Articles by Mara Bolis
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Guest Articles
Wednesday
September 25
2019The Development Tool Nobody’s Using: Why it’s Time for the Women’s Empowerment Sector to Leverage Media and Advertising
In women’s economic empowerment circles, there’s no shortage of initiatives involving corporate partnerships with NGOs - often focused on agriculture or garment supply chains. But as Mara Bolis at Oxfam points out, this focus has led the sector to overlook other potential areas of impact – including media and advertising. Sharing some compelling examples, she argues that media could have as much – or even more – influence in shaping women’s economic opportunities as changes to global value chains.
- Categories
- Technology
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Guest Articles
Friday
March 8
2019Diverse Pathways to Women’s Economic Empowerment: Stories from Three Local Leaders on International Women’s Day
We often think of women’s economic empowerment as focused on achieving material goals like income, credit and jobs. But true empowerment is much more complex, says Mara Bolis, Senior Advisor on Market Systems at Oxfam America. She explores three key conditions that enable economic empowerment, using examples from three women she met in a recent Oxfam visit to Cambodia – a fitting topic for discussion this International Women's Day.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Tags
- gender equality
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Friday
December 22
2017In Impact Investing’s Rush to the Mainstream, Who Are We Leaving Behind?
After a long march toward mainstream acceptance, many in impact investing are claiming victory. But a new report by Oxfam and Sumerian Partners argues that the sector should focus on the needs of the businesses working to reduce poverty rather than on the investors who stand to benefit from their work. In other words, it's time to stop pretending that investors seeking a pure market return can tackle the most complex global challenges in high-risk markets.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Monday
October 30
2017Impact Investing Has it Backward: It’s Time to Prioritize the Needs of Social Enterprises, Not Just Investors
Impact investing is blissfully unaware – or intentionally ignorant – of social enterprises’ experience as they seek investments, contend Mara Bolis and Sarah Alexander. This process often involves accepting financial terms and/or partners that can distract from the social mission. Impact investing needs to start telling – and hearing – these businesses' stories, so they share a financing story that's emblematic of enterprises that prioritize social returns within fragmented enabling environments.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Friday
February 20
2015Good for You, David Brooks: Now, could I please have Thomas Friedman’s phone number?
It’s great that New York Times Columnist David Brooks recently helped catapult impact investing into mainstream consciousness. But to move the impact investing space forward, we will have to look beyond the mainstream to challenge the boundaries of what we’d previously imagined was possible.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
