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Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC: Poverty’s About Deprivation, and It’s Fixable (Video)
“Oppressed people have got their own way of thinking about life,” said Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC, “and if you can somehow mobilize them, make them critically aware of their own condition, and get them to act on their own behalf, make them an actor in their own history, then things become much easier.” Watch our in-depth interview.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Making it Rain: The Forecast on Weather Index Insurance
A host of risks, including too much or too little rain, keeps farmers from adopting inputs and practices that may yield more profitable crops. But weather index insurance could be the hedge many farmers need. The Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative reviewed several randomized control trials about how to make insurance a more attractive option for farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Nine Reasons Social Enterprises Should Put Locals in Executive Positions
As an American social entrepreneur living in Uganda, the author says it's easier and often cheaper – because of roots and networks – to hire other Americans. But if you want to navigate a company through foreign culture, customs and policies, he says, make sure you put locals in executive positions.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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More Giant Rats On the Way. And That’s a Good Thing.
APOPO trains African giant pouched rats to sniff out tuberculosis (TB), a top infectious disease killer worldwide even though it’s curable and preventable. The program has proven successful in screening for TB in crowded prisons in Tanzania and Mozambique, and APOPO hopes to roll it out in at least six countries by 2020.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Four Trends in Global Health Care for the Poor
The Center for Health Market Innovations' annual review of its program database, featuring more than 1,500 programs working in 130 countries, reveals new research and innovative solutions emerging from the private sector – particularly in the areas of adolescent care, disaster response, the co-creation of solutions and reported results.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Weekly Roundup: Social Enterprise Meets Reality TV – Is That a Good Thing?
Today, 12 India-based social entrepreneurs will make TV history as the world’s first reality show about social enterprise and impact investing is broadcast on NDTV. The program is being billed as an attempt to mainstream the sector via a popular medium - a worthy goal, but is reality TV really the right way to achieve it? We discuss this question, and other developments in the social business space, in this roundup.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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Mobile Data Has the Answers, But First, We Need to Ask the Right Questions
I’ve realized that when guiding social enterprises, nonprofits and international NGOs to begin using data, it’s helpful to focus on a key, sometimes obvious point: data has to actually answer a critical business or programmatic question. Mobile data collection for the sake of collecting data isn’t enough.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- research
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Small Farmers Meet Big Data: How the Data Revolution Could Transform Smallholder Finance
The enormous gap between the supply and demand of formal credit for smallholder farmers has been well documented. Among the varied causes of this mismatch is the extreme lack of information on potential borrowers that’s available to lenders. Two recent data-focused innovations, however, could dramatically reduce these information challenges and the associated lending risks, which could help open up pools of capital for previously underserved populations.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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