Category: Finance

Gender gaps in access to financial services are narrowing— according to the World Bank’s newly published Findex 2025 dataset, the share of women with accounts has climbed to 77%, just four percentage points behind men, globally. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the gender gap stands at five percentage points (78% of men vs. 73% […]

Faculty hiring freezes. Department budget cuts. Declining public trust. Across the United States, higher education is navigating one of its most challenging periods in decades. Yet, quietly, something else is happening: More universities are adding chief marketing officers, or CMOs, to their top management teams. From flagship universities to small regional colleges, public universities are […]

Financial health is rising on global policy agendas — from G20 summits to UN conferences — as countries confront economic volatility and growing household vulnerability. In 2024, financial health was spotlighted by the G20’s Global Partnership on Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and referenced in the UN’s Financing for Development Outcome Document, signaling broader recognition of its […]

In India’s turmeric value chain, women perform over 80% of the labor, including land preparation, weeding, harvesting, cleaning, boiling, drying, peeling, grinding, and packaging — grueling and labor-intensive work. CGAP, the IFC’s Agribusiness Leadership Program, and Samunnati—a member of ABERA, a collaboration between CGAP and IDH that aims to improve the climate resilience of service […]

Imagine you invest US$500 to help a startup get off the ground through investment crowdfunding. The pitch is slick, the platform feels trustworthy and the company quickly raises its target amount from hundreds of people just like you. Then – silence. No updates, no financials, not even a thank-you. You’ve been ghosted – not by […]

Most of the world observes International Workers’ Day on May 1 or the first Monday in May each year, but not the United States and Canada. Instead, Americans and Canadians have celebrated Labor Day as a national holiday on the first Monday in September since 1894, 12 years after the first observance of Labor Day […]

Dublin, August 13, 2025 — Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD, has officially opened applications for the 2025 Beef Welfare Scheme (BWS), a €28 million initiative aimed at enhancing animal welfare and supporting economic sustainability in Ireland’s suckler beef sector. The scheme represents a significant increase in funding compared to 2024, […]

Warsaw, August 13, 2025 — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced a €20 million investment in Spire Capital Partners Fund I, a newly launched independent private equity fund based in Poland. The fund aims to strengthen the growth of technology-enabled small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Poland and Central and Eastern […]

The U.S. government is relaxing federal vaccine requirements and cutting vaccine research and development funding here at home. Elsewhere, it’s going even further. The Trump administration has stopped funding Gavi, a global initiative that helps millions of children in low-income and medium-income countries get vaccinated against measles, cholera and other preventable diseases. Gavi, the Vaccine […]

Many financial and political analysts are trying to assess the impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to fire U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Aug. 1, 2025, the same day that an unemployment report conveyed weakness in the job market. Some of the strongest criticism of this unprecedented move has come from […]