"It is important to look after your staff" - An interview with Baobab Senegal
We recently spoke with Mamadou Cisse, CEO for Baobab Senegal, to ask about his experiences managing a microfinance bank during COVID-19. As with many countries, the government declared a state of emergency and put restrictions in place in March, including setting a national curfew and closing Senegal's borders. ADVICE TO A FUTURE LEADER ON CRISIS MANAGEMENT Thanks for speaking with us Mamadou. Before we jump into some of the specific responses you implemented, I’d like to start with your…
Read MorePathways to School Reopening: Navigating the Unknown
In our March blog, we reported on Opportunity EduFinance’s immediate response to the global pandemic, outlining the rapid launch of the EduFinance COVID-19 Toolkit with resources to support school leaders and financial institutions. As countries begin to release plans for school reopening, we caught up with the EduQuality team to find out how schools have been utilizing the toolkit resources, and learn more about the newest ‘Pathways to Reopening’ resources the team is producing to strategically…
Read More'Preparation is key. Always anticipate.' How one financial institution in Rwanda is handling the COVID-19 crisis
Opportunity EduFinance recently spoke with Arah Sadava, CEO of AB Bank Rwanda about how they are coping with the current pandemic and continuing to engage clients. Thank you for speaking to us Arah. Could you tell us about the initial steps AB Bank Rwanda took to respond to the COVID-19 crisis? I was working at Access Bank Liberia when the Ebola pandemic happened. We were evacuated but I learned a number of lessons operating a bank during a regional pandemic. Because of my experience in Liberia,…
Read MoreInclusive Education: Learning from Colombian educators
Inclusive education is not a ‘niche’ area of expertise. It should be a requirement of all school leaders and educators to ensure equitable access to quality education for all learners. While training for this area is not required (or even accessible) for most educators, continuous professional development opportunities for school leaders and teachers are crucial for promoting inclusive education practices.For the majority of school leaders who participate in the EduQuality program at Opportunity…
Read MoreVoices from the front lines of education
As schools remain closed across the globe due to COVID-19, Opportunity EduFinance is listening to school leaders on the front lines of education. This week, we interviewed five school leaders participating in our Education Quality program, asking them how they are interacting with their teachers, parents and student, as well as their most pressing concerns. They spoke about similar challenges and innovations across these schools, which have been echoed by the hundreds of conversations our Education…
Read MoreHow Education Lenders are Responding to COVID-19
While every day, another news story upended the global status quo, by early March certain things were clear. The COVID-19 pandemic would create unprecedented disruptions in the global economy and would not spare the education sector, demanding schools, businesses and national borders close in order to save lives. According to UNESCO, 188 countries have put nationwide school closures in place, affecting 91% of enrolled learners – a shocking 1.6 billion children. Because most schools are not set-up…
Read MoreUnderstanding What is at Stake for Schools During COVID-19
It started with a just handful of school closures in countries where we operate. Within 48 hours, we were faced with nationwide school closures in all eight countries due to COVID-19 prevention and containment measures. UNESCO consolidated information on COVID-19's global impact on education, with statistics that were hard to fathom. 165 countries with nationwide school closures affecting more than 1.5 billion learners 87% of the global learner population enrolled at the start of March is suddenly…
Read MoreLearning Journey Blog Series: Developing the right foundation for Education Technology
This is the second installation of the Learning Journey blog series co-authored by Opportunity EduFinance, Instill Education, and Chalkboard Education. We will share ongoing insights from several pilot projects testing education innovations in the affordable private school sector in sub-Saharan Africa. The series examines the evolution, learning, adaptation, and failures as we endeavour to build sector knowledge around what works and what doesn’t when developing the right digital foundations and…
Read More“This is physics. How did you end up here?”
This International Women’s Day, Robinah Zawedde, Head Education Specialist for East Africa, reminds us how things are getting better for women and girls, but the fight still continues. International Women’s Day celebrates the diverse experiences of women and girls. Globally, women and girls still face intersecting social, economic and cultural barriers to achieving happy and flourishing lives in 2020. As an international program working across 22 countries, Opportunity EduFinance is committed…
Read MoreUsing Credit Algorithms to Expand Access to Education Finance
Opportunity EduFinance’s mission to get more children into better quality schools uses the principles of ‘financial inclusion’ to drive our work. Financial inclusion is simply defined as ‘the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services.’ Yet the challenges to achieving financial inclusion are wide ranging and require us to consider new innovations to change the status quo. We see this broad reach in the Sustainable Development Goals, where ‘financial inclusion’…
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