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Making WASH Sexy: An Often Neglected Sector Comes Into Its Own
In a social business landscape littered with apps and accelerators, WASH doesn’t come across as the sexiest of sectors. So when NextBillion launched its August focus on WASH, we editors weren’t expecting words like “hope” and “innovation” and “opportunity” to be thrown around a lot. But they were. And as the month ends, we’re feeling – dare we say it – excited about the long-term future of water, sanitation and hygiene, and about the businesses focused on improving them.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, WASH
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Powering Communities Through a Surprising Source of Renewable Energy: Human Waste
Around the world, a staggering 2.5 billion people lack access to decent toilets. That leads to far too many people getting sick from preventable diseases. Anne Healy and Erin Crossett of Development Innovation Ventures say the good news is that some enterprising companies are experimenting with ways to make human waste disposal profitable in the developing world.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, WASH
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From Smart Meters to ‘Water ATMs’: Innovative Solutions to Bring Water Services to Rural Africa
An estimated 663 million people lack access to clean and safe drinking water in the world today. Innovations such as smart metering services are being tested to enhance access to water. However, these solutions have not been widely adopted across Africa, except at some water vending points. George Muruka at MicroSave explores how these innovations can be scaled up to the household level.
- Categories
- Technology, WASH
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Empowering the Period: How Erasing the Menstruation Taboo Can Fight Extreme Poverty
Educated girls have smaller families and raise healthier and better-educated children. But a lack of supplies, toilets and privacy, compounded by fear and shame in an atmosphere that stigmatizes menstruation, prevent many impoverished girls from attending school once they reach puberty. There are some signs of positive change, however, with a growing number of organizations talking about “empowering the period.”
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, WASH
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Social Entrepreneurs, Ignore the Mantra of Focus at Your Own Peril
When SunFarmer went through Y Combinator in 2015, its founders heard a lot of startup wisdom, including the mantra of focus. But according to co-founder Andy Moon, the Nepal-based social enterprise ignored this advice –
then struggled to sell multiple products to multiple customer segments simultaneously. Moon discusses what went wrong, and how his firm is regrouping.- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- Base of the Pyramid, solar
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Why Startup Accelerators Won’t Create the Global Climate Technology Revolution
Accelerators may be a great way to launch the next Pokémon Go app or even Airbnb, but they're not as suited for climate startups in low- and middle-income countries. Jean-Louis Racine, leader of the infoDev Climate Technology Program at the World Bank Group, explores several reasons why accelerators are "at best an incomplete tool for building climate tech sectors."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Five Key Building Blocks for Sustainable, Inclusive Recycling Systems
For the past year, a working group formed by the MIT Practical Impact Alliance (an MIT D-Lab program) has been exploring strategies for developing effective inclusive recycling systems in India, Africa and Latin America. The result is the publication of a guide for practitioners that includes five key steps for developing inclusive systems, nine case studies and a tool for promoting recycling systems that benefit all stakeholders.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise, WASH
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How Your Business Can Help End the Global Water and Sanitation Crisis: Highlights from a New Report
Businesses are key to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, which calls for reaching everyone, everywhere with taps and toilets by 2030. A new report from WaterAid, CEO Water Mandate and WBCSD spells out an “ideal” approach to water, sanitation and hygiene which businesses could implement in their supply chains – and how that investment can contribute to core business values, both ethically and financially.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care, WASH
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