Religion and educational mobility in Africa: A landmark study published in ‘Nature’

Education has long been recognized as a key driver of development and empowerment in Africa. However, the impact of religion on educational mobility has remained a topic of concern and debate. In a landmark study published in Nature, called Religion and educational mobility in Africa, Elias Papaioannou, Alberto Alesina, Sebastian Hohmann, and Stelios Michalopoulos, supported…

Creating impact for rural communities in India, gaining valuable skills, and fostering the LBS community

During this spring I had the opportunity to work as a team leader for Project Aasha, an impact consulting project in collaboration with Head Held High, an incubator for social changemakers that develops transformational programmes to help households in rural India move out of poverty. Our challenge: how do we measure and assess poverty in…

OnPeri: Supporting female empowerment by designing a go-to-market strategy for a FemTech venture

We are Aman Desai, Madeline Goodman (MAM2021), Lorenzo Bacheca (MiM2021), and Marion Denis (MiM2021). With an interest in social impact and the knowledge obtained through our Early Careers programs, we stepped into Project Aasha to support OnPeri – an Indian social enterprise that redesigns and promotes the use of menstrual cups. During our first call,…

Ecowrap: Tackling waste management in India

We are Zoé and Jules from Belgium, Anna from China and Christopher from the Netherlands and through project Aasha we used the business and analytical skillset we developed at LBS to help create a positive impact on society. With the skills acquired from our Masters in Financial Analysis and our Masters in Management, along with…

How to design an engagement strategy and add value to donors

Rafael Piedade (MiM2021), Vincenz Mautner-Markhof (MFA2021), Khyati Narula (MiM2021), Yixun Sun (MiM2021) During this year we had the opportunity to work in team for Project Aasha, an impact consulting project in collaboration with Labhya Foundation, an NGO, which aims to enable children to cope with the ill-effects of poverty and to become lifelong learners through…

Project Aasha – Doing business for good

Project Aasha is an annual recurrence for London Business School’s early career students. Originally founded four years ago, Aasha provides students with the opportunity to work as pro-bono consultants for Indian organizations (known internally as changemakers) that work to positively affect local communities in India. For students, it is a strong opportunity to try out…

Understanding how to scale gender impact through fintech

Scale Series Expert Q&A with Katherine Owens, Head of Labs (R&D) at M-KOPA. Read our previous Q&A with with Ruby Nimkar, Principal at Greenhouse Capital. As part of a series of expert interviews, the Wheeler Institute’s Science of Scale research team interviewed experts including practitioners, policymakers and investors to understand practicalities and perspectives on scaling digital…

Scale Series Expert Q&A with Ruby Nimkar

Read our next Scale Series Expert Q&A with Katherine Owens, Head of Labs (R&D) at M-KOPA. As part of an on-going series, the Wheeler Institute’s DigitalxScale research team interviewed experts including practitioners, policymakers and investors to understand practicalities and perspectives on scaling digital technologies across Africa. In this interview with Ruby Nimkar, Principal at Greenhouse Capital, WIBD…

Is there a science to scale? Launch of the DigitalxScale website and report

Nearly 15 years ago, M-PESA launched as one of the world’s first mobile money payment systems – catalysing business growth and banking those otherwise excluded from formal financial institutions. Today more than 700 fintech companies operate across the African continent. Collectively, these fintech companies have created digital payment infrastructures that help businesses and individuals overcome…

Scale and fintech in Africa – some hard questions

Do we know how many African fintech companies have reached scale? Scale is often deemed a yardstick of success by investors, policy makers and practitioners. So it follows that we should be able to answer this question, right? However, this is not as simple as it may seem. There is established knowledge in academia on…