-
Pomegranates VS Poppies: Building food markets to fight the drug trade
War-ravaged Afghanistan is the source of much of the world’s opium, while life-sustaining crops are fare less profitable for farmers. But London-based Plant for Peace is working to create a Afghan pomegranate export market, from startup seeds to paying customers. It’s one glimmer of hope for market incentives to cut into the drug trade.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
In Search of the Perfect Health Care System: In India, innovators are successfully serving even the poorest communities
ACCESS Health International has identified initiatives with relevant solutions to improve India’s ailing system. The goal is to find a model for primary health care that works even in the poorest communities.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
More than a Buzzword: How crowdfunding can expand opportunities for low-income entrepreneurs
Long seen as a vehicle for funding artistic ventures, crowdfunding is evolving into a potentially powerful resource for low-income people and the organizations that serve them. With loosening regulations in the U.S., startups may soon be able to fund their businesses through large pools of small investors, which could be a boon for low-income individuals striving to achieve financial stability through entrepreneurship.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
‘Leaning In’ And ‘Pulling Up’: Women’s Economic Equality In The Middle East
According to Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, too few women are making it to the top, mainly because of socialized gender roles.This rings especially true in the Arab World’s Gulf States, where women often represent a more educated talent pool than the rest of the population, but struggle especially hard against convention, or workplace expectations.
- Categories
- Education
-
(With Video) Maximizing the Micro Approach to BoP: A new book explores bottom-up solutions
Madhu Viswanathan believes “bottom up” methods are too often neglected when thinking about BoP business development. Viswanathan, a business professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, hopes to shift that imbalance in a new e-book, Subsistence Marketplaces.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Kids and Money: Watch the replay of our Google Hangout with Jeroo Billimoria, founder of Child and Youth Finance International (and eight other social enterprises)
Pioneering social entrepreneur Jeroo Billimoria is the founder of several award-winning international NGOs, and is perhaps best known for her work promoting financial capability among young people. She joined NextBillion Financial Innovation via Google Hangouts for a fascinating Q&A.
- Categories
- Education
-
Rx for Global Health: New drug-diagnostic combos are emerging, but are our market structures ready to support them?
Traditional ways of viewing diagnostics and drugs separately are starting to blur, especially in the developed world. But new business and partnership models are needed if these boundary-spanning new technologies are to reach low-income countries.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
A Mixed Bag in Kenya: Safaricom’s products have moved far beyond M-PESA – but are they reaching the poor?
With amounts equivalent to over 40 percent of Kenya’s GDP flowing through M-PESA, Safaricom’s success in person-to-person mobile money transfers is legendary. And over the last two years, the telco has added innovative financial services beyond basic P2P transfers that have reached millions of customers. But research from InterMedia suggests that these products aren’t yet being adopted by the groups that need them most.
- Categories
- Education
