-
Impact and Risk Metrics…in Smallholder Finance and Beyond: Three new metrics collaboration tools from the Initiative for Smallholder Finance
In financing smallholder farmers, there’s a gap of over $400 billion between demand and supply. Impact and risk metrics can play an important role in closing that gap, but current metrics are confusing to industry leaders and daunting to potential new entrants. The Initiative for Smallholder Finance has created three new metrics collaboration tools to help clarify the space.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
-
NexThought Monday (2/10/14) – The Kiva Fairytale: It’s a Microlending Superstar – But Who is it Really Serving?
Beloved by the public and celebrated by the likes of Bill Clinton and Oprah, Kiva is perhaps the most famous microlender in the world. It lets users lend small amounts via the Internet to individual low-income entrepreneurs, based on their personal stories and photos. But according to Hugh Sinclair, it’s focused more on making lenders feel good than on actually helping the poor.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
NexThought Monday (1/20/14) – The Tragic Failure of Microcredit: Yunus’ Dream Has Become a Nightmare for the Global Poor
Microcredit was devised as a free market solution that would enable the global poor to escape their own poverty by starting an income-generating activity. But Milford Bateman argues that due to deregulation, commercialization - and fundamental flaws in the model - microcredit has instead undermined developing economies and trapped the poor in a cycle of debt.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Welcoming Cuba as an Emerging Market, ‘Lab’ for Social Enterprise
Insomuch as the Cuban people are underserved by their government on a host of vital services – from transportation to medical devices to Internet connectivity to agricultural development – the opportunities for social enterprises are enormous. Several organizations have been laying the groundwork for a new, pro-business relationship with Cuba’s government and its people.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
-
Scaling Corporate Social Enterprise Conference: Why innovation is not enough
At the Scaling Corporate Social Enterprise Conference in Santiago, Chile Ron Adner, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, invited us to think always about the extra mile that our innovation requires. Here’s why: Because innovation on its own, loose, is not enough.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Twitter Top Ten – 12/14/14: Our favorite tweets of the week
As we move one step closer to the end of the year, we’ve got a full slate of interesting tweets from the past week. They include some encouraging investments and new partnerships, important new research, and an intriguing reply from Safaricom to a recent NextBillion post. As always, if you see anything you like, be sure to retweet it.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
-
October’s Most Viewed, Most Shared Posts on NB
The most popular and most shared articles for October focus on hybrid profit/nonprofit approaches to social enterprise, the need for smarter microfinance approaches and the re-issue of a database tracking more than $15 billion in impact fund assets.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
-
Open Eyes, Open Source: Peek’s low-cost ophthalmoscope looks to gain traction, expertise through collaborations
Peek Retina, a low-cost ophthalmoscope adapter, will operate on a split pricing model. NGOs and health institutions operating in low-income countries will be able to purchase the adapter at a reduced price, while it will be sold at a higher price in high-resource settings.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.