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From Luxury to Economy: Segmenting Health Care to Reach the Poor
Should health care be segmented in much the same way as cars and other products? Our gut reaction is likely to be, “No!” After all, it seems unfair that those with money have access to care while the poor don’t. But health care already is segmented across a variety of social determinants, including wealth. What if health care was not segmented based on the quality of care provided? Instead, what if health care were segmented based on how the care was delivered?
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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Hype in the Energy Access Sector (Finally!)
Leaders at Persistent Energy, an impact investor focused on the renewable sector primarily in West Africa, push back against a recent NextBillion post by Ceniarth positing the industry has become overhyped. While there has been some hype about a handful of established companies, they argue, the bigger concern is that not enough capital is flowing into the sector to give it the opportunity to prove itself.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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Environment Month Takeaway: It’s Time to Bust Some Business Models
The business, technological, financial and political (notwithstanding the U.S. government) tailwinds have never been moving in such alignment toward a cleaner and more sustainable world economy. But as NextBillion editor Scott Anderson points out, it will take truth tellers and, yes, some persistent agitators to make sure this ship stays on course.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, Investing, Technology
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How Water.org ‘Took a Leap of Faith’ into Social Impact Investing
As we recognize World Water Day, Water.org is launching a $50 million fund, targeting enterprises in India, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines that help the poor meet their water and sanitation needs – with a particular focus on MFIs. This seven-year fund, managed by the nonprofit's WaterEquity initiative, aims to reach at least 4.6 million people at the BoP, while offering pre-tax financial returns of 3 percent.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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With New Partner, Wello Rolling Down ‘the Fastest Path to Scale’
Social enterprise Wello today announced it will license sales and manufacturing of its main product, the WaterWheel, to Mumbai-based Nilkamal Limited in India and Sri Lanka. The publicly traded Nilkamal is one of Asia's manufacturers and sellers of injection mold plastic furniture and other plastic home goods. We hear from Cynthia Koenig, founder and CEO of Wello, about what the deal means not only for the for-profit company, but also for other social enterprises facing the perennial struggle of scaling their products.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
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Social Business Roundup: SOCAP Aims for the Mainstream, Cambodia Caps Microcredit, Quali Health Simplifies Health Care
In announcing its new ownership, SOCAP mentioned the word “mainstream” six times – the popular social business and investing conference is clearly aiming to grow beyond its current niche. In Cambodia, the National Bank capped interest on microcredit to a maximum of 18 percent per year – about half of what some MFIs currently charge. And a visit to India inspired a South African doctor to launch a profitable health care clinic in a local shantytown. These stories and more in our weekly roundup.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care, Investing
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Heeding the Voice of the Planet: Why CSR Isn’t Enough
Academic and author Stuart Hart writes that we have inadvertently put most of our chips on continuous improvement inside of current fossil fuel-based businesses and have largely forgotten about the critical importance of disruption, innovation and transformational change to corporate sustainability. How do we move business from the folly of competing for corporate sustainability ratings to actually making a difference? It starts with providing the right incentives, Hart says.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
- Tags
- renewable energy
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‘I Know Where I’m Going’: Lessons from the ‘Vital Voices’ Accelerator for Female Entrepreneurs
In the final article in a six-part series on entrepreneurship's role in women’s economic empowerment, Nathan Rauh-Bieri highlights the experiences of five entrepreneurs in the year-long Vital Voices GROW Fellowship. The women reflect on what they learned from the training, and evaluate its usefulness to their businesses and their leadership development. Their experiences provide six lessons about how to optimize the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education.
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- Uncategorized
