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India’s Demographic Dividend: The Impact Opportunity in Student-Led Social Business
India's social enterprise sector is growing fast, but its overall startup ecosystem doesn’t support social businesses as much it does “commercial” enterprises. And the support it does offer tends to be directed toward larger, more established companies, hampering the sector's broader growth. According to Geet Kalra at Yunus Social Business and Nandan Luthra at Novartis, India can turn this around by leveraging its huge youth population to build multiple small enterprises, through a model called student-led social business. They discuss the potential impact of this innovative approach.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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How Gender Equality Can Help Build Sustainable Peace
Persuading private investors to back projects that advance gender equality calls for concerted efforts to show that empowering women could reduce risks and enhance overall outcomes, especially in creating sustainable peace in conflict-affected regions around the world.
- Categories
- Finance
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The Lagos Entrepreneurs Championing Recycling as a Way of Life
For most Lagosians, recycling is more of a side benefit to the much bigger challenge of a metropolis visibly sinking in some neighborhoods under the sheer weight of waste a city of 20 million people can produce. And yet, attitudes are changing.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Dragons Scale Naturally; Social Enterprises Don’t: Here Are Four Tips That Make It Faster and Easier for Every Entrepreneur
If you’re a social entrepreneur, here's some bad news for you: You weren’t born to scale. According to Rob Shelton at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, in reviewing 100 enterprises from the past 10 years, the Center found that less than 10% were able to scale successfully. But he also offers some good news: In spite of the odds, you can learn to scale successfully – if you're willing to shift management gears, learn some new things and push beyond your existing model. Shelton shares a straightforward process that can make scaling possible for every entrepreneur.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Our Obsession with ‘Systems Change’ Leaves Marginalized Women Vulnerable – Let’s Empower Them to Advocate for Themselves
Last December, while driving through rural Uganda, KadAfrica founder Rebecca Kaduru was gravely injured in a car accident. Taken to the district hospital, she faced a stark reality: There was no doctor, no medications, not even gauze and sutures. The experience highlighted the barriers to women's empowerment in the country, where hospitals like this are often the best option for maternal health emergencies, and care is only available to those who fight for it. Kaduru explores why gender equality requires less focus on changing systems, and more on helping women advocate for themselves.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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India’s Recykal Announces Closing of 2 Million Us Dollars PreSeries a Funding for Its Expansion
The company’s technology solutions are deployed across 150 businesses and it is currently operational in Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore, and channelizes more than 1000 metric tonnes of recyclables per month through its platform.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Scaling your Social Enterprise – While Handling your Success: A Q&A with Microfinance Pioneer Alex Counts
Few people know more about the opportunities and pitfalls of scaling a social enterprise than Alex Counts. A seminal figure in microfinance, he led Grameen Foundation's growth from a $6,000 start-up to a $20 million powerhouse, while playing a key role in the often turbulent expansion of the broader microfinance sector. NextBillion caught up with Counts to discuss his latest book, “Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind.” The book – and this Q&A – provide essential advice for social impact leaders working to grow their organizations – and dealing with the new tensions scale can bring.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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Sistema.bio Raises $12 Million to Help 200,000 Farmers Worldwide Including India
The social enterprise is planning to impact 200,000 smallholder farmers in India, Mexico, South America and Kenya, with the biodigester technology in the next three years.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Tags
- agtech, social enterprise