woman in sierra leone selling soap

Microfinance Partner BRAC Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Zoe SoCOVID-19, Field Team Blogs, Microfinance Partners

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every one of our microfinance partners in different ways. The experience of this twin economic and health crisis differs from person to person, family to family, community to community, country to country. The Whole Planet Foundation team has been checking in with microfinance partners throughout …

Broadening Financial Inclusion Borders in Bangladesh

Claire KellyAsia and the Pacific, Field Team Blogs, Microcredit, Microfinance Partners

Spotlight on WPF’s Bold, New Partnerships According to Women’s World Banking, “Women in Bangladesh have the highest-ever rates of literacy and employment, and the country’s economy is growing. Financial inclusion now stands at more than 50 percent, nearly doubling in the past few years. But the financial inclusion gender gap …

staff at BRAC myanmar standing in front of the branch office

Microfinance vs. Informal Finance: A Fair Comparison?

Claire KellyAsia and the Pacific, Field Team Blogs, Microcredit, Microfinance Partners

If microfinance is so effective, then why hasn’t the industry put informal moneylenders out of business? This is the question that a recent paper, Microfinance for poverty alleviation: Do transnational initiatives overlook fundamental questions of competition and intermediation? in Transnational Corporations and accompanying blog set out to find the answer …

Shan Valley Helps Us Fund Microcredit in Myanmar

Olivia HaydenAsia and the Pacific, Foundation News, Supplier Partnerships

Our partner Shan Valley shares the story of tea sourcing in Myanmar, which was recently approved as our 68th country project. Whole Planet Foundation is committed to alleviating poverty in countries where Whole Foods Market sources product. These product connections enable us to fund microcredit in a given country. Learn …