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Watch: With Smartphones, Software, Building Better Agricultural Value Chains
Funded by the Gates Foundation, African Cashew Initiative is a $48 million project that aims to raise the incomes of 150,000 smallholder farmers. From Ghana, business software giant SAP is researching how ICT software coupled with smartphones is improving efficiency and trust in the cashew value chain, from farmers to buyers/traders. (With video)
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- Agriculture, Technology, Telecommunications
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Technology Plus Humanity – An Equation for Social Collaboration
At the 2011 Columbia Social Enterprise Conference panel last week, 3 social enterprise managers pondered technology’s role in the social sector today and how it advances philanthropy. A theme throughout the panel was the importance of incorporating the human experience into the technology, a potential key to unlocking a surge in donor activity.
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- Social Enterprise, Technology
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Reaching the Next Billion Through Mobile
As a preview to this week?s Columbia Social Enterprise Conference, I had the pleasure of speaking with mobile technology innovator Nathan Eagle, co-founder and CEO of Jana. Currently generating revenue in over 50 countries, Jana (Sanskrit for ?people?) enables global organizations to directly engage with BoP consumers through mobile phones.
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- Social Enterprise, Technology
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The Doughnut Hole in Sustainable Finance
Despite the recent upsurge in attention to "social," "impact," and "clean tech" investing, there is still a structural gap ? a doughnut hole ? in sustainable finance. But this also means that there is a huge opportunity for visionary financiers to invent the new investment categories and asset classes needed to fill this gap.
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- Environment, Technology
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NextThought Monday: Friending Egypt, the True Value of Social Media
Blotted out in Egypt as an organizing tool by demonstrators and singled out at Davos for its social innovation prowess, Facebook was at the apex of two worlds last week. The uprising shows how quickly social media can fuel protests while exposing income inequality. But social media’s ability to build new enterprises is just finding its footing.
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- Technology
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Brazil’s Flourishing ’LAN’ Houses Supplying More Than Internet Connections
Brazil hosts over 100,000 publicly sponsored Internet access centers, or LAN (Local Area Network) Houses. The phenomenon started in affluent areas of S?o Paulo in the 1990s and now extend into poor isolated regions. These centers represent to 45% of all Internet access in Brazil, and connect 30 million Brazilians, mainly in low-income communities.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Changes in the Behavior of the Brazilian BoP consumer
To understand the current state of the Brazil’s social mobility, companies need to not only understand the differences between the segments that make up the base of the pyramid, but also consider the differences between regions and age groups. After all, 72% of the population in the Northeast region fits into the lower income classes.
- Categories
- Technology
- Tags
- Base of the Pyramid, data
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NextThought Monday: Pakistan: A Land of Misunderstood Opportunity
I want to show you the greatness of this country, and what can be done to improve it. I’m talking about a different side of Pakistan than you usually hear about, and I want to make sure you distinguish the two in your mind... As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "To be great is to be misunderstood." Pakistan is both.
- Categories
- Technology