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Why Low-Income Families Don’t Send Their Children to College. Hint: It’s Not Always About Money.
Household income is not the only limiting factor as to why children of low to upper-low income families do not attend or save for university. Significant behavioral reasons are also involved, and ESCALA, which helps families save for higher education, worked with BFA’s customer insights team to identify and develop a plan to help overcome a few of them.
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The High Cost of ‘Data Darkness’ in the Developing World
The developing world is data dark, writes Tara Thiagarajan of Madura Microfinance; gathering even the most elementary data is a monumental task, requiring feet on the ground, paid employees and auditing systems. Without it, however, products don’t have good market fit, customers don’t get what they really need and the cost of customer acquisition and delivery is higher.
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- Uncategorized
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From Trash to Resource: How Technology Can Help Informal Waste Pickers Solve India’s Recycling Problem
Due to its dependence on informal waste pickers, urban waste management in India is at once a complex problem to solve, and an excellent business opportunity. Kabadiwalla Connect, a tech-based social enterprise, is using smartphones and innovative logistics to help this informal ecosystem of urban recyclers make a better living and keep untold tons of garbage out of landfills.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology, WASH
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‘Like Using a Wall to Stop a Runaway Bus’: Cambodian Microcredit is Overheated, But Rate Caps Aren’t the Answer
Daniel Rozas says a proposed interest rate cap of 18 percent on most new microloans in Cambodia will, if enforced, hurt the very people it ostensibly seeks to protect. Taking issue with a recent post by Milford Bateman, Rozas argues the cap would create a clear preference for certain types of lending and could heighten problems created by Cambodia's saturated microcredit market.
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- Uncategorized
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New Job Board Feature – FREE Access to NextBillion’s 100,000 Twitter Audience
NextBillion's job board is one of the most active career resources in the social business and global development space – and it's one of the most popular features on the site. We're making it better by tweeting out all new job posts to our fast-growing Twitter audience of approximately 100,000 – for free. To post a job ad, or find a career with impact, visit the job board today.
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How SAJIDA Foundation Nearly Doubled Customer Uptake of Savings Accounts
Astha, a term deposit account, allows SAJIDA Foundation members in Bangladesh to save toward a purchase or financial goal. Through the OPTIX project, BFA conducted data analytics and client research with SAJIDA and eventually redesigned the accounts. After rolling out the new features, the foundation saw a 97 percent increase in accounts opened and 59 percent more mobilization of savings.
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- Finance
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Climbing India’s Technology Stack: As the Fintech Revolution Extends to Health Care, Will Emerging Markets Be Ready?
The use of technology stacks has been a profoundly important breakthrough for social and financial inclusion in India, and it also opens up many opportunities to transform health care for the poorest residents there. But as these tech-based solutions proliferate in other low and middle-income countries, writes David Butz, the health care industry must be prepared for the massive disruptions they're likely to bring.
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- Uncategorized
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Three Social Business Lessons from Detroit’s ‘Grassroots Entrepreneurs’
The self-determination that characterizes many Detroit entrepreneurs is a powerful paradigm for emerging markets, say authors Amy Gillett and Nathan Rauh-Bieri, and would-be providers of social entrepreneurship interventions should note a lesson learned: Make sure what you are offering is requested by the community, customized for the community and implemented with the community.
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- Education, Social Enterprise
