Impact and people
2022
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Digitally and financially empowered MSMEs in Uruguay – Lesson learnt from a successful collaboration with ANDE during the COVID-19 pandemic
25 February 2022
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the main sources of employment worldwide. However, access to adequate financial services is a key challenge to their development. The ILO believes that financial education is one path to support MSMEs. Our collaboration with ANDE aims to strengthen the financial knowledge and capacities of entrepreneurs in Uruguay.
2021
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Convention 190 in action: preventing harassment of workers in Japanese banks
29 July 2021
Labour banks (“Rokin Banks”) in Japan have been promoting workers’ access to finance for many years. They have also been in the vanguard when it comes to adopting international standards around workplace violence and harassment. Rokin Banks modelled their recent harassment guidelines directly on the ILO’s Convention 190, serving as an example and inspiration for legislation elsewhere in Japan, and for financial institutions around the world.
2019
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© Nestlé 2022
Microinsurance saves the day for cocoa farmers
19 July 2019
An ILO partnership with a major cocoa buyer and an insurance company saved the day for a family of cocoa farmers. Their story shows the difference microinsurance can make for some of the most vulnerable people.
2015
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From market seller to managing director in Côte d’Ivoire
16 March 2015
ILO News talks to a young Ivorian woman who in a few years went from selling goods at local markets to being a successful entrepreneur whose dreams reach beyond the Ivory Coast.
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How microfinance develops decent work
17 February 2015
An ILO research project shows how microfinance moves small enterprises out of the informal economy and into profit.
2012
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Making public-private partnerships work for better insurance coverage
10 April 2012
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has seen more than its share of both natural and man-made disasters. In a country like Haiti, microfinance not only helps to create jobs and income, but becomes a relief and survival strategy after disaster. Sarah Bel, Information Officer for the ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility, reports on how public-private partnerships play an important role to scale up quality and affordable insurance products for low-income workers.
2011
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Knowledge management: How microinsurance can best benefit low-income households
01 November 2011
In 2010, the ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility introduced a knowledge management framework, aligning its research and communication strategies and new approaches for improved capture, analysis and sharing of lessons learned from its activities. ILO Online spoke with Craig Churchill, Head of the ILO’s Microinsurance Innovation Facility about the benefits of the new approach.
2009
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Microfinance and the real economy: impacts and outcomes of the global economic crisis
26 February 2009
The current economic and social crisis provides an opportunity to re-think values and business models in finance. ILO Online spoke with Bernd Balkenhol, chief of the ILO’s Social Finance Programme.
2007
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How microfinance institutions can finance lasting social change
21 November 2007
An estimated US$4 billion is invested annually in microfinance around the world. But while microfinance institutions must have strong business models in order to survive, they face the challenge of making profits while creating lasting social change. A new ILO study provides practitioners and donors with guidance on how to deal with the issue of balancing business and poverty reduction by defining criteria for supporting microfinance institutions.