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‘I Don’t Wish I Had AIDS’: If only diabetics worldwide could feel the same way
In a 2012 study, diabetic patients were consistently heard "wishing they had AIDS." That’s because, in many parts of the world, diabetes is a death sentence. However, with greater access to information and affordable care, it doesn’t have to be.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- public health
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Knowing the Customer (Whether You’re a Social Startup or Ford): At the UM India Business Conference
At the UM India Business Conference Mark Fields, chief operating officer of Ford Motor Co., and Desh Deshpande is an Indian American venture capitalist and entrepreneur, discussed the intricacies of reaching new customers in emerging markets whether it’s a multinational company or a social enterprise.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Directed Remittances: Are “free” in-kind transfers exciting enough to lure customers?
Remittances from migrant communities have huge social and economic impacts on emerging markets, accounting for over a third of GDP in some countries. But the market has only experienced incremental levels of innovation over the years. Now, according to Nate Gonzalez at Accion Venture Lab, more nuanced business models are emerging, including some that offer in-kind transfers like gift vouchers or bill payments rather than cash.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Expanding the Platform: What’s holding back Kenya’s mobile money ecosystem – and how to improve it
Kenya leads the world in mobile money, but the wildly successful M-Pesa platform is still used mainly for remittances. For the country to realize its mobile finance potential, it must develop a much broader range of payment use cases, says Jake Kendall. He challenged a team of researchers to identify the country’s mobile finance challenges and to come up with solutions - here’s what they found.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- mobile finance, research
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India’s No. 1 problem is No. 2.: Tansa Clean tests ‘biodigester’ technology to improve sanitation
Some $54 billion is lost from the Indian economy from health costs, lowered productivity, and absent tourism revenues, all of which originates in diarrhea. Anaerobic biodigesters are airtight tanks that create just the right environment for bacteria to become active, breaking organic wastes down into methane-rich biogas and a nutrient-rich slurry. The founders of Tansa Clean, are launching a pilot to test the potential of their biodigester in India.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Beauty as Business: Research on women entrepreneurs in India
Women’s World Banking conducted market research in North and South India to support the expansion of an individual lending program. Their goal was to understand the financial needs of micro-entrepreneurs and identify how individual loans could help them reach their business goals. In this post, they discuss the findings from one particularly promising business sector: beauty parlors.
- Categories
- Education
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How Individual Investors Are Fueling Sustainable Farming Improvements in Colombia: Turning a $40B supply chain on its head
Myriad organizations are working to connect farmers to the money they need to make sustainable improvements.At Cima Coffee Farms, we’re working to deliver this capital in the form of real estate investment opportunities for individual investors looking to make a good return and an impact on the world. And we aim to do this by turning the $40 billion coffee industry supply chain on its head.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Tags
- supply chains
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NexThought Monday: Three steps to finding and hiring great social enterprise talent
There is a growing interest in social enterprise careers the world over, yet the sector faces challenges in attracting the right talent. Given that it is a relatively young space, it needs to look outwards to fulfill its growing talent requirements. Based on my experiences in HR in this space during the last few years, here are three ways recruiters can do that.
- Categories
- Education
