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Putting Vision into Focus: Lessons on Scaling Up a Social Enterprise
Out of everyone experiencing vision losses globally, 2.5 billion of them can have their vision restored with just a pair of eyeglasses. BRAC and VisionSpring are tackling this problem in Bangladesh through an innovative social entrepreneurship model: They sell low-cost reading glasses to low-wage earners through BRAC’s network of community health workers.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Dear Critics: Here’s Why the Off-grid Energy Industry Needs Impact Investment
Off-grid lighting trade organization GOGLA responds to a recent post from Ceniarth critical of "hype" in the energy access sector. Consider the off-grid market within the context of the wider world and economy around it, say John Keane and Laura Sundblad, and remember that millions of households around the globe live with unreliable, dangerous, inadequate and ultimately extremely expensive means of lighting and basic energy.
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- Energy, Environment, Investing
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Hype in the Energy Access Sector (Finally!)
Leaders at Persistent Energy, an impact investor focused on the renewable sector primarily in West Africa, push back against a recent NextBillion post by Ceniarth positing the industry has become overhyped. While there has been some hype about a handful of established companies, they argue, the bigger concern is that not enough capital is flowing into the sector to give it the opportunity to prove itself.
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- Energy, Environment
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Don’t Fear the Rate Cap: Why Cambodia’s Microcredit Regulations Aren’t Such a Bad Thing
The Cambodian government recently shocked its microcredit industry by capping interest rates at 18 percent – about half the current rate of most loans. Many analysts sympathetic to the industry have strongly criticized the move, but Milford Bateman argues it's actually an important step in protecting the poor – and resolving an "existential crisis" in a sector plagued by unsustainable growth and high over-indebtedness.
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- Uncategorized
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How to Improve Public-Private Health Care Collaboration in India
India has made rapid advances in improving health care, but to address lingering issues such as accessibility and quality, the country needs to move toward a better-integrated care system, with public and private providers collaborating. Based on its experiences, ACCESS Health International proposes three key shifts that might help reach that goal.
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- Health Care
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How Can Inclusive Business Advance the SDGs?
Two recent publications released in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals' first anniversary share the view that inclusive business is a part of the solution to deliver on the SDGs. That's a sign of progress, according to Jenny Melo, but we still need to go deeper in the conversation and ask for impacts, measurements and specific connections.
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- Education, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Microfinance for Water and Sanitation: Opportunities and Challenges for MFIs
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) presents an opportunity for MFIs to meaningfully impact their customers’ lives and aid in their struggle against poverty. However, a variety of issues play a role in determining the suitability of a WASH finance product. To help MFIs navigate through these, MicroSave and Water.Org have developed a series of toolkits.
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- Health Care
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Environment Month Takeaway: It’s Time to Bust Some Business Models
The business, technological, financial and political (notwithstanding the U.S. government) tailwinds have never been moving in such alignment toward a cleaner and more sustainable world economy. But as NextBillion editor Scott Anderson points out, it will take truth tellers and, yes, some persistent agitators to make sure this ship stays on course.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Health Care, Investing, Technology
