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News Blog

Start 2021 with a great book

by Allison Kooser

We are so excited to begin another year of reading together. With physical travel paused, we were even more grateful to travel around the world through the pages of great books. Take a moment to revisit the 12 amazing books we read in 2020—and share your favorites with a friend!

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Read one of the 100 notable books of 2020!

by Allison Kooser

This month, we are traveling west in Africa to Liberia to read one of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2020. Join us as we read The Dragons, The Giant, The Women by Wayétu Moore.

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The great Ugandan novel you didn’t know you were waiting for

by Allison Kooser

This month, the Opportunity Book Club is reading a book that book critic Aaron Bady of The New Inquiry described as “a masterpiece, an absolute gem, the great Ugandan novel you didn’t know you were waiting for.”

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Governor Spotlight: Johanna Mahal

by Laura DesGranges

Spotlight on Board of Governors member Johanna Mahal, who started the first Donor Trust Group.

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Ramping up E-Learning During the Pandemic

by Catherine O'Shea and Antonella Abategiovanni

When the global COVID-19 pandemic closed down travel in many countries in March 2020, the EduFinance Technical Assistance team saw an opportunity to support financial institutions that were attempting to rapidly transition to a temporary remote workforce. Recognizing that in-person professional development training for staff would not be possible for an extended period, the team decided to put pilot e-learning modules that were in development online and make them widely available as quickly as possible.

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The harrowing story of a boy soldier

by Allison Kooser

This month, the Opportunity Book Club is turning to one of the most powerful books out there: A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. In this unforgettable memoir, Beah recounts his harrowing experience fleeing rebel violence as a 12-year-old boy.

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Mutually Exacerbating Catastrophes: Responding to the 2020 Gates Goalkeepers Report

by Atul Tandon

Each fall, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation releases their annual Goalkeepers Report. Typically, the report celebrates our collective progress made toward the Sustainable Development Goals—progress that we at Opportunity frequently celebrate, too. Year over year, we have watched the incidence of extreme poverty around the world steadily decrease—from over 37% of the world’s population in 1990 to just under 7% last year. This progress gave us great reason for optimism, and encouraged our…

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Digital Finance in the Wake of COVID-19

by Rosa Wang

The recent report, “People’s Money: Harnessing Digitalization to Finance a Sustainable Future,” highlights the importance of digital finance in helping to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and explores how digitalization can be used to support vulnerable people, reduce inequalities, and sustain livelihoods. It notes that a key to transformative impact, especially now, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, is empowering people in their financing activities, especially as savers, borrowers,…

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A Bequest to Last a Lifetime: In Memory of Margaret Aydelotte

by Opportunity International

In 1953, a time when women were still excluded from many colleges and professions, Margaret Walker was making her own way. A London native, she excelled in the sciences and received a scholarship to attend Cambridge University’s Newnham College, where she pursed a degree in zoology and physiology. She stayed at Cambridge for her PhD in physiology, feeding a lifelong passion that would take her across the ocean, across another country, and across a lifetime.  Shortly after receiving her PhD, friends…

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Bringing Affordable Private Schools to the Table

by Atul Tandon and Andrew McCusker

In a recent letter directed to the G20, IMF, World Bank, Regional Development Banks, and national governments, 275 global leaders wrote: “With over one billion children still out of school because of the lockdown, there is now a real and present danger that the public health crisis will create a COVID generation who will lose out on schooling and whose opportunities are permanently damaged. While the more fortunate have had access to alternatives, the world’s poorest children have been locked…

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