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When Tropical Storm Isaac Hit, Microinsurance Payouts to Haiti’s Small Business Owners Quickly Followed
Through a for-profit reinsurance company called MiCRO (Microinsurance Catastrophe Risk Organisation), formed in March 2011 by the global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps and Haiti’s largest microfinance institution Fonkoze, female microentrepreneurs who hold policies will have their loans cancelled and receive a $125 USD payout to replace damaged inventory or repair homes or businesses.
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After the Revolution: Fostering Egypt’s Social Entrepreneurs, Generating an Inclusive Economy: A report from the 2012 Ashoka Innovation Network Forum
In late June, Ashoka Arab World hosted its sixth annual Ashoka Innovation Network (AIN) Forum, convening over 70 participants including Egypt’s business entrepreneurs, corporate representatives interested in leveraging business’ role in social change, established and aspiring social entrepreneurs, young professionals from the business and civil sectors, community leaders and media. The excitement was evident as the forum filled with concerned stakeholders, and provided a safe space for these leaders from diverse sectors to air their challenges honestly.
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Overcoming the Challenges in Mobile: Living Goods hopes to follow in the footsteps of Amway, Avon, and Tupperware
With a core business in health care sales, Living Goods is no stranger to behavior change. Despite the challenges to rolling out a new mobile system to a sales force of 250 women, most over 40 years old, 60 percent of who had never used SMS before, the organization is seeing some early successes.
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- Health Care, Technology
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After Invention, it Only Gets Harder: Technology distribution isn’t as sexy as innovation, but it’s critical
However noble an engineer’s aspirations may be, mere invention is not enough. Functional sales, marketing, distribution, and after-sales service strategies are required to get technologies into the hands of people they are intended to benefit. Without this holistic picture, technologies fail to achieve significant impact, and are essentially designed in vain.
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BoP Career Paths: A Former TechnoServe Volunteer Starts Investment Fund for African Businesses
Bryan McCoy recently became the CEO of Yalelo Ltd, a commercial aquaculture business serving domestic and regional markets from Lusaka, Zambia. McCoy is also a director of Sustainable Development Capital (SDC), which he co-founded in 2008 in order to invest in Swazi agribusinesses. His introduction to Africa occurred in 2007, when he spent six months volunteering for TechnoServe in Swaziland and Tanzania.
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- Agriculture
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NexThought Monday: It’s a Capital (Plus Advisory) Problem, Not a Pipeline Problem
Flexible and longer-term capital is in short supply in the marketplace. This capital should align with an enterprise’s stage of maturity, business model, and possibility of exit whether to commercial investors, hybrid investors, or public actors. There remains a need for grant capital but grants need to be strategic, much like Angel finance.
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- impact investing
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More than Ceremony: In Rwanda, Reflections from the 10,000 Women Graduation
I’ve returned to spend the week overseeing the preparation for the graduation of the eighth cohort of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneur Certificate program. On July 27 (a Friday), Jeannette Kagame, the First Lady of Rwanda would be attending our ceremony as 29 women are awarded their certificate. We are honored that she is able to attend, and eager for her to not only celebrate with us the completion of an extensive, nine-module, 31-day training program, but also to see what an amazing group comprise the 10,000 Women Rwanda graduates.
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- Education
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Do Social Impact Metrics Matter?: Two WDI Summer Fellows Discuss the Topic
William Davidson Institute summer fellows Mary Fritz, who worked in India for Wello, and Patrick Huang, who also spent time in India working for Village Capital, recently discussed the merits of social impact metrics following their recent experiences at the social enteprises.
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- Impact Assessment
