Ep. 65: Across Sectors, with MasterCard Foundation’s Reeta Roy

“In Africa the economy is also a patient. … We have a consortium in Ethiopia, for example – 12 businesses run by women who are pivoting and using their skills to now manufacture PPE. We’re doing the same in Ghana, working through a coalition … to get to 12,000 small businesses the financing they need.”Relatively new to the world of nonprofits, the MasterCard Foundation has had an outsized impact, especially in Africa. Led by President and CEO Reeta Roy, the organization has focused on financial and education initiatives that have reached 33 million people throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Their latest initiative, Young Africa Works, helps young people, particularly young women, find secure and fulfilling work.She realizes they can’t do alone, however. “I think about the problems before us today,” she tells Mike, “whether it is the question of systemic racism, whether it is about access to healthcare. … It is so clear to me that no one sector has the answers. That's going to take government, the private sector. It's going to take civil society, organizations, educational institutions.”