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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Reflections on the next wave of water innovation
Paul Polak believes that the solution to expensive and often dirty diesel powered water pumps in emerging market lies in fundamentally re-engineering the affordability of solar powered (solar photovoltaic) pumps. His new company, SunWater is developing a 2 kilowatt solar-powered pumping system that can do the same job as a 5 horse power diesel pump, coupled with drip irrigation and water storage solutions, to boost yields for small farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
- Tags
- Base of the Pyramid, solar
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One Step Closer to Ending Malaria: Public-private partnerships tap the potential of synthetic anti-malarial treatment
PATH and its partners in the public and private sector recently began producing a new synthetic version of artemisinin, the key ingredient in the gold-standard malaria treatment. This promises to bolster the existing botanical supply and meet approximately one-third of the global demand. According to PATH CEO Steve Davis, this milestone shows the strength of collaboration across the public and private sectors to advance science for the benefit of global health.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Tapping New Ideas in Social Entrepreneurship: Yes, they exist
Social enterprise as a discipline and practice is so new that many aspiring entrepreneurs don’t know where to begin. They can now find their way thanks to a new guide stocked with advice from the field. “Breaking the Binary: Policy Guide to Scaling Social Innovation,” recently published by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, is a how-to on innovation geared toward social entrepreneurs and policymakers looking to improve their organizations.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- research
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Social Enterprise Through a Wide Angle Lens : G20 Inclusive Business Workshop Asia focuses on benefits beyond income
Following the annual G20 Summit in Mexico last June, the G20 Challenge was created to celebrate some of the world’s most accomplished social entrepreneurs. Moreover, in order to showcase the winners and share lessons learned at a local level, it began its Regional Inclusive Business Workshops, which bring together select groups of social entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, policy makers, and academics to discuss salient challenges and innovative ways to surmount them.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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The Accidental Social Enterprise: VSee’s unexpected foray into BoP health care
Milton Chen founded VSee to provide a fully encrypted, low bandwidth alternative to Skype. But his video conferencing and screen share application was soon adopted by BoP health care providers, which now represent a growing portion of the company’s business. In this post, Chen describes how VSee has catered to this unexpected market through a suite of innovative telemedicine tools.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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NexThought Monday – The BoP Beyond Income Levels: Exploring the ‘opportunity access’ approach
The focus of the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) has been centered almost exclusively in the economic limitations of low-income communities. But in our report, “Understanding the BoP from an Access to Opportunities,” we expand this focus and recognize the multidimensional concepts of poverty, including an analysis of the BoP through their access to a joining of five basic necessities: water, energy, education, housing, and information and communication technology.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Impact Assessment
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Weekly Roundup – 5/4/13 : The stain of trade in Bangladesh
As the death toll in Bangladesh surpasses 500 people in the collapsed Rana Plaza that housed five garment factories employing more than 3,000 workers, new urgency has taken over old debates about the real cost of cheap garments and the role of globalization.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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The Social Progress Index:: A new language for development, or 21st century Esperanto?
Therespected Harvard professor Michael Porter, father of the catchphrase "shared value," has come up with the Social Progress Index. His guiding principle: Instead of making any attempt to balance financial metrics, such as income, against social outcomes, such as clean water, SPI simply measures the outcomes.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
