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Social Entrepreneurship and Global Warming
The consequences of a temperature rise greater than 2°C would be catastrophic for all of humanity, but the greatest impact would be on the planet’s poorest people, who face profound loss from flooding, displacement and food scarcity. Social entrepreneurs are among those best positioned to improve the lives of the poor and mitigate global warming, says Thane Kreiner.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- renewable energy
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June’s Most Popular, Most Shared Posts: Failure and Success in Microfinance Products, Wireless Currency and Bold Ideas in Global Health Lead the List
Winston Churchill said: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
NextBillion’s most-read blog post in June explained how failure has helped influence microfinance institutions better understand their customers’ needs.- Categories
- Health Care
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Failure to Launch: Why Mobile Money Hasn’t Taken off in Nigeria – And How the Sector Can Turn Things Around
In contrast to other African countries, Nigeria’s digital finance sector has yet to take off, with one survey finding that just 0.01 percent of Nigerians have a mobile money account. Critics suggest the lack of progress is due to banks rather than telecoms leading the charge. But research from the Helix Institute of Digital Finance suggests that other factors may be responsible - and points toward some solutions.
- Categories
- Education, Finance, Technology
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What the IMF Mandate Means for the Poor: The organization says it’s focused on narrowing the income gap – but will this affect policy?
The International Monetary Fund is known for its multi-billion dollar bailouts of struggling countries, but the organization now says narrowing the income gap between the very poor and the very rich is a key tenet of its mission. How income inequality fits into aid packages is yet to be seen, says Isaac Otto, but it is beginning to enter into the equation.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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India’s Startup Focus Needs to Include Social Enterprises: How the 2014 budget can improve the ecosystem
The initial Indian budget, recently tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has focused on startups and entrepreneurs by setting aside INR 10,000 Crores (USD $1.6 billion) in various initiatives. But it’s also essential that social enterprises and their specific funding requirements are considered.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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NexThought Monday: Expanding the Universe of Impact Investing: How international NGOs can access investor capital to increase their impact on a large scale
Impact investments started out as mostly start-up or early-stage investments in small but promising companies that aim for a measurable social impact. But what’s next? Zurich Insurance Group and Population Services International explore how impact investing could work for a larger universe of private investors and international NGOs.
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- Impact Assessment
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Rebuilding Haiti with Mobile Phones: How mobile data collection and management is facilitating relief efforts
Grameen Foundation originally designed TaroWorks to facilitate analysis of data gathered on mobile phones to help track poverty levels. But as Alex Counts describes it, it has evolved into a mobile-based field-force management tool used by a growing number of humanitarian groups and social enterprises - including an organization that’s using it to facilitate relief efforts in Haiti.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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Healthy Foods and New Jobs, Part 2: Infrastructure matters
On the way to introducing a food cart vendor business in Benin, West Africa, MamaCarts has encountered all sorts of problems with sanitation, incorporation and the government. But there’s a positive spin on these infrastructure gaps: Alternative solutions do exist and people circumnavigate these difficulties on a daily basis.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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