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Texting Toward a Better Business: What happened when women in three countries were offered bite-sized bits of business know-how via mobile phones
The Business Women mobile service, developed by the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the ExxonMobil Foundation and Nokia, offered women bite-sized bits of business know-how via their mobile phones. Every week, thousands of women in Nigeria, Indonesia, and Tanzania received five or six business tips as part of a year-long curriculum.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
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Where Ethics and the Enterprise Intersect: 1,001 questions at the 2015 Latin American Impact Investment Forum (FLII)
What is an ethical business? During last month’s Latin America Impact Investing Forum (FLII) Avina’s Bernardo Toro, said it clearly: “It is a business that doesn’t prey on people; one that creates real value; one that pays attention to what’s important, not what’s showy.” Simple and to the point, so why do we struggle with it?
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Striving for Consistency: A new guide aims to standardize impact assessments of the growing microinsurance market
Estimates suggest there are close to 270 million microinsurance clients in the developing world, with a potential market estimated at 3 to 4 billion policies. But while assessing the social impact of this growing sector is vital to improving product design, there is a dearth of consistency amongst the impact assessments being conducted. Microinsurance Network created “A Practical Guide to Impact Assessments” to address this challenge.
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- Education, Health Care, Impact Assessment
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NexThought Monday – Test Tubers: Why potatoes in Bangladesh are turning heads in the Andes
If you’re a subsistence farmer of potatoes, cassava or bananas, you’ll often sow your crops by taking cuttings from other plants. An alternative method of in vitro micro-propagation involves cloning plantlets in a laboratory setting. This can lead to dramatic gains in crop yields, but it’s expensive. But there may be a low-tech solution.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Technology
- Tags
- research
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Weekly Roundup – 2/20/15: A Turning Point in the Evolution of Microfinance?
There has been plenty of research questioning the social impact of microcredit. But the latest studies in the American Economic Journal feel far more momentous. Conducted by prominent poverty researchers, and covering six countries on four continents, they consistently undermine the sector’s core social impact claims. NextBillion will cover the Feb. 27 event on the research and the path ahead.
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- Education, Environment, Impact Assessment
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Corporations are the Missing Link: Private sector is uniquely positioned to improve newborn survival in India
India accounts for 27 percent of global newborn deaths, the highest in the world. Dasra, a Mumbai-based strategic philanthropy foundation, has been conducting research which highlights a critical “missing link” that can help India address newborn survival at scale: corporates.
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- Education, Health Care
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Assessing ROI in Educational Development: In India, assessment tools are still lacking, but change is coming
In India, there is a growing realization that quality of school education has to significantly improve in India, particularly for underprivileged students. Prachi Windlass at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation says a wider dialogue on applying a robust assessment framework to education in India is needed.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Teach a (Wo)Man to Fish … But What if it’s Against the Law?: The Women Thrive Conference explores how training women and improving their livelihoods can address gender inequality
When we pull women out of poverty, many positive things tend to happen. So why isn’t more being done to bring about economic empowerment for women, who represent six of every 10 people living in extreme poverty? What needs to change to make more happen? These were among the questions raised at the summit, which was held by Women Thrive earlier this month.
- Categories
- Education
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