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The Secondary School Abyss: Can Public Private Partnerships Help?
Demand for secondary schools outstrips supply in parts of Africa. PEAS, which builds and runs not-for-profit secondary schools in Uganda and Zambia, has decided to focus on working alongside an informal coalition of partners, including governments, to create a PPP school movement across sub-Saharan Africa.
- Categories
- Education
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Mainstreaming Impact Investing: 12 Takeaways from ‘The Economist’ Event
On Feb. 15, 'The Economist' magazine hosted a discussion in New York on how impact investing can truly go mainstream. NextBillion was a media partner at the event, and we've compiled 12 memorable and sometimes unexpected insights from panelists throughout the day.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Client Outcomes Data in Microfinance: Few Have It But Everybody Needs It
Many recent studies have found that microfinance has no impact, or minimal positive impact, on clients’ lives. To find out why and to fix the problem, financial service providers need client outcomes data, but few FSPs collect it because they think it would be too expensive and time-consuming. Turns out, according to the SPTF Outcomes Working Group, it's not.
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- Uncategorized
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How to Stop Wasting Food … and Feed the World
Productivity isn't the only variable in the effort to increase the world's food supply; one-third of all food gets lost or wasted. Science for Society Techno Services claims its solar conduction dryer increases the shelf life of perishable produce by six to 12 months, and the firm even buys processed food from farmers and takes their dehydrated produce to market.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Social Business Roundup: Transaction-Fee Wrangling and a Reason to Pay Attention at Your Next Conference
M-Pesa (finally) moves toward fee transparency ... but it didn't take banks long to react. That's one insight in our weekly roundup. We also zone in on high-level impact investing discussions held 1,600 miles apart, The MacArthur Foundation's tightening focus on world-changing ideas, India's cash crackdown and why it could pay to pay attention at trade shows.
- Categories
- Investing
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Paying for School: Six Insights for Better Financial Services
The inability to pay fees and other education expenses keeps many children out of school. What is the extent of these challenges, who is affected and what kinds of financial services could help? These questions are explored here by Michelle Kaffenberger and Lauren Braniff, and in a new CGAP publication, “Digital Finance and Innovations in Financing for Education.”
- Categories
- Education
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The Hidden Cost of Digital Convenience
Technology has the potential to reduce costs and provide added financial benefits to poor clients, but a new paper discusses a downside to digitizing group microfinance transactions; namely, a reduction in group cohesion and sensitivity to transaction fees. Innovations for Poverty Action and others are partnering with product designers and microfinance groups to overcome these challenges.
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- Uncategorized
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Creative Climbing: How Impact Enterprises are Overcoming Obstacles in East Africa
In 2016, Intellecap undertook a study to better understand how East African impact entrepreneurs manage to design viable business models despite the various market challenges. The insights from the study can inform inclusive development in the region and across the global south. The study classified impact enterprises across three levers based on their interaction with the BoP: access, ability and knowledge.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
