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NB Quick Takes: Polman’s Out at Unilever – Let the Legacy Debate Begin!
In case you hadn't heard: Paul Polman is retiring as CEO of Unilever at the end of the year. Perhaps no other executive has been as closely associated with corporate social responsibility as Polman, who put social impact at the forefront of his agenda. That's not to say all of his initiatives were successful, nor were they without detractors – his retirement is sparking lots of discussion about his approach and its effectiveness at Unilever, not to mention its influence across the business world. We've gathered some early Twitter reactions in this post.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Uncategorized
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Do Payday Loans Deserve Their Bad Reputation? Ask the People Who Know Best – the Borrowers
Payday loans have earned a bad reputation as high-interest money traps that leave low-income borrowers stuck in a cycle of debt. But despite all the criticism and bad press, these loans remain very popular among low-income borrowers, with an estimated 15,766 payday loan stores throughout the U.S. – slightly more than the country's 14,350 McDonalds. So are payday loans really that bad – and are borrowers actually being victimized? LendEDU conducted a survey of payday loan customers, and Mike Brown unpacks the results – many of which may surprise you.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- financial health, lending
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The Donor-Funded Dilemma: What’s Stopping Emerging Countries from Developing Private Markets for Contraceptives?
In sub-Saharan Africa, the private sector provides family planning solutions to almost 40 percent of women. But that isn’t the case in Malawi, a country that’s long been dominated by donor-funded commodities. Erika Beidelman and Andrea Bare at the William Davidson Institute explore Malawi's family planning landscape, highlighting five factors that may be limiting the private sector’s involvement – issues that may apply to other countries with histories of donor-funded healthcare.
- Categories
- Health Care
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On the Ground at European Microfinance Week: Discussing Technology’s Threat and Promise – and Financial Services for Refugees
There were two topics that dominated debate at last week’s European Microfinance Week (EMW) conference: the threats and opportunities brought about by the fintech revolution in inclusive finance, and the issue of financial inclusion for refugees and internally displaced persons. The discussion of these issues ranged from hopeful to surprisingly cautionary – Sam Mendelson at the European Microfinance Platform shares some highlights.
- Categories
- Finance
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Authentic Storytelling Can Boost a Social Enterprise’s Development – This Tool Can Help
When promoting their businesses, most social entrepreneurs naturally focus on talking about their successes. But though their instinct is often to minimize or ignore their enterprise's setbacks, this can actually be a mistake, says Barbara Börner, a consultant for social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations. She explores how telling the stories behind these challenges can raise awareness of a social business among potential investors, customers and other stakeholders – and she shares a free tool that can help entrepreneurs develop more effective storytelling skills.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Four Ways to Support Vulnerable Youth: Key Takeaways from a Six-Year Livelihood Program
The world’s current generation of 1.8 billion young people is the largest in history. But harnessing this demographic dividend has proven difficult, as youth unemployment rates have remained persistently high for the last decade. Save the Children’s recently concluded Youth in Action program was designed to improve the socioeconomic status of 40,000 out-of-school youth in rural Africa. To find out how well it worked, the organization embedded 32 studies into the program. It recently shared the results – and Nikhit D’Sa discusses four lessons from the findings.
- Categories
- Education
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Inexpensive Impact: The Case for Frugal Innovations
Over 4 billion people around the world lack necessities like food, water, energy, health care and housing. This represents not only a major social challenge but a major market, as low-income consumers have an annual purchasing capacity of US $5 trillion. Rajat Chabba and Sheena Raikundalia at Intellecap explore how entrepreneurs are developing innovative, frugal products to meet these customers’ needs – and why an ecosystem approach is needed to help them scale their solutions.
- Categories
- Technology
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The New Face of Poverty: Why Unemployment isn’t the Issue – And How Financial Inclusion Can Help
When you think about poverty, what does it look like? Many people might picture an undernourished African child, or an elderly beggar sitting in the street. But as Oakam CEO Frederic Nze explains, the reality can be far different. Poverty today often involves the struggles of the working poor, and it’s defined less by extreme deprivation and more by lack of access – to clean water, to power, to basic education, and increasingly to the internet. Nze explores the implications of this shift for the financial inclusion and development sectors.
- Categories
- Finance, Telecommunications
