Insights | November 2022

In our globally connected world, an inclusive and sustainable digital economy can be the cornerstone for peace, progress and prosperity.?

Below, you will find our monthly dispatch on how the Center and our partners are supporting female entrepreneurs, empowering small businesses, creating good jobs, tackling racial inequities, and using data-driven insights to build more resilient communities:

New Federal Industrial Policy Creates Incentives for High-Quality Jobs

WorkRise | NAM | Financial Security?

Alongside the Bipartisan Infrastructure and CHIPS and Science Act, the IRA could shape the labor market in ways that benefit both workers and employers in industries poised for growth. This article discusses how the laws encourage employers to pay their workers a fair wage and expand apprenticeship opportunities.?

?Beyond the Training Gap: Learning Foundational Skills on the Job

Bruegel?| Europe | Future of Workers

As employers struggle increasingly to find workers who fit the jobs available, it has become crucial to equip the European workforce with skills for the jobs of the future. Low-skilled workers tend to have jobs that are less likely to foster foundational skills, worsening skills gaps and income inequality. This blog discusses the recent research around job skills and what employers and policy-makers can do to support employees.??

?Data Science for Social Impact Curriculum?

Social Policy Institute at Washington University?| NAM | Impact Data Science?

Washington University St. Louis launched their free data science for social impact curriculum, a set of modules accessible to folks from all data and non-data backgrounds to better understand how data can be leveraged for social impact. The course focuses on equitable, community-centred data practices.??

Reimagining Data Science Education for Social Impact

data.org | NAM | Impact Data Science

In this article, data.org explores 3 ways to reimagine data science education for social impact, emphasizing the need for experiential learning, working with messy real-world datasets, and improving both ethnic and gender diversity to democratize data science education. These efforts can pave the way for a new generation of diverse, interdisciplinary, and effective data scientists.??

Optimizing Data Pipeline Platforms: DataKind San Fransisco Partners with Grameen America?

DataKind?| NAM | Impact Data Science?

Currently, only 4% of all small business loans from mainstream financial institutions in the U.S. go to women, and Grameen America has disbursed over $2.6B to more than 155,000 low-income women entrepreneurs. DataKind San Fransisco has partnered with Grameen America as part of its DataAdvisory projects to provide recommendations on building out their data infrastructure to improve data insights.??

?Using the Inclusive Growth Score to Address UK's Levelling Up Missions in York and North Yorkshire

Inclusive Growth Score?| Europe | Impact Data Science?

The UK government's levelling up agenda puts forth 12 missions for policymakers promote inclusive economic growth across the country and bring more decision-making power to local governments. The Inclusive Growth Score UK platform provides annual, hyper-local data points that may inform a targeted approach at bringing investment and resources where they are currently lacking, and offers a consistent way to track progress over time. We zoom into York and North Yorkshire to understand how they could use the Inclusive Growth Score as they plan their recent devolution deal.?

The Impact of Digital Transformation on Underserved Microbusinesses: Findings from Accion's Partnership with Mastercard

Accion | Global | Financial Security | Digital Economy

In November 2018, the Mastercard Impact Fund and Accion launched the MSE accelerator program (MAP) to support millions of underserved micro and small businesses around the world by digitally transforming their financial service providers (FSPs). This report shares the findings from this work and learnings from the 47 fintechs and 9 FSPs across Asia, Latin America, and Africa.