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Getting Real About Innovation: Why Accion’s U.S. Network Made the Leap to Digitize its Lending Operations
Technology can boost small businesses' access to finance, but can also risk trapping them in a cycle of debt. And for lenders serving lower-income entrepreneurs, these risks and rewards are more acute. Gina Harman, CEO of Accion’s U.S. Network, discusses its ambitious efforts to digitize lending operations across its national online platform in this podcast Q&A, exploring how established organizations can adapt to emerging technologies – without compromising their missions.
- Categories
- Finance
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Key Strategies for ‘Social Startup Success’: A Q&A with Spark Co-founder Kathleen Kelly Janus
The nonprofit funding wall is real, says Kathleen Kelly Janus, leaving two-thirds of U.S. nonprofits at $500,000 and below in revenue. In “Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference,” she explores how some social ventures are able to break through and scale, and shares lessons that are relevant to both nonprofit and for-profit enterprises. NextBillion editor Sonya Vann DeLoach discusses the book’s message with the author in this thought-provoking Q&A.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- nonprofits
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Different Disasters, Same Solution? Applying New Orleans’ Post-Hurricane Model to Revive Detroit’s Neighborhoods
Hurricane Katrina's fury struck New Orleans over the course of hours while relentless economic stagnation plagued Detroit for decades. But these very different challenges created similar outcomes: huge population losses, real estate foreclosures and economic devastation. On Martin Luther King Day, NextBillion is focusing on domestic economic issues and urban renewal. Develop Detroit's Sean White explains how the real estate development firm is applying the Crescent City's formula for rebirth to the Motor City's ongoing neighborhood revival.
- Categories
- Investing
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Featured Event: NB Readers Get Discount Tickets to The Economist’s Investing for Impact
Will impact investing stay on the sidelines or become a main stage player for global change? Join editors of The Economist and 200 financiers, institutional investors, policymakers, academics, impact investors and philanthropists at "Investing for Impact: Risk, return and the future of the world." NextBillion readers get 15 percent off tickets for the Feb. 15 gathering in New York City by registering with our discount code.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Rethinking Food Security By Re-inventing the Cold Storage Chain
In developing countries, 40 percent of food losses occur after harvest and early on in the supply chain, leading to more than 250 million tons of food waste annually — mostly because of inadequate refrigeration and unreliable and expensive energy supply. Paula Rodriguez at InspiraFarms discusses the problem – and the company's innovative solution.
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- Agriculture, Technology
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The Under-Recognized Threat of ‘Ultra-Poverty’ – And How the World Can Tackle It
The world is likely to fall short of Sustainable Development Goal 1 to end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030 – unless it addresses the estimated 394 million people living in “ultra-poverty.” Concentrated in 14 countries in Africa and Asia, the ultra-poor have largely been overlooked by the movement to end poverty, receiving a small fraction of official development assistance. The Global State of Ultra Poverty report aims to change that, and Jesse Marsden, Veronica Brown and Aaron Merchen of RESULTS explore strategies that could turn the tide.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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The Danger of Subsidized Solar: How Government and Donors Unwittingly Hobbled Our Business
After entering Myanmar as the country's first pay-as-you go solar power provider in 2015, Brighterlite recently ceased operations there, losing the nearly US $2 million invested in the startup. Jørund Buen, co-founder of the firm that owns Brighterlite, explains what went wrong – and the role that government and donors played in the failure.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Empowerment Mainstreamed: Applying Gender Equity Across the ESG Standard
With the emergence of impact investing, the time is ripe for a transformation in global business practices regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment. But for that to happen, businesses and investors will need to expand gender considerations beyond the narrow confines of the social dimension of ESG, says Linda Jones of Mennonite Economic Development Associates. She explores MEDA's innovative framework for helping enterprises apply gender goals across the ESG standard.
- Categories
- Investing
