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How a Colombian Utility Buttresses the BoP: How EPM’s social financing works
Through 2012, EPM’s social funding program benefited more than 120,000 families by providing loans worth US$69 million. By the end of 2013, the Colombian utility expects to serve nearly 33,000 new families and deliver an additional $US28 million in loans.
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- Uncategorized
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The Road from Innovation to Scale: Experiments to Improve Product Design
As part of NextBillion Financial Innovation’s launch, we invited a number of leaders to contribute their views on where innovation is heading, and what obstacles remain. Today Dean Karlan, president and founder of IPA, describes how to design innovative financial products that are both scalable and effective in addressing the real needs of the world’s poor.
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- Uncategorized
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‘Market Relationships’ that Stand the Test of Time: A Q&A with TechnoServe’s Simon Winter on progress and peril in Ag development
TechnoServe is a nonprofit that is squarely focused on profits ... for low-income farmers and small businesses, that is. Simon Winter, senior vice president of development, says once market relationships are built and skill-building strengthened, sourcing costs from smallholders can absorbed in the cost of the goods being sold.
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- Agriculture, Education
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A ‘Win-Win-Win’ Possible In TB Battle: But engagement with private providers is critical for achievement of goals
A key challenge in TB control is replacing suboptimal tests with WHO-endorsed, validated tools at affordable prices, and ensuring that all TB cases are appropriately managed. In this Q&A, Dr. Madhukar Pai of the McGill International TB Centre in Montreal discusses a few of the overarching market issues that impact efforts to diagnose and treat TB worldwide.
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- Health Care
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Sustainable Farming Needs Sustainable Finance: How Rainforest Alliance helps the environment by helping farmers get loans
Lenders consider agriculture to be particularly risky. Farms are often located in remote areas, crops are vulnerable to pests and unpredictable weather, and prices are susceptible to rapid changes. To help address these challenges, the Rainforest Alliance launched its Sustainable Finance Initiative, which helps farmers and SMEs access different types of loans.
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- Agriculture
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Applying ICT to Education in Africa: While Internet access expands, energy access is waning
Africa has largely leapfrogged through several technological innovations – such as the landline phone – in the last 20 years. The rapid pace of development has also led to the spread of ICTs without the infrastructure to support widespread adoption. Many developing countries lack consistent access to energy.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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TB Is Changing: The approach to its treatment must, too
The Indian government has made progress providing free TB diagnosis and treatment to all patients in the public health sector. But more than half of all Indians seek initial care for most health concerns, including TB, in the private health sector, which has made less progress improving access to quality TB diagnosis and medicines.
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- Education, Health Care
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- public health, research
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NexThought Monday – Making Social, Environment Standards – Standard: The days of pure financial reporting for public companies are numbered
As it turns out, environmental and social reporting doesn’t even require a change in legislation. Since 1982 public companies have been required to disclose “material” information in their 10-k filing requirements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under a legal framework called the S-K. The problem is, no one has defined what that means, until now.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing
