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Serving the Trillion Dollar BoP Energy Market
Not everyone wants to spend their weekend in a conference room discussing challenges like benchmarking low-cost solar home lighting systems, finding the right business model, and raising the seed capital. But for the 11 social entrepreneurs gathered with experts and the CSTS Clean Energy Sector team, there’s no place else we would have rather been.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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Sustainable, Equitable Transportation Policy and the Rickshaw
In cities across South Asia, the ubiquitous rickshaw dominates traffic tangled streets. Yet, solutions to the problem are not as simple as just eliminating the toxic three-wheelers. Integrating new innovations in rickshaw design, manufacturing or upgrading are essential to a pro-poor and environmentally friendly transportation policy.
- Categories
- Health Care, Transportation
- Tags
- transportation
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Social Entrepreneurship Takes Off in Brazil
From 2001 to 2009, poverty rates dropped from 35.2 percent of the total population to 21.4 percent. Yet, that still leaves more than 40 million Brazilians below the poverty line. But over the past few years, leading Brazilian-based organizations have been cultivating social or inclusive business models.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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On Opposite Continents, 2 Individuals Turning Waste Into Wealth
Solid waste management is a serious problem in developing countries like Nepal, as dumping garbage in open spaces causes disease and pollution. Meanwhile, the favelas of Brazil offer few options for sustainable living, but one low-cost, sustainable village is in the planning. Courtesy of ViewChange, two videos explore real ecological alternatives.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- waste
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A Closer Look At Ashoka’s Urban Housing Challenge (With Video)
Ashoka’s Changemakers launched a global competition in November, 2010 - Sustainable Urban Housing: Collaborating for Liveable and Inclusive Communities. For months this online competition provided a dynamic platform for discussion and collaboration. By spring 2011 the panel of judges had the incredible task of selecting the following three winners:
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing
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Applying Behavioral Economics to the Developing World
Complex design requirements, non-existent supply chain routes, extreme poverty - these are all unique issues that entrepreneurs have to combat when developing or producing products/services for the BoP. But what happens when the your client base acts irrationally or doesn’t follow the ’model’ you’ve based your business on?
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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NextThought Monday Guest Post: The Road to Self-Sufficiency
I found myself on such a road in the lowlands of Swaziland earlier this year. In the company of Swazi colleagues, I cruised along a curvy stretch hugged by rolling hills and a vast blue sky. We turned onto a nearly invisible dirt path to a dusty, barnlike building, where we prepared to present a workshop to cotton farmers, who were eager to learn.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Friday Roundup 7-8-11: The Wisdom of the Crowds (Funding)
We’ve been talking about the promise and, as some see it, the perils of Impact Investing this week and continuing through the month, on our newly launched Big Idea Page. Whether technically "impact" investing or not, the week saw several major deals break for socially inclined enterprises.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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