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World Food Day: Availability, Access and Use : Stronger agricultural inputs, tools and financing are key
In much of the world populations are expanding dramatically with demand for food increasing in-step. Food security is composed of three facets; availability, access and use, and in many of the countries where we invest we see challenges across all three. At Acumen Fund we believe that a critical way to improve food security is by improving smallholder farmers’ access to stronger agricultural inputs, tools and financing. In a sector where innovation abounds, millions of smallholder farmers are still struggling to produce decent crop yields, resulting in poor nutrition, bad health and stagnant growth. For the last decade Acumen has been addressing this issue through a series of innovative investments in agriculture in Africa and South Asia.
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- Agriculture, Health Care
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Science and Technology: The Next Frontier of Inclusive Business
Latin America and the world have already demonstrated that inclusive businesses not only exist, but are capable of growing accelerated and profitably. What is missing is showing rates of return that exceed that of the market to attract investors and the traditional actors of economic and entrepreneurial development. Science and technology might be the solution.
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- Technology
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Off the Grid Solutions in Mobile, Solar Schools: Four mini case studies of business, nonprofit, CSR, models
Beep beep! For some students, hopping on the school bus is hopping into the classroom. Four communities are using solar-powered mobile classrooms to overcome inaccessibility to the power grid.
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- Education, Energy, Impact Assessment
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Good Cloud, Bad Cloud: Multinational ICT vendors are pushing services in Africa, why the solutions are in Africans’ hands
While global multinational companies are pushing private cloud computing services, the only viable solution for most enterprises in Africa, then, is the public cloud. The hope for Africa lies in the rapidly decreasing cost of broadband Internet and smaller, homegrown cloud service providers (CSPs) that are willing to invest in cloud data centers in Africa.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Small is Powerful: Join the Changemakers’ Discussion: NextBillion is partnering with SAP and Ashoka to highlight big impact from small entrepreneurs
Recognizing and managing this massive challenge is at the heart of the new global competition from SAP and Ashoka Changemakers called The Power of Small: Entrepreneurs Strengthening Local Economies. This week Logan Yonavjak, with the Conservation Investment Note Program and a regular NextBillion contributor, is currating the online chat. Several of Logan’s and other NextBillion contributors’ articles will also be cross-posted on the competition blog.
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- Technology
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Peering Through a Gender Lens at SOCAP12
I was invited to join a fascinating conversation at SOCAP12 about Gender Lens investing. Criterion Institute, one of the main organizations driving the conversation, describes a “Gender Lens “as a viewfinder that reveals opportunities for the world of investing with a focus on women and girls. The goal of Gender Lens investing is to drive increased investing and return through the implementation of a Gender Lens.
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- Uncategorized
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Sanergy is Breathing ‘Fresh Life’ into the Sanitation Loop
Sanergy is a Kenya-based company that builds low-cost sanitation in urban slums, benefits local entrepreneurs, and processes waste into electricity and fertilizer. Since its launch in 2011, it has sold more than 100 toilets, and is looking to expand in a partnership with Kiva.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Weekly Roundup: E+Co’s Slow Burn and What it Means for Impact Investing
E+Co’s effective demise raises questions beyond those of the immediate management, governance, due diligence and investment squabbles. Those factors are relevant of course, but the central point illustrated by the E+Co story is what it means for the impact investing sector writ large.
- Categories
- Energy
