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Announcing Kiva’s Bold New Impact Strategy: The Nonprofit Microfinance Pioneer Shares its Refined Approach — And Unveils the Process Behind its Development
Both social enterprises and nonprofits need inspiring missions to thrive, and when those missions are coupled with well-crafted impact strategies, the change they seek to make is more likely to become reality. Kiva CEO Vishal Ghotge announces the pioneering microfinance nonprofit's latest impact strategy, explains how it will shape Kiva's next phase — and reveals the process behind its creation, so it can serve as a resource for other organizations.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise
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‘Build, Test, Respond’: How Lean Testing Enables Organizations to De-Risk Their Scaling Strategies — And Accelerate Their Impact
Both social enterprises and non-profits aspire to create an agile organizational culture that enables them to learn from failure. But according to Amy Ragsdale and Emma Colenbrander at Spring Impact, this is not always easy for organizations dealing with short-term funding cycles and cumbersome evaluation processes. They explore how lean testing can help social enterprises and non-profits optimize their strategy and unlock impact at scale, and share examples of organizations that are using this approach successfully.
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- Social Enterprise
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A Hidden Risk — And Opportunity — in Clean Energy: Why the Energy Transition Cannot Happen Unless it Addresses Women’s Unpaid Care Work
In advance of the first-ever International Day of Care and Support, Kate Grantham at FemDev Consulting and Carolina Robino and Flaubert Mbiekop at the International Development Research Centre highlight the interconnections between unpaid care work and the global transition to clean energy. They argue that this transition will falter unless it addresses women's heavy and unequal responsibility for unpaid care work — reducing women’s clean energy contributions, and possibly reinforcing existing gender inequalities in the process.
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- Energy, Social Enterprise
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From Trash Barriers to ‘Sky Latrines’: Leveraging Entrepreneurship to Address WASH-Related Challenges in Cambodia’s Floating Villages
Cambodia faces a number of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)-related challenges — particularly in the floating villages and dense lakeside communities around the Mekong River. As Simon Crittle at iDE explains, these waterways are heavily contaminated, causing residents to suffer from waterborne diseases. He explores how iDE is addressing these issues by helping local community members create and monetize waste-management solutions — providing livelihoods for women entrepreneurs in the process.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
- Tags
- hygiene, recycling, sanitation, waste, water, women entrepreneurs
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Overcoming Barriers to Impact Investment in Africa: Interviews with Fund Managers Reveal Three Promising Solutions to the Continent’s Funding Gap
African-based investment fund managers face an uphill battle to secure the capital they need to invest in home-grown enterprises, particularly when social impact is a key part of their investment strategies. Bernard Chidzero, Nkanyiso Hlongwa and Serena Fu at The Bridgespan Group share highlights from a recent report based on interviews with 25 stakeholders in the continent's impact investing sector, which reveal the obstacles faced by African fund managers — and some potential solutions.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Looking Back, Looking Forward: Exploring NextBillion’s New Features and Updated Design, As We Approach Our Third Decade Online
Yesterday, NextBillion launched the latest phase of our ongoing site redesign. Since this redesign represents one of the most significant shifts of the site’s features and functionality in our almost 20-year history, we wanted to explain the thinking behind these changes, and explore how our new design reflects both NextBillion’s ongoing evolution, and the evolution of the broader “impact media” space.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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A Pivotal Moment to Invest in Africa: How Impact Investing Can Transform the Continent’s Healthcare Value Chain
The global impact investment market is estimated to be worth US $1.16 trillion, but less than 2% of these investments are channeled to Africa’s health markets. Abiodun Awosusi at the Ivey Business School argues that this should not be the case, as the continent offers uniquely valuable opportunities for health businesses and the investors that support them. He explores the overlapping trends that are driving these opportunities, and shares some ways investors and other stakeholders can get involved.
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- Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Insights from 10 Years of Boosting Gender Inclusion in Business: A Pioneering Social Enterprise Explores How the Sector Can Take the Next Steps
Over the past 10 years, gender inclusion has become a growing priority in business and investing. However, as Rebecca Fries and Luis Marquez at Value for Women point out, only $6 billion was raised for gender lens investing in 2021 — a tiny percentage of the $1.2 trillion raised by private markets globally. As Value for Women moves into its second decade, they share insights that will fuel progress toward gender inclusion in business and investment in emerging markets over the coming years.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise