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Beyond Opinion: Understanding Consumer Demand in Developing Countries: A March 7 USAID forum will showcase new techniques
Why do pro-poor technologies fail to achieve scale — even when they offer proven benefits?
Part of the problem is that we aren’t getting reliable information about what poor people actually want. And as a result, we make lots of assumptions. On March 7, USAID’s Office of Science and Technology will be showcasing some very innovative techniques for measuring consumer demand in low-income communities.- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- product design
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Quick Wins in Mobile Money: How simple usability tweaks can significantly increase mobile money usage
Mobile finance has great potential to serve the poor, but many existing services are not designed around their needs, behaviors and capabilities. New research from Grameen Foundation reveals simple usability fixes that mobile money providers could incorporate to help their products better meet the needs of the BoP, and reach scale and commercial viability.
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- Uncategorized
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From Operating Rooms to Dust Tracks, Part 2: How Operation ASHA moved beyond rhetoric to action
After serving Delhi’s slum dwellers for more than a decade with free surgeries, Dr. Shelly Batra realized her work wasn’t sustainable. That’s when she and Sandeep Ahuja decided to start an organization focused on only one health problem in India: TB.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- public health
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Tasting the Fruits of One’s Labor (For the First Time): Highlights from ‘Lets Talk Coffee Rwanda’
Let’s Talk Coffee is an event series organized by coffee importer Sustainable Harvest to demonstrate Relationship Coffee - an inclusive business model that stresses transparency between all links of the supply chain. Last week’s Let’s Talk Coffee Rwanda coincided with the launch of Sustainable Harvest’s nonprofit entity, the Relationship Coffee Institute.
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- Agriculture
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No Silver Bullet: While microfinance alone won’t end poverty, it is making an impact – so let’s re-focus it to serve the poor
The debate about microfinance is getting a little tedious, says Freedom from Hunger CEO Steve Hollingworth. Instead of arguing over whether microfinance alone is lifting most clients out of poverty (it’s not), we should be having a transparent discussion of its strengths and limitations.
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- Impact Assessment
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From Operating Rooms to Dust Tracks, Part 1: How a doctor found the ‘invisible poor,’ then founded an organization to help them
Dr. Shelly Batra had it all, including a job at a plush corporate hospital with the best equipment. But when she gathered her courage one day and entered a New Delhi slum, her life changed forever. She ended up returning to the slum time after time to treat the sick, and eventually that led to her "dream job" at Operation ASHA.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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How to Avoid Three Common Pitfalls of Social Enterprise
he social enterprise revolution of the last decade has been a success. Businesses have adopted the skills of entrepreneurship and found innovative, efficient, and effective solutions to social problems.
But many businesses face challenges trying to balance for-profit endeavors with social objectives, and end up trapped by these familiar pitfalls.- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Raining Miracles: Bangladesh’s remarkable health progress
Health care has improved dramatically in Bangladesh in only a generation. The reasons are varied, but one key has been the large-scale distribution of community health workers.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
