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Weekly Roundup: PSI for Profit, a Slowing ‘Pulse’ in Africa and Medical Tourism on Steroids
The non-profit Population Services International (PSI) announces the launch of a for-profit business in India, sub-Saharan Africa braces for "the lowest growth in more than 20 years," and Obamacare generates some unintended – and potentially exciting – consequences. We discuss these and other issues in our weekly roundup of social business and global development news.
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- Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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The Accidental Social Entrepreneur: A Hippie Ecologist’s Foray into a Costa Rican Business Start-up
Fifteen years ago, American Lisa Bradshaw became a social entrepreneur. But at the time, she didn't know it. When she launched the eco-conscious and locally sourced Green Screen in 2002, no other plant-based insect repellents were on the market in Costa Rica and certification requirements for organic products had just recently been legislated. Here are some of the hard lessons she picked up.
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- Agriculture, Environment, Social Enterprise
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Who Pays and What Works? The Changing Market of Inclusive Business Development Services
There are more development services for inclusive businesses than ever before. But how effective are they and what still needs to be done to improve the market? The Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business and the Inclusive Business Accelerator have been exploring these questions and more in a new series.
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- Uncategorized
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‘A Sweet Spot for Impact Investing’: Omidyar Network’s Roopa Kudva discusses India’s Growing Prominence
There was a surprising amount of tension on SOCAP's panel on impact investing in India, much of it revolving around a simple question: Are these investments making a difference? As one panelist put it, "Just because you're doing it, doesn't mean it's actually helping." Roopa Kudva, a partner at Omidyar Network, sat on the panel, and afterward she shared her views on this question, and on the impact sector's growing prominence in India, in a video Q&A.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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- impact investing
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The ‘Treacherous’ Transition from a Great Tech Idea to Sustainable Business
Hyrax Biosciences recently developed Exatype, a software solution that enables health care workers to quickly and affordably determine HIV positive patients’ responsiveness to treatment. In this Q&A, Dr. Kirsten Miller-Duys, business development lead, discusses Exatype’s implications for global health, plans to turn it into a sustainable business, and Africa's emerging tech sector.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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What We’ve Got Here is a Failure to Communicate: Three Ways to Bridge the Academic/Practitioner Gap
Evidence-based policymaking requires a collaborative relationship between the worlds of research, policy and practice. But productive three-way communication between these actors is difficult, as vague prejudices can limit each side's ability to listen and learn. As every failure to communicate is a missed opportunity, Innovations for Poverty Action explores some ways to improve learning and communication.
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- Finance, Social Enterprise
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Weekly Roundup: Ending Disease, Growing Coffee and (Still) Distrusting Bankers
In our Weekly Roundup, we suggest that despite what you might see on Facebook, finding cures in laboratories is the easy part of healing the planet; we celebrate the buzz around relationship coffee; and we give readers one more reason to distrust bankers (and we're not even talking about Wells Fargo).
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- Uncategorized
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Thinking Outside the Bag: Bringing Together Private Packaging Firms, Public Procurement to Feed More Hungry People
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) conservatively estimates that 1 percent of all food aid shipped every year is lost to factors like spoilage or physical damage. That’s enough to feed about 200,000 families for a month — $15 million lost each year. This summer, USAID, USDA and American packaging companies are running an experiment with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to understand which kinds of food aid packaging may better prevent spoilage.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
