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The OPIC Blog
World Health Day highlights need for better health care in developing countriesApril 05, 2013April 7th is designated as World Health Day each year by the World Health Organization (WHO) to commemorate that agency’s founding. In conjunction with this, WHO annually highlights a theme that has a significant global health impact and often focuses on issues – such as access to clean water – that are particularly relevant to the developing world. This year, 
Improving health care in Africa, one clinic at a timeApril 04, 2013In Sub-Saharan Africa, access to healthcare is limited, the quality of care is often poor, and the need is great. The continent carries a disproportionate share of the global burden of many diseases from HIV/AIDS to high blood pressure, and this disease load is exacerbated by widespread poverty, food insecurity and poor sanitation. In this challenging environment, where public funding 
OPIC monitoring trip to Kenya: Big plans becoming realityFebruary 19, 2013By: Tim Harwood An interdepartmental OPIC team traveled to Kenya in 2012 to monitor the performance of three financial institutions whose microfinance lending is supported by the agency: Musoni, the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust DTM Ltd (KWFT), and Equity Bank. Over the course of three days, members of OPIC’s Office of Investment Policy, Portfolio Management Department, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise 
Featured photo: Supporting small businesses in AfricaFebruary 08, 2013In Nairobi, Kenya, Equity Bank CEO Dr. James Mwangi (center) introduces OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield to Equity Bank agent Maureen Wambugu (right). One of the bank’s community branches is surrounded by several local businesses, including a second hand shoe trader, whose owner used an Equity Bank micro loan to expand his business. OPIC is providing $8.45 million in OPIC and GE partner to bring clean cookstoves to East AfricaFebruary 05, 2013Last Thursday, outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a new OPIC partnership with GE to finance a clean cookstoves project in East Africa – one of a select series of public-private partnerships producing sustainable solutions to key global challenges that she chose to highlight during her final week in office. Developmentally, the project addresses one of the world’s most 
OPIC monitoring trip to Kenya: A revolution realizedJanuary 16, 2013An interdepartmental OPIC team traveled to Kenya last year to monitor the performance of three financial institutions whose microfinance lending is supported by the agency: Musoni, the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust DTM Ltd (KWFT), and Equity Bank. Over the course of three days, members of OPIC’s Office of Investment Policy, Portfolio Management Department, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Finance Department, and 
Featured photo: Improving financial inclusion through microfinanceOctober 26, 2012OPIC President & CEO Elizabeth Littlefield, Equity Bank founder James Mwangi (far left) and other bank representatives visit a branch in Nairobi, Kenya, to learn more about improving financial inclusion through microfinance and mobile banking technologies. The OPIC-supported Helios Sub-Saharan Africa Fund invested in Equity Bank, which has operations throughout East Africa. 
Expanding access to banking and credit in Sub-Saharan AfricaOctober 23, 2012Financial inclusion – the access to basic financial services like savings accounts and credit – can be essential to individuals trying to lift themselves out of poverty. Financial inclusion provides an opportunity to invest in a business, a home or an education. Rates of financial inclusion are low throughout much of the developing world, but particularly low in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
Featured photo: Students singing at Nairobi’s Ongata Pine Breeze AcademyOctober 12, 2012Lillian Alwi, right, leads students in song at the Ongata Pine Breeze Academy outside Nairobi, Kenya. As school director, Alwi has used two loans from the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust (KWFT) to build Pine Breeze into a bustling source of hope for more than 500 children from a poor community in the Ngong Hills – “my passion,” she says. OPIC 
OPIC monitoring trip to KenyaOctober 09, 2012By: Tim Harwood An interdepartmental OPIC team traveled to Kenya in June to monitor the performance of three financial institutions whose microfinance lending is supported by the agency: Musoni, the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust, and Equity Bank. Over the course of three days, members of OPIC’s Office of Investment Policy, Portfolio Management Department, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Finance Department, and |
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