More Insights – Page 7

The cost and accessibility of digital credit: factors influencing the cost of digital credit in Kenya, Nigeria and India

When that short-term emergency loan to cover your dentist’s fees is quite literally a click away, the last thing on your mind is the steep Annual Percentage Rate (APR), or…

The true cost of quick cash: exploring biases and barriers in digital credit

Digital credit — easily understood as lending through digital platforms and applications — has seen rapid uptake among consumers in recent years. Driven primarily by partnerships between mobile network operators…

Prioritizing dignity in practice: understanding research dignity from the participant perspective

“It is easy to romanticize poverty, to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will. It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects…

Value and validation: how feedback enhances the quality of research outputs

If there’s one thing participants could change about research, it would be feedback. In a recent qualitative study, Busara’s research participants told us that they would want to learn the…

Seen but not heard: ethical considerations for inclusive research in the global south

“They (open-ended questions) are the best types of questions to use in research because they do not confine someone to a certain point, but instead, the person will have the…

Insurance bundled with loans: maximising smallholder farmer uptake of insured loans

The need for agricultural insurance cannot be understated, and with a whopping 97% of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa being uninsured (as at 2018), accessibility is priority. To this end, bundling…

Digital credit’s impact potential: can digital credit be a tool to reduce poverty?

Digital credit remains out of reach for many people in developing nations, preventing them from realizing their full potential. Even with low overhead costs and the ability to reach the…

Locusts and Covid-19: Africa braces for a double blow

Juliana Nkirote, 49, a smallholder farmer in Ntangilia, Kenya, watched helplessly last February as an army of locusts landed in her two-acre farm, devouring her source of livelihood. Now she’s bracing…

One size does not fit all: how our cross cultural research agenda is making room for truly generalizable results

An academic paper is often judged by how well it has understood the field it is studying and its contribution towards advancing said field. By that standard behavioral economics literature…

The sausage is in the making: how we’re refining research methods for higher quality data

We have all been through it at some point in our academic lives. Palpable tension, and just a sprinkle [or five] of panic when the exam invigilator barks “15 minutes…