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Failing to Scale: Fixing Common Missteps in mHealth Ventures
Telemedicine or mHealth systems have great potential to bolster fragile health care systems in the developing world. However, these programs often fail to survive beyond the pilot phase. A team at the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship Program at Penn State studied 35 telemedicine and mHealth projects and discovered six recurring reasons for failure to scale. Program director Khanjan Mehta offers solutions to some common missteps.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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In Pursuit of Universal Health Care: Time to Take Public-Private Partnership to the Next Level
Public-private partnerships (PPP) are receiving increased attention for their promise to broaden developing countries' capacity to achieve universal health care. But though this attention is good, Dr. Naveen Rao of Merck for Mothers says we also need action. He outlines concrete steps that can make PPPs an integral part of national health policies and harness the local private health sector – not just big multilateral organizations, multinational corporations and NGOs.
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- Finance, Health Care
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Behavioural Nudges: Mildly Paternalistic or a Threat to Economic Justice for the Poor?
"Nudges” – ie: the use of behavioral science insights to steer human behavior – are increasingly seen as a cheap and effective way to achieve social goals. But according to social researcher Sally Brooks, there are some troubling questions about whether the use of nudges for business purposes is good for the poor. She explores the issue through the prism of digital financial inclusion in the era of fintech and big data.
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The Straightest Path to Social Impact: The Power of Focusing on Farmers
After speaking to hundreds of low-income farmers in Nepal, India and Myanmar, Aditi Seshadri learned some basic truths about the challenges they face, the importance of their work - and the outsize value of interventions aimed at supporting them. She explores the reasons why a focus on farmers can maximize a social enterprise's impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Blockchain for Agriculture: Improving Supply Chain Efficiency and Access to Finance for Smallholder Farmers
Though blockchain applications in agriculture are still in early stages, they have intriguing potential that merits increased investment and exploration, says Nikki Brand. She discusses several innovative uses of the technology across the agriculture supply chain, and highlights new Stanford University research on the organizations and initiatives that are leveraging blockchain to drive social impact.
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- Agriculture, Technology
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More College = Less Poverty: The Impact of Peer-to-Peer Lending
More than 57 million students globally are qualified but have not enrolled in higher education, mostly because they lack the money. Yet banks often don't want to lend to them, due to their lack of collateral, uncertain earning potential and long repayment periods. That’s why Ryker Labbee and Kirk Acevedo launched peer-to-peer student lender Zomia, targeting nearly 1 million potential college students in Myanmar and Cambodia. They explore how the model could scale into other markets and reduce poverty.
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Redefining What It Means to be a Next-Generation Energy Company in Africa
More than 650 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack electricity. Distributed energy service companies face many obstacles in serving this market - from finding the right capital investors to cultivating on-the-ground expertise. Mansoor Hamayun, CEO of solar distributed energy firm BBOXX, says his company is taking aim at several of those challenges with a new financing mechanism. In partnership with Bamboo Capital Partners, BBOXX is launching an investment platform that aims to break down barriers preventing energy companies from scaling up in developing markets.
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- Energy, Environment
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Digital Remittances: Now that they’re here, where are they headed?
Economic migrants send US $600 billion back to their home countries each year, most using expensive "traditional" agent networks, despite the availability of cheaper digital channels. But Xavier Martin Palomas with the Digital Frontiers Institute notes that in the past five years, we've seen a new wave of players and a renewed push toward digitizing remittances. Next month the Digital Frontiers Institute will launch its first course, Remittances in the Digital Age, to study the rapidly changing industry.
- Categories
- Finance
