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The Best of October on NB: The most-read, most-commented and ‘hidden gem’ posts of the month
After several months on hiatus, I’m glad to reprise our monthly awards for the best of the best on NextBillion for the month gone by. Thank you to all NextBillion contributors and congratulations to our monthly most-read, most-commented and hidden gem posts.
- Categories
- Education
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Incubating Women’s Businesses in Palestine
In recent years, business development and entrepreneurship programs surfaced across the West Bank and Gaza, and suddenly there was an influx of people trying to start their own business to escape the crushing levels of unemployment.
However, many of the programs put in place lacked follow-through. Entrepreneurs were left to sink or swim on their own. The Women’s Empowerment Programs at Tomorrow’s Youth Organization (TYO) based in Nablus, Palestine took a very different approach.- Categories
- Education
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Latin America Impact Economy Innovations Fund, An Open Invitation for Proposals: Fundación Avina, Avina Americas, the Omidyar Network and the Rockefeller Foundation are teaming up
Recently, Fundación Avina, Avina Americas, the Omidyar Network and the Rockefeller Foundation joined forces to create the Latin America Impact Economy Innovations Fund. This new fund seeks to support collective actions and a regional market to boost market solutions to achieve social and philanthropic goals, actions to combat poverty and the promotion of the environment. The fund invites all organizations that wish to develop the impact economy to present proposals that seek to add to the growth of the impact investing and inclusive business industry.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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‘If You Break It, You Fix It’ and Other Creeds of the Young Makers Among Us
The makers: These are people who see a need for something in their own lives — or the lives of their neighbors, or schoolmates, or industry peers — and instead of complaining, or buying something, they make it. They make alternative energy, and bicycles, and computers, and crafts, and food, and furniture, and GPS devices, and robots, and tools, and toys, and wearable devices, and magic.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
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Inclusive Compliance: The New Playing Field for Inclusive Business Innovations
Not all supply chains are the same, and not all of them are limited to structured factories or facilities. Difficulties arise when monitoring labor standards in informal sectors, such as evaluating environmental or social standards. This was the driving force behind inclusive compliance.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
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Runa Tea’s Low-Calorie, High-Impact Model: With revenues reaching $1M Runa is generating income for 2,000 farming families.
A great-tasting, caffeine-containing, calorie-conscious tea WITH a sustainable environmental impact? I didn’t think such a product could exist until I looked into Runa Tea, one of the latest brands in the business with social impact space. Currently, Runa has revenues hovering around $1,000,000 annually and in turn is generating over $100,000 of direct income per year for 2,000 farming families. Founder Tyler Gage shares the inspiration behind the company.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- nutrition
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NexThought Monday: Sharpening the Social Impact Lens: Why We Need a Broad, but Clear View on Impact Measurement
Despite the challenges, financial institutions can still work to understand the shape of their impact. One promising way is to organize activities around an issue, creating a social lens through which to contextualize and focus investing. From there, an organization can determine how they’re best able to address the issue, which in turn determines appropriate investing filters and social performance metrics. The case of investing through a gender lens is an encouraging example of this strategy, where investing organizes around women’s economic empowerment and access to quality healthcare.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing
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Weekly Roundup: Being the Change, With Humility
Earlier this month, the IFC released a report called "Being the Change: Inspiring the Next Generation of Inclusive Business Entrepreneurs Impacting the Base of the Pyramid." It’s based on interviews with 14 founders and CEOs of IFC’s inclusive business clients. These are truly inspiring stories about how BoP businesses are formed and the personalities that drove an idea to reality.
- Categories
- Education
