystems An aspiring entrepreneur in Uganda has an uphill climb. A landlocked country, Uganda is hemmed in by areas where conflicts break out sporadically, including South Sudan and the Nord-Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Además, the country still lives under the shadow of former president Idi Amin, whose policies included not only torture and hundreds of thousands

Bryony Everett, Erika Wagner, and Christopher Barnett Using Innovation Prizes to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals The idea behind prizes is rather simple: incentives matter. Offering the right incen- tives can lead to innovations that can change the world. The amount of money available for prizes has more than tripled over the last decade to an estimated $1- $2 billion, and the sector continues to

Eric Peck, Lynndee Kemmet, Ray McGowan, C. Reed Hodgin, and Bart Peintner The Agility Imperative Emerging Knowledge Management Requirements for Stability Operations in the U.S. Army David Kilcullen said it well in The Accidental Guerilla, when he argued that we have entered a new era of warfare in which the “enemy” is often not nation-states but non-state actors who are far more agile and adaptive

Shannon Ding, Kelly Wyett, and Eric Werker South Sudan: The Birth of an Economy One can learn a lot about the economy of South Sudan just by watching the roads. The first thing one notices on the streets of Juba, the capital, is the abundance of white Toyota Land Cruisers. There are fewer than 100 kilometers of tarmac roads in the entire 240,000-square-mile country; uno

Suren G. Dutia Diaspora Networks A New Impetus to Drive Entrepreneurship In the early 1800s, John Ford and his son, William Ford, left their Irish homeland to come to America in search of greener pastures in the New World. What ensued was beyond the imagination of the elders of the Ford family. William’s eldest son, Henry Ford, established one of the greatest business empires in

Seema Aziz Lighting a Path in Pakistan Innovations Case Narrative: Bareeze and CARE Foundation Pakistan Hold high the torch! You did not light its glow— ’Twas given you by other hands, you know. ’Tis yours to keep it burning bright, Yours to pass on. For there are other feet we must guide, And other forms go marching by our side; Their eyes are watching every

Y. Ciputra From Dirt and Scrap to Gold: A Vision for Entrepreneurship in Indonesia Can poverty be turned into prosperity? Is it possible to start with no capital and later be a thriving entrepreneur? I, as well as millions of entrepreneurs in all parts of the world, fully believe it is. The phrase “turn dirt and scrap into gold” is an expression intended to con-

Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui Mexico’s Growth Will Come From Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises For a country to grow, private-sector companies have to grow. Desde 1993, revenues of the companies that comprise Mexico’s Stock Market Index (Índice de Precios y Cotizaciones of the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores) have experienced a compounded annual growth rath (CAGR) in dollar terms of 14 por ciento. Comparatively, the CAGR over

Matu Mugo Regulation of Banking and Payment Agents in Kenya Fletcher School Leadership Program in Financial Inclusion: Kenya Policy Memo Kenya has made significant strides in recent years in extending financial services to its populace. This has been accomplished on the back of the rapid expansion of banks across the country, particularly in rural areas, and the transformational introduction of mobile money transfer services in

Siti Hidayati Cash-In and Cash-Out Agents for Mobile Money in Indonesia Fletcher School Leadership Program in Financial Inclusion: Indonesia Policy Memo The success of mobile money in countries such as the Philippines and Kenya has inspired Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in Indonesia to provide similar serv- ices. T-Cash, the first mobile money scheme in Indonesia, was launched in 2007 by Telkomsel, the country’s biggest MNO.

Narda L. Sotomayor Setting the Regulatory Landscape for the Provision of Electronic Money in Peru Fletcher School Leadership Program in Financial Inclusion: Peru Policy Memo Although there is much evidence that access to financial services correlates posi- tively with economic development, basic convenient transfer and payment servic- es are still unavailable for low-income segments of the Peruvian population. The experience of Kenya, the Philippines, y

Franklin Belnye Financial Inclusion and Regulatory Policy: The Case of Ghana’s Informal and Semiformal Financial Institutions Fletcher School Leadership Program in Financial Inclusion: Ghana Policy Memo There is some consensus that a broad-based financial sector can contribute to eco- nomic development and poverty alleviation (United Nations, 2005). Access to financial services provides people with the opportunity to manage their risks, broaden their menu of choices,

Ahmed Dermish, Christoph Kneiding, Paul Leishman, and Ignacio Mas Branchless and Mobile Banking Solutions for the Poor: A Survey of the Literature About 2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to formal financial serv- ices, and yet one billion of them have a mobile phone. Branchless banking systems take advantage of increasingly ubiquitous real-time mobile communications net- works to bring banking services

Menekse Gencer Mobile Money: A Foundation for Food Security Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and eco- nomic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. (FAO, 1996) Let me begin by explaining that I am not a food security expert but a mobile finan- cial services

Ramona Liberoff and Chris Horn Mobile Identity and Financial Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid Movirtu is a for-profit, mobile-network software social enterprise backed by ven- ture capital. Movirtu provides mobile-identity management software to leading mobile telecommunications operators. The company’s core geographical focus is Africa and South Asia. It works with mobile operators and non-governmental organizations to serve people who live on incomes of

Jake Kendall, Bill Maurer, Phillip Machoka, and Clara Veniard An Emerging Platform: From Money Transfer System to Mobile Money Ecosystem In the past, the emergence of new network infrastructures (canals, railroads, elec- tricity, telecommunications, the Internet, etc.) has had a profound effect on the world economy.1 New ways of moving people and goods, energía, and information often led to waves of innovation, and over the

Ashirul Amin The Challenge of Combining Credit and Savings Innovations Case Discussion: Jipange KuSave Every once in a while, an initiative comes along that manages to elegantly combine the essence of existing programs with something new whose utility is more than the sum of its parts. Jipange KuSave (JKS) seems to be such an initiative. JKS offers: • Both a credit and a savings product