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Taking Inspiration from Innovation: Key Insights from Eight Entrepreneurs Making an Impact in Emerging Markets
Whether they're working to increase smallholder farmers’ profits, promote water or sanitation solutions, or address other key needs in emerging markets, social entrepreneurs tend to face common challenges. That's why they must learn from each other if they hope to flourish. Brigit Helms at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship shares insights from eight entrepreneurs in Miller Center’s Clean Water and Climate-Smart Agriculture program, who discuss their innovations, the challenges they’ve overcome and the lessons they’ve learned.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise, WASH
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The Link Between WASH and ROI: New Research Shows How Investing in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Benefits Both Employees and the Bottom Line
There are clear links between water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and workplace productivity: WASH facilities improve worker health and wellbeing, boosting productivity and business performance. But as Kelly Parsons at WaterAid America explains, there has been a lack of research on how much WASH interventions really impact the bottom line of businesses in emerging markets. She shares results from a new WaterAid report that assessed the ROI of WASH investments at several businesses in India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Tanzania, and discusses how to maximize the impact of these interventions.
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Zero Waste vs. Climate Change: Why Waste Reduction Offers a Key Opportunity for Climate Action Through Private Enterprise
With the climate crisis growing increasingly urgent, pressure is mounting to find easily implementable, affordable solutions that yield fast results. As global leaders gather at the COP27 climate conference, waste reduction and management are increasingly seen as one such solution. According to Claire Arkin at GAIA, one reason for the enthusiasm around the waste sector’s climate potential is that it offers massive scope for business innovation. She discusses the connection between waste and climate change, and highlights some of the business models that are converting this global challenge into an opportunity for impact.
- Categories
- Environment, WASH
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Pushing the Water Boundaries: How Social Impact Incentives Can Make WASH Enterprises More Innovative, Impactful and Catalytic
The water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector is ripe for change, as it is far from being on track to achieve universal access to safe drinking water (SDG 6). According to Shabana Abbas at Aqua for All, and Bjoern Struewer and Patrizia Baffioni at Roots of Impact, impact entrepreneurs can drive the sector forward, but their funders will need to move away from the usual grant models to explore more innovative and sustainable financing approaches. They discuss one such model – Social Impact Incentives – and how it's being applied successfully to support WASH enterprises.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise, WASH
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NextBillion’s 2022 Reader and Guest Writer Survey: Share Your Views and Help Shape Our Coverage
As an open forum for the development through enterprise sector, almost all of NextBillion's content is guest written. That's why it's important for us to check in periodically with our writers and readers, to get a better sense of how well our coverage is suiting your needs – and what we could do better. To that end, we've put together a brief, six-question survey, and we invite both writers and readers to share your views. Your input will be highly valuable as we work to highlight the businesses, innovations, debates and leaders that are shaping the sector.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Investing, NextBillion Originals, Technology, WASH
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From Problem to Profit: Rewiring the E-Waste Value Chain in Africa
Africa is home to bountiful reserves of metals and minerals, but these resources have not unleashed widespread economic growth. However, as Anne Cathrine Garde and Blessing Layee-Maima Caine at the BESTSELLER Foundation explain, an “urban mine” is quietly growing on the continent, in the form of discarded electronic devices loaded with precious metals. They discuss how trailblazing trash entrepreneurs are tapping the riches sitting in Africa's overflowing landfills, and turning this problem into profit by rewiring the broken e-waste value chain.
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- Technology, WASH
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Filling the Water Access Funding Gap: Three Lessons to Maximize the Impact of Innovative Finance
More than two billion people still live without access to safe drinking water, but global funding to meet their water needs is severely lacking. As Lauren Cuscuna of Safe Water Network explains, innovative financing mechanisms can help fill the gap – but blended finance transactions in the water sector are lower than in other industries. She shares three key lessons Safe Water Network has learned while implementing innovative financing approaches to meet the long-term needs of the local water enterprises it works with in Ghana and India.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology, WASH
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Trash Talk: Why the Circular Economy Could be Sub-Saharan Africa’s Latest Leapfrog Industry
From mobile banking to off-grid energy, sub-Saharan Africa has shown a tendency to leapfrog the rest of the world in establishing widespread access to digital infrastructure and new technologies. Tine Fisker Henriksen at BESTSELLER Foundation explores how the continent is making similar strides in the circular economy. She shares how enterprises across the region are taking innovative approaches to waste management, developing groundbreaking approaches to waste collection and recycling – while also supporting the often-informal workers who power the industry.
- Categories
- Technology, WASH
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