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Education Without Borders: Helping Promising Students Gain Access to U.S. Universities
Access to American higher education should not be determined by where someone was born, but rather by their merit and potential, argues Joel Frisch of Prodigy Finance. However, avenues to financing still hinge on an applicant’s assets and home country – burdensome conditions for many students in emerging markets. With a model that borrows elements from impact investing, Frisch describes how Prodigy is helping students get a U.S. education, while helping investors get both social and financial returns.
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- Education
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Conference Coming Soon: A Sneak Peek at the e-MFP’s 2018 European Microfinance Week
The fall conference season is in full swing. This week, NextBillion profiles the 2018 European Microfinance Week, coming to Luxembourg Nov. 14-16, which will feature over 500 global microfinance leaders exploring topics that range from serving the needs of smallholders and refugees, to ensuring client protection in digital finance. NextBillion will be a media partner at the event, and we'll be broadcasting a livestream of one of the plenary sessions - a debate on whether smaller MFIs are still relevant in today's market.
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- Inclusive Fintech
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A Generational Challenge: What We’ve Learned About Addressing Youth Unemployment
Youth unemployment is a pressing issue in developed countries, but in emerging economies, the situation is even more dire. Unemployment rates of 20 percent or higher are common, with some countries reaching as high as 50 percent. Effective solutions will require an urgent, concentrated and collaborative effort, say Emily Coppel of BRAC USA and Patricia Langan of Save the Children. They outline three key lessons for addressing this challenge, previewing a Sept. 24 forum where some of the top development organizations, research institutes and donors will discuss a path forward.
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- Impact Assessment
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Refrigeration Off the Grid: Can This Technology Reduce Food Spoilage for the Billions Without Electricity?
Home refrigerators, essential appliances in much of the world, remain out of reach to over one billion people who, as social entrepreneur Quang Truong puts it, must plan their lives around eating rather than vice versa. Without access to reliable grid energy, families are not just inconvenienced – they’re also contributing to climate change as their rotting foods emit greenhouse gasses. In this post, part of our “Offline Innovation” series, Truong puts the spotlight on his Fenik Yuma cooler, which solves this dilemma through low-tech evaporative cooling.
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- Energy, Technology
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The Trouble with ‘Free’: Why Treating the Poor as Customers Works Better than Charity
Lack of access to safe water is a leading cause of illness in developing countries. Yet for years, Guatemalan entrepreneur Philip Wilson's family foundation worked to distribute free water filters across the countryside, only to see recipients repurpose them as flower pots and garbage cans. After going into the field to meet real families that were living with unsafe water, he came up with a better approach: a business model that treats the rural poor as consumers of products rather than objects of charity. He explores the reasons this model is working, and the challenges it has faced.
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- Entrepreneurship, WASH
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