Articles by James Militzer
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Monday
January 3
2022Announcing NextBillion’s Most Influential Articles of 2021
At the end of each year, NextBillion selects our 12 most-read articles from the previous 12 months, and invites readers to vote for the pieces that impacted them the most. We've counted the votes, and we’re happy to announce our three most influential articles of 2021. We’d like to congratulate the winners and all the contestants in this contest – along with everyone who read and wrote for NextBillion last year. We wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous 2022.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- data, energy access, ESG, impact measurement
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Guest Articles
Monday
December 20
2021Vote for NextBillion’s Most Influential Article of 2021
As an open forum for emerging markets business, NextBillion publishes around 150 original, guest-written articles per year, covering enterprises, innovations, challenges and opportunities across multiple sectors and geographies. Each December we select the 12 most-read articles of the past year to include in our "Most Influential Article of the Year" contest. We invite you to vote for the article that impacted you the most in 2021. You can vote up to one time per hour during the two-week voting period, which runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 2.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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Guest Articles
Tuesday
February 9
2021Recovery 2021: Introducing NextBillion’s New COVID-19 Series
For over a year, COVID-19 and its economic fallout have been inescapable facts of life, taking a particularly heavy toll on vulnerable communities – and the businesses that serve them. Now, with a vaccine promising to gradually bring an end to this historic crisis, we anticipate that the conversation around the pandemic will evolve, as impact-focused businesses and development organizations move to a longer-term effort to “build back better.” To highlight these discussions, NextBillion is expanding upon our COVID-19 coverage through a new special series called “Recovery 2021.”
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Social Enterprise
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Interviews
Thursday
February 4
2021Embedding Gender Equity Into Companies’ DNA: An Investor Consortium Builds the Evidence Base for Gender Lens Investing
As gender lens investing moves into the mainstream, investors and enterprises need support in getting buy-in for this approach – and in implementing it effectively. To that end, the Gender-Smart Enterprise Assistance Research Coalition is working to build the evidence base for investing with a gender lens, with support from the Performance Measurement and Improvement team at the William Davidson Institute. NextBillion spoke with Lisa Willems at AlphaMundi and Rebecca Fries at Value for Women about the momentum that’s driving gender lens investing, the challenges it faces and the work the new consortium is doing.
- Categories
- Investing
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Interviews
Tuesday
January 19
2021Surveying the Landscape for Social Investments in Africa: A Major New Study Assesses the Current State of Play on the Continent
The social investment sector in Africa is dynamic and growing – but it’s struggling to close the enormous Sustainable Development Goals financing gap. The African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) explored the opportunities and obstacles facing social investors on the continent in an ambitious new study, “The Landscape for Social Investments in Africa.” NextBillion interviewed AVPA’s CEO, Frank Aswani, to discuss the study’s findings, and what they say about the current state of social investment in Africa.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Interviews
Thursday
January 7
2021Doing Good by Doing Business: How B1G1’s Innovative Giving Model Is Mobilizing Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to Make a Social Impact
B1G1 (Buy1Give1) is a global business giving initiative that makes it easy for enterprises – particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – to support charitable causes around the world. NextBillion spoke with founder and CEO Masami Sato to discuss how B1G1 developed its innovative model, how its approach differs from the model popularized by companies like TOMS Shoes, and why it’s important to mobilize the power of SMEs to build upon the impact of traditional charitable giving.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Guest Articles
Monday
December 21
2020Documenting a Historic Year in Emerging Markets Business: Vote for the Top NextBillion Article of 2020
Like many of you, we're not sorry to see the end of 2020. But as we look back on this historic, tragic year, NextBillion would like to take a moment to appreciate the extraordinary work done by enterprises, NGOs, researchers and others in the emerging markets business sector. They have risen to the occasion in ways that can best be described as heroic – while sharing their insights in nearly 100 COVID-19-focused articles on our platform. Several of these pieces are included in our "Most Influential Article of the Year" contest, which launches today. We invite you to read these articles and vote for your favorites – the contest runs from Dec. 21 to Jan. 2.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Interviews
Tuesday
October 27
2020Startups and Venture Capital vs. COVID-19: How an INR 1 Billion Grant Program Is Boosting India’s Pandemic Response
India is home to many innovative startups that are leveraging technology to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. To support them, a group of prominent venture capital funds and founders recently launched ACT Grants, an INR 1 billion effort to fund scale-ready solutions to COVID-related challenges. NextBillion spoke with Mekin Maheshwari, founder of Udhyam Learning Foundation – a key partner in the initiative – about how it is helping India’s startups ramp up their battle against the virus.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Investing, Technology