How to make banks lend to SMEs? This is a reiterating question for anyone working on private sector development in emerging markets. From the Harvard’s Entrepreneurship Finance Lab to the World Bank, it seems to be a consensus that supporting SMEs helps create more jobs and stimulate innovation, in economies starving for growth and social …
“How do governments get great?” an insightful article by the Center for International Development (Harvard University). You can download it here. It briefly looks at what make governments achieve great and sustainable results. A crucial public policy question,especially when I look at the current mess in my home country. The article lays out 4 dimensions to the question: What …
In this short presentation, I try to address three main questions that are very often asked to me: – What is the difference between Microcredit and Microfinance? – Why rates are high? – What is the situation in Tunisia?
The concept is good. Leveraging the power of internet to raise funds, collect people’s ideas and gather comments and feedback from around the world, how amazing it is! The concept is so appealing, hundreds of crowd-funding sites have been set up, each focusing on a specific sector or country. I believe it is particularly powerful …
I graduated one year ago, so I guess it is time to take a small step back and ponder on the use and return on investment of my MBA (but the heat of Tunis where I am now writing is not really helping). I have read a couple of articles lately on the topic and …
MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) have been a big hype for the last couple of years: they are “disturbing the education models”, they are opening “huge opportunities” for new educational start-ups, everyone now can get a Harvard-degree while lying on his bed etc. Dozens of universities in Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia have announced partnerships …
Just found out about this article where I am quoted here. Very good job to capture the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Tunisia by the writers. Democratic Transition Presents an Opportunity Trying to understand a new phenomenon such as “social entrepreneurship” in post-revolutionary Tunisia is a challenging task due to the ongoing nature of the transformation, the …
Article published on Wamda.com here In Europe, outsourcing is a delicate topic. Some politicians picture it as an epidemic that must be be stopped, as new hubs in India threaten local business. On the other side of the Mediterranean, outsourcing has gained a much better reputation, as lucrative outsourcing contracts have benefitted thousands of engineers in …
FINALLY, I finished this now famous Sinclair’s book yesterday. I thought it is a very easy and captivating read overall, especially that I recognized many of the names and organizations he mentioned in his book ( I confess I smiled at how he describes some of them). Hugh Sinclair whistle-blowing story started in Amsterdam, working in …
I had a very enriching week in Dakar (very nice city btw!) starting January 28th. In fact, every year, CGAP – sort of the microfinance guru center – organizes a one week training on the best practices for MFI appraisal and funding. It was good to have some basics refreshed and to learn more about …
