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The $450 Billion Opportunity: Catalyzing Smallholder Agricultural Finance
As population growth and rising incomes create unprecedented demand for food, multinational companies increasingly rely on smallholders to secure their supply of agricultural commodities. As a result, smallholders present a compelling opportunity for buyers, lenders, and other actors in the agricultural value chain. However, smallholder production is often characterized by low yields, low quality, poor linkages, and little access to finance. A Dalberg report released Wednesday called “Catalyzing Smallholder Agricultural Finance” suggests that with increased financing, farmers can improve their yields and products and in some cases double their income.
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- Agriculture
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Impact Bonds: Boon or Boondoggle? Before We Hop on the Bandwagon, Let’s Scan the Road Ahead
Although there are many benefits to impact bonds – make no mistake – they are complicated to implement. Because they are new tools and because it is in the interests of all parties involved to reduce risk, only strong programs with proven statistical success are likely to be supported by a social or development impact bond.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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Overcoming the Challenges in Mobile: Living Goods hopes to follow in the footsteps of Amway, Avon, and Tupperware
With a core business in health care sales, Living Goods is no stranger to behavior change. Despite the challenges to rolling out a new mobile system to a sales force of 250 women, most over 40 years old, 60 percent of who had never used SMS before, the organization is seeing some early successes.
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- Health Care, Technology
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PopTech: On Failure, Jedi Knights and the Edge of Social Change
I recently sat down with Executive Director and Curator Andrew Zolli, and PopTech President Leetha Filderman for a candid conversation on a broad spectrum of topics, from impact investing to the importance of failure, to the pace of social innovation and how PopTech sees its role as an accelerant. While best known for its leave-your-head-spinning conferences, it appears that what’s actually popping at PopTech is a lot quieter, slower and more fundamental than may initially meet the eye.
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- Education, Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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- failure, incubators
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NexThought Monday: In Failure, a Marketing Lesson for Social Entrepreneurs: What we can learn from the closing of The Hoop Fund
The Hoop Fund was built on a truly innovative premise: Allow consumers to purchase premium goods from small businesses in the developing world, while simultaneously supporting those businesses with microloans. Unfortunately, the model suffered from critical gaps in marketing strategy, which made it almost impossible to achieve scale.
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- Education, Entrepreneurship
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Awakening a ’Sleeping Giant,’ Microfranchise as a Distribution Platform
Hapinoy is an example of a conversion franchising model that attracts existing, independently-owned businesses to a standardized network. The company negotiates bulk product purchases via supplier contracts with Nestle and Unilever, among others. Products are purchased in bulk and distributed via ’Hapidelivery’ to a network of community stores.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment
- Tags
- distribution
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@NextBillion (link opens in a new window)
Daring to Think Big: Why It’s Time to Scale Impact-Linked Finance https://t.co/R97CzzhqsW (link opens in a new window) @MoehrleC… https://t.co/yRsg6dJJXZ (link opens in a new window) -
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ATTN #JobSeekers (link opens in a new window): @SelfHelpFedCU (link opens in a new window) seeks an Investor & Community Relations Associate. Apply by 5/03:… https://t.co/A1J20t7jwu (link opens in a new window) -
@NextBillion (link opens in a new window)
Congratulations Bjoern Struewer and Jed Emerson, for writing @NextBillion (link opens in a new window)'s most-read article in January! 👏 ➡️… https://t.co/YFTPZosJdN (link opens in a new window)
