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Changing Our Priorities: When we don’t actually want what we ‘need’
More organizations are spending less time on the tired “it’s good for you, why don’t you understand?” approach to poverty alleviation. The age-old question – how might we deliver a product or service that people “need” and want? – is being answered in new and interesting ways.
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- Uncategorized
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Ennovent, University Impact Fund Reveal New Research on the Business of Health Care in India: The industry will reach $280 billion by 2020
Estimates project that the Indian health care industry will grow from its current value of $40 billion to $280 billion by 2020. Yet resource shortages in low-income markets have resulted in a lack of quality health care that is affordable and accessible. And NGOs aren’t addressing many of these markets’ greatest needs. New research from Ennovent and the University Impact Fund reveals a wealth of opportunities for businesses to fill this gap.
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- Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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- public health, research
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Weekly Roundup (2-23-13): : Just ‘showing up’ – that’s not enough for these entrepreneurs
Woody Allen once famously said that “90 percent of life is just showing up.”That might apply for some professions (mine included, perhaps), but I don’t think the comic filmmaker had entrepreneurs in mind when he coined it. For those with the drive to start a business, particularly a socially inclined one, I’d say only 30 percent of their success is merely showing up – with a basic business plan in hand, that is.
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Lessons of Empowerment: Drishtee’s is building new business networks in rural India
Drishtee has provided education, health, household products and banking services to thousands of rural villages over the course of the last 13 years. Kunal Rajpal, of Acumen Fund - a Drishtee investor - reflects on how the enterprise is helping to spawn new businesses.
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- Uncategorized
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- microfinance
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A New Business Model for Farmers in the Nutrient Economy
You could argue that a more comprehensive, albeit wonky, word for farmer is “nutrient steward.” Unfortunately, most farmers are only compensated for their end products, like corn and cotton. In reality, however, farmers are stewarding the nutrient processes that result in these end products. So why shouldn’t they be compensated for these services?
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- Agriculture, Environment, Health Care
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- nutrition, public health
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Customer Loyalty for Social Impact
With pay-as-you-go plans being relatively inexpensive, the poor in both rural and urban settings are able to afford the conveniences of a basic mobile phone. They can use their mobile phone to take care of business-related activities, and to access a growing number of mobile applications that make routine tasks (like personal banking) less cumbersome. For the urban poor in particular, mobile technology has become a useful tool in daily life.
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- Technology
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Nutrients For All: Envisioning a new food system
Being fully nourished is a must for good health, but in an alarming global trend, our foods are losing nutrients at each stage of our environmental and food systems. We need to ensure that vital nutrients are generated, preserved, and conveyed from soil to food, and from food markets to people. Our health, human productivity and economics depend on it.
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- Agriculture, Health Care
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- nutrition, public health
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AKF USA Makes its First Mission-Related Investment in Afghanistan
Mohd Nabi Allah Yar runs a yarn-producing business in Afghanistan. He employs 80 local women and supports many Afghan shepherds by purchasing their wool. The impact of his business on the shepherds, his employees, and his customers would not have been possible without his first loan, which he received from the First MicroFinance Bank of Afghanistan (FMFB-A) through its Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) portfolio.
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