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A Simple, Painless Way Governments Can Help the Poor and the Environment
In Haiti there’s a 15 percent tariff and tax on clean cookstoves. Based on elasticity of demand, Dalberg projects that if improved cookstoves’ taxes and tariffs were eliminated, their annual sales would increase by 13 percent, from 185,000 to 209,000. This in turn would mitigate costs associated with health and environment consequences of traditional cooking techniques.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
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Social Business Roundup: Laureate Education Goes Big, Omidyar Gives Directly, Surdna Foundation Embraces Impact Investing
In social business news this week, the world's biggest for-profit college company raised $490 million in its public debut, Omidyar Network gave a $493,000 grant to support GiveDirectly's mission of sending unconditional cash transfers to the poor, and the Surdna Foundation announced plans to dedicate 10 percent of its endowment ($100 million) to a new impact investing fund. Read about these developments and more in our news roundup.
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- Education, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Social Business Roundup: Debating UBI in India, Pondering Change at WHO, Questioning SRI
In this week's social business roundup, our editors note the growing debate over replacing welfare programs with a universal basic income (UBI) in India, the limitations of WHO's donor-funded model, and an ironic side-effect of SRI's avoidance of "sin stocks" – among other developments making recent headlines.
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- Energy, Health Care, Investing
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Learning From Failure: Lessons From Nigeria About Integrating Technology Into Rural Health Systems
A study showed that most people living in a Nigerian territory lacked access to health care, leading to a radical eHealth pilot project. That pilot failed, but lessons learned ultimately led to a stronger and more sustainable eHealth framework in Nigeria and can help others who hope to integrate technology into health systems, especially in limited-resource settings.
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- Health Care, Technology
- Tags
- data, failure, rural development
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Social Business Roundup: Building Our Immunity to Anti-Vaxxers, Solar Loans With a Side of Health, and SRI Goes Robo
There’s a crisis of trust in the world, some of it well earned – and some, like skepticism about vaccines, completely unwarranted. We cover an alarming uptick in the anti-vax movement's profile, an effort to pair solar loans with health care in Ghana, and the emergence of "robo-SRI" in this news roundup.
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- Energy, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing, solar, vaccines
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Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Posts of 2016
Congratulations to the three winners of NextBillion’s “Most Influential Post of 2016” contest. Each winner brought a unique mixture of topicality, engaging writing and thought-provoking analysis to their posts, which tackled some of the most important issues facing the social business world in the past year.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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What We Know – and Don’t Know – About Zika and Its Treatment
Researchers all over the world are working on a vaccine for Zika but it will probably be next year, and possibly much longer, before health officials can determine whether a vaccine works or not. Meanwhile, with pathogens and their vectors moving farther and faster than ever before, it’s just a matter of time before Zika reaches many more parts of the world.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Weekly Roundup: A 1,030-Enterprise Survey, a Cuba/U.S. Collaboration, and a ‘Big Bet’ Primer
An expansive survey of social enterprises, a new health care collaboration between some old Cold War rivals, and an ambitious exploration of the challenges of "big bets" in philanthropy highlight this week's roundup of social business and global development news.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise