small business

Axel van Trotsenburg reflects on his 37-year career at the World Bank

World Bank & IMF Meetings

Axel van Trotsenburg reflects on his 37-year career at the World Bank

As the global economy faces uncertainty, Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director of the World Bank, warns that “a wait-and-see attitude” is holding back investment and growth, especially in developing countries. Speaking with GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis on the sidelines of the 2025 World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, van Trotsenburg highlights human capital and infrastructure as key priorities, with a growing urgency to bridge both the digital and AI divides.

Local to global: The power of small business | Episode 2: How the circular economy empowers small businesses | GZERO Blue Circle x Mastercard podcast

Local to global: The power of small business

How the circular economy empowers small businesses

Imagine an economy where products are designed to be reused, repaired, and regenerated instead of ending up as waste. That’s the circular economy, a model that redefines recycling and transforms how small businesses operate. In this episode of Local to Global: The power of small business, host JJ Ramberg sits down with Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mastercard, and Rachel McShane, Chief Financial Officer at Depop, to discuss the scale of the circular economy, why circular practices boost both sustainability and profitability, and where the industry is headed next.

Closing the Gap: Digital Tools for Economic Empowerment Wednesday, October 19, 2022 | 11 am ET / 8 am PT

Closing the Gap

Watch live October 19: Can access to digital tools transform the world's economy?

Is digitization crucial to economic growth? GZERO Media is partnering with Visa to explore what it means when 70% of the global economy’s growth in the next decade is projected to come from digitally-enabled businesses – yet 3.7 billion people lack internet access. What are the tools and initiatives needed to bring more people into the digital economy? Live today, our expert panel will explore the impact of digitization on empowering consumers and small businesses. Watch here.

Will Nepal cash out?

Closing the Gap

Will Nepal cash out?

Like much of the world, Nepal saw digital payments soar during the pandemic. Tulsi Rauniyar, a young Nepalese documentary photographer, experienced the transition firsthand. With COVID making human touch a big concern, e-commerce and cashless transactions became more commonplace — so much so that Rauniyar herself rarely uses cash anymore. This technological globalization is increasingly helping female entrepreneurs and businesswomen succeed in Nepal. But it still needs to reach rural areas — where many hard-working women are unaware of these transformative technologies.

Connecting the world: the power of digital trade

Closing the Gap

Connecting the world: the power of digital trade

In their work around the globe, Catherine Shimony and her partner, Joan Shifrin, saw many women artisans in need. “We saw beautiful products women were making but they often didn’t have a market to sell them in, even locally. Beautiful products languished,” Shifrin explains. So they founded Global Goods Partners to help female artisans reach a global audience - and customer base. Since launching back in 2005, GGP has partnered with more than 60 artisan groups in countries throughout Africa, the Americas, and Asia.

After COVID, Belgian small business began to bloom

After COVID, Belgian small business began to bloom

Isabelle Nijs runs a hair salon in Begijnendijk, Belgium, about an hour’s drive to the northeast of Brussels. Nijs struggled to keep her business going through the pandemic during lockdowns and the lack of customers that brought. Rents and insurance premiums continued going up, but she didn’t get any financial support to meet the rising costs. Now, with people coming out of COVID restrictions, her business has begun to bloom … only to be impacted yet again, this time by the war in Ukraine. Now, she’s also dealing with supply chain issues, with prices going up and quality going down, not to mention long wait times.

Waiting for foot traffic to return in Tokyo

Waiting for foot traffic to return in Tokyo

Shizuka Takahashi wants Tokyo’s foot traffic to return. Having face-to-face interactions with her customers means everything to her — in fact, the desire to interact with people is why she opened her Tokyo shop, PuRe Juice Bar. She got the idea while living in New York City, where people know and love smoothies. In Tokyo, however, the juice culture is less common. Takahashi opened in 2019 only to be hit by reduced sales as a result of COVID-19. By learning to market herself throughout the pandemic, and with government aid, she’s been able to keep her company afloat. Now she’s looking forward to helping her Japanese customers get hooked on healthy juice drinks.