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From Extremely Poor to Entrepreneur: A Starter Asset Combined with Mentorship Forges Pathway Out of Poverty
Today Arfa Bibi runs a successful vegetable farming business in India. Only a few years ago, however, Bibi and her husband struggled to feed their family and she even resorted to begging. Her transformation into entrepreneur came thanks to Kolkata-based nonprofit Bandhan-Konnagar's graduation model program Targeting the Hardcore-Poor, whose success was cited in a six-country MIT study of 21,000 of the world's poorest people.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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From Beehive Fences to Coconut Bombs: 10 Non-Chemical Pest-Control Innovations for the Global South
Farm-raiding elephants and malarial mosquitoes are among the pests that plague the Global South. But farmers there also contend with pests that are all too familiar on farms anywhere in the world: harvest-munching rats and mice, for example. Rob Goodier at Engineering for Change lists 10 non-chemical pest-control solutions designed for any place resources are constrained.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Deprived or Different?: Tips for Social Entrepreneurs Working Across Cultures
Not all people value the same things. This is crucial information for social entrepreneurs working across cultures, says the author, Andrea Nelson Trice, who conducted more than 70 related interviews around the world. She offers a few tips to social entrepreneurs on how they can make sense of their customers' differing priorities and dreams, and how these might impact an enterprise’s success.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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Geodata Technology Moving Into New Fields. Literally.
Geodata and ICT applications help farmers with precision farming, leading to increased yields and improved quality. This information has not yet been made available to financial institutions at a large scale, but it has the potential to increase access to finance for smallholder farmers. The Rabobank Foundation and NpM have launched a Board of Inspiration to help speed the process.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Creative Climbing: How Impact Enterprises are Overcoming Obstacles in East Africa
In 2016, Intellecap undertook a study to better understand how East African impact entrepreneurs manage to design viable business models despite the various market challenges. The insights from the study can inform inclusive development in the region and across the global south. The study classified impact enterprises across three levers based on their interaction with the BoP: access, ability and knowledge.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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‘Doing Good By Doing Deals’: How Law Students Help Social Entrepreneurs Help Small Farmers
The International Transactions Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School works with social entrepreneurs who are inventing new ways to strengthen agriculture in rural Africa, improving agricultural inputs, developing sustainable practices and building supply chains. They all operate in a legal no-man’s land between existing nonprofit and for-profit regimes, which means that both the social entrepreneurs and their legal counsel need to be especially enterprising.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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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
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Rethinking the ‘Youth Are Not Interested in Agriculture’ Narrative
Agriculture is the backbone of many sub-Saharan countries and, anecdotal evidence aside, it's not necessarily true that youth are not interested in it. But the sector won't reach its huge potential, and "agripreneurs" won't get the support they need, until certain government and private sector structures and processes are transformed.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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