Articles by James Militzer
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Interviews
Wednesday
July 29
2015Needed: Naïve People with Stupid Ideas: An interview with Intellecap co-founder and director Vineet Rai
When Intellecap was founded in 2002, few people would have predicted that it would become a social business and investing powerhouse. According to co-founder and director Vineet Rai, the company’s early years were defined by failure. He discusses the lessons he learned from these failures (and subsequent successes), Intellecap’s unique model and future plans, and many other topics in this wide-ranging video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Wednesday
July 22
2015June’s Most Popular Posts on NextBillion: From microfinance ‘haters’ to M-PESA challengers
Our most-read and most-shared posts for the month of June included an impassioned riposte in the microfinance debate, an analysis of changes in Kenya’s world-leading mobile money market, and appreciation for the value of health microinsurance.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Monday
July 6
2015NexThought Monday – Eight Takeaways from the BASE Forum III
Without the knowledge, equipment or infrastructure to truly thrive as entrepreneurs, BoP businesses will falter. At BASE Forum III more than 100 panelists from across the region and around the world came together to discuss how to enable merchants and consumers to alleviate poverty. Here are eight takeaways from the two-day event.
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- Uncategorized
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Saturday
June 13
2015Weekly Roundup – Walter Peck Had a Point: Why regulators and entrepreneurs sometimes have to ‘cross the streams’
There were plenty of supernatural bad guys in the movie Ghostbusters, but the villain you probably despised the most was the overbearing EPA agent Walter Peck. But while he may have been a jerk, his efforts to regulate the Ghostbusters were absolutely justified. We (somehow) tie the film to recent events in Uganda’s mobile money industry in this roundup.
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- Uncategorized
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Tuesday
June 9
2015Humanitarian Disasters are Getting Worse – Can Cash Transfers Get Better?: Navigating the challenges of e-transfers
It’s not your imagination: natural disasters are getting worse. Humanitarian agencies often respond with cash transfers, and many are now exploring digital options to get these funds to recipients more quickly and securely. We spoke with Sara Murray of the E-Transfer Learning Action Network and Rosa Akbari of the International Rescue Committee about the challenges and opportunities of this new approach.
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- Uncategorized
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Guest Articles
Saturday
May 23
2015Weekly Roundup: Natural Born Entrepreneurs: Why veterans make great businesspeople – and how the U.S. could help them succeed
As the U.S. salutes its veterans this Memorial Day, one of their under-appreciated contributions to the country is drawing increasing attention: their affinity for entrepreneurship. We discuss the reasons behind this phenomenon and the ways the public and private sectors are supporting it, in this roundup.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Friday
May 15
2015A Revolution in the Making: CGAP’s Greg Chen discusses how smartphones could transform financial inclusion and microfinance
Smartphone sales are exploding in emerging economies, with Latin America and the Middle East/Africa recording growth rates of 59 percent and 83 percent, respectively, last year. CGAP’s Greg Chen discusses how this new access could transform low-income people’s interactions with their financial services providers in this video Q&A, the latest in our series on the Future of Microfinance.
- Categories
- Technology
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Saturday
May 2
2015Weekly Roundup – A Tale of Two Earthquakes: As the development community focuses on Nepal, will it repeat the mistakes it made in Haiti?
Over 6,200 people have died from Nepal’s recent earthquake, with almost 14,000 injured – numbers that will certainly grow in the coming days. But as the world seeks ways to help the country, some are raising the cautionary tale of a related disaster: the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, and the inefficient, tragically mismanaged response from the global development community that followed it.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment