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Saving Lake Atitlán: Women-Focused Business Provides Clean Water – and Good Jobs
After seeing that Guatemala's Lake Atitlán, where she was baptized, was contaminated, leaving thousands without jobs and clean water, Francesca Kennedy founded the social enterprise Ix Style. The company employs local female artisans to make Huarache sandals and bags, and donates 15 percent of proceeds to purchase water filters for families in Guatemala.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- public health
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A Simple, Painless Way Governments Can Help the Poor and the Environment
In Haiti there’s a 15 percent tariff and tax on clean cookstoves. Based on elasticity of demand, Dalberg projects that if improved cookstoves’ taxes and tariffs were eliminated, their annual sales would increase by 13 percent, from 185,000 to 209,000. This in turn would mitigate costs associated with health and environment consequences of traditional cooking techniques.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care
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A Tale of Two Islands: Solar Helps Indian Resort Shine
The author, Simmi Sareen, visited an island chain in the Indian Ocean. One island, Kadmat, has a solar plant that provides all the comforts travelers have come to expect. Another, Thinnakara, runs on undependable diesel power. Solar is the key that has enabled Kadmat's tourism-based economy to hum, Sareen says, and Thinnakara's could, too, if it would transition from diesel.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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Social Business Roundup: Biblical Impact Investing, Salt from Solar in Kenya and Invoices of Inclusion
In this week's social business roundup: “Biblically responsible investing” is offering another path to the predominately secular space of SRI, one of Kenya's largest solar projects could be a model for rural power and how one company's approach to the tedious process of invoicing customers could lead to more financial inclusion in the Philippines.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Investing
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Unlocking the Power of Digital Financial Services for Humanitarian Response
More people worldwide are in crisis than ever before and the humanitarian sector is transforming how it responds to them; it's moving away from a commodities-based approach toward cash-based assistance. Digitizing these cash payments can help build bridges between the humanitarian and development sectors, but progress has been slow. What can speed it up? A new report by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation might help.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Tags
- data, digital finance, fintech
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Finding New Pathways to a More Inclusive and Humane Economy
Social entrepreneurs, in their pursuit of the common good, have taught us that solutions won't come from a single sector or organization. And that's been reinforced by recent collaborations that reflect a complete new way of envisioning social change and clear the path for a more inclusive and humane economy, where social innovation is also a source of economic performance and gradually infiltrates the DNA of every company.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Power, Individualism and Indulgence: How to Leverage Cultural Factors in Entrepreneurship Training
Cultural factors can influence just about every aspect of an entrepreneur’s journey. Using a cultural dimensions tool, the authors compared how cultural background influences entrepreneurs in the USA and the Philippines. After finding large differences across three dimensions of culture, they explored how these differences might affect entrepreneurs in the Philippines and how entrepreneurship training can be tailored accordingly.
- Categories
- Education
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De-Mythifying Financial Education
Many organizations have discovered that it's difficult to bring comprehensive and sustainable financial capability to the BoP. Recognizing that financial education is complex and influenced by the clients' environment, MicroSave has developed a framework for those planning interventions, including four key lessons that should be at the forefront of any design.
- Categories
- Education
