Blog
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Digital inclusion and African startups -has the internet really helped promote access?
In May of 2024, we published a report – An Assessment of Digital and Traditional Financial Inclusion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia. This report was developed alongside an index (The SI-FIndex) measuring and comparing the level of access MSMEs have to financial products and services. When considering digital inclusion, this […]
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The First Ever Community Foundations of Zimbabwe Convening: Our pledged support for community philanthropy.
The Big Bet on Engaged Communities At the beginning of this year, we coined our activities around “The Big Bet” where we went back to the drawing board and reactivated our sense of community participation in development and democratic processes. The Big Bet casts the spotlight on communities and what they do for each other […]
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Compliance is still a key factor for determining the financial inclusion of MSMEs.
But when we consider the high rate of informality in Africa, does this mean we should re-think our objectives for financial inclusion, or should we change our focus when it comes to making informal MSMEs compliant? How far have we come with financial inclusion? In the last few years, financial inclusion has become an important […]
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Africa’s SMEs: Some Big Gaps with Lot’s of Space for Growth!
MSMEs (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) in Africa Micro, small, and medium enterprises (also known as MSME’s) are the vast array of startups which characterise our economies. They range from small one-man operations on the roadside or a barber’s chair or the influencer behind a computer, to larger more affluent businesses with numerous employees, robust […]
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Full blog – The Big Bet: Engaged Communities
The discussion on the assets within communities is slowly disappearing from Development discourse, thanks to a preoccupation with state behaviour. Our big bet this year is on engaged citizens working collectively in communities and establishing associations are vital conditions for democracy and inclusive development to thrive. We will spend time trying to unravel how local associations work […]
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Lessons Learnt: the policy advocacy lab experiment
Leveraging Advocacy Labs to Solve the Public Problem of (UN)-Employment Reflections by Matron Muchena Introduction I am an Associate at SIVIO Institute. My responsibilities include the day-to-day coordination of several activities within the Centre for Civic Engagement. In our centre, we have, since (26 August 2023) been experimenting with the idea of advocacy labs. The […]
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Africa Giving and Shared Responsibility
Last week on Friday, we SIVIO Institute launched our 2023 signature initiative – AfricaGiving. It has been a long and challenging but exciting journey to get here and there is still a long journey ahead. AfricaGiving is many things to different people, on the one hand, it is about our culture, and what defines us as a people. Bheki […]
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Philanthropy and the Law in Southern Africa
Originally posted on Wings: https://members.wingsweb.org/news/651286 By Tendai Murisa and Shelly Satuku at SIVIO Institute The past decade has seen a nascent philanthropy/giving/solidarity movement in Southern Africa, like many other parts of the continent. There has been an increase in institutionalised forms of giving across the region through foundations led by High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI), community-based forms of solidarity […]
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My Reflections on the Policy and Advocacy Lab
What comes into your mind when you hear the term advocacy? In my case, whenever I explain my work to people, they always ask if I am now a politician. I have come to realise that most people associate advocacy with politics. Then again, everything is political. Prior to joining SIVIO Institute, I envisioned advocacy […]
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SAVE-OUR-SELVES: A Quick Note on Horizontal Philanthropy, Survival and Development
If you have found yourself reading this, I’d like to imagine that you already have a good enough understanding of what philanthropy is. So, I’ll delve into a brief explanation about the ‘horizontal’ part of it all- but of course, not without a little background.Philanthropy was not a new concept to me when I started […]