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Why We Broke Up the Company: A Former CEO of M-Agri Pioneer Esoko Explains
After a rapid revenue increase and the development of a mobile commerce platform, Esoko saw that it had some challenges balancing its very different product lines. Former CEO Hillary Miller-Wise walks us through the m-agri pioneer's decision to spin off into two companies.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Cash, Trees, Honey and Bees: Enticing Ethiopia’s Farmers Toward Eco-Stewardship
In Ethiopia, use of herbicides as well as loss of habitat are causing a reduction in the local pollinator population, not unlike the global trend of pollinator decline that is threatening food security around the world. Julia Entwistle, a graduate student at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, details her summer internship with an organization trying to balance the interests of nature and farmers through profits.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Solar Lighting in Remote Rural Areas: Oversold or Truly Illuminating?
It's common wisdom that solar lighting can make a dent in serious problems plaguing the developing world. But the underwhelming social impact measured in a recent randomized controlled trial calls that belief into question. However, research conducted by Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, based on in-depth interviews with solar lighting users in Tanzania, found much more positive results. Thane Kreiner and Leslie Gray of Santa Clara University explore possible reasons for the disparate findings.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Forget the Sexy ‘Innovations’: Build (and Monitor) More Water Pipes
Annie Feighery is CEO of mWater, an M&E and data management platform that is used in 147 countries to track water sources. In this insightful Q&A, she says, "The only way it is feasible to achieve global access to safe water is through systems" such as piped infrastructure and small-scale water treatment and distribution units. "The majority of the water-stressed (people) on the planet live within a kilometer of a piped network. They don’t need wells, they need to be part of the infrastructure."
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Financial Inclusion is Failing Farmers: How the Sector Can Finally Reach the $200 Billion Smallholder Market
There are 450 million smallholder farmers supporting about 2 billion people worldwide. Yet financing available to farmers lags behind the need, which is estimated in excess of $200 billion. Blaine Stephens of MIX and Mike Warmington of One Acre Fund explore the reasons why and offer potential solutions – including a new, centralized directory their organizations are building, which provides useful information on existing smallholder finance products.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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Happy Labor Day
America’s celebrating Labor Day today, so NextBillion’s editors are taking a little time off to honor our workers and maybe even go to a parade. Wherever you are, have a wonderful day. Be sure to check back in with us tomorrow for some agricultural content for our September theme.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Making WASH Sexy: An Often Neglected Sector Comes Into Its Own
In a social business landscape littered with apps and accelerators, WASH doesn’t come across as the sexiest of sectors. So when NextBillion launched its August focus on WASH, we editors weren’t expecting words like “hope” and “innovation” and “opportunity” to be thrown around a lot. But they were. And as the month ends, we’re feeling – dare we say it – excited about the long-term future of water, sanitation and hygiene, and about the businesses focused on improving them.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, WASH
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Powering Communities Through a Surprising Source of Renewable Energy: Human Waste
Around the world, a staggering 2.5 billion people lack access to decent toilets. That leads to far too many people getting sick from preventable diseases. Anne Healy and Erin Crossett of Development Innovation Ventures say the good news is that some enterprising companies are experimenting with ways to make human waste disposal profitable in the developing world.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, WASH
