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Facebook Live from SOCAP
NextBillion will broadcast a series of interviews from SOCAP16 through Facebook Live, starting later today and continuing throughout the conference. Join us!
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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Five Imperatives to Help Address the Challenges of Sustainable Rural Economic Development
More than two-thirds of the populations in the least-developed countries live and work in rural areas, where the proportion of people living below the poverty line is generally double that of urban areas. That makes the development of rural economies critical for poor countries to meet their sustainable development goals. Peter Harlock of VisionFund lays out five imperatives to optimise that development.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup: A Different Kind of Pivot in SE Asia, a Surprising Collaboration in India and South Africa’s Sweet Move
Among the discussion items in this week's Roundup: the bumper crop of social enterprises in Southeast Asia; India's uphill climb toward financial inclusion; some mixed news about microfinance; South Africa takes action against obesity; and Sisu's carefully planned success.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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The Volatile ‘Face’ of Digital Financial Services in Zambia
Mobile money operators in Zambia – a country where only half of the residents are even aware of the concept of mobile money – don’t seem to stick around for very long; in fact, 90 percent of them have been in the business for less than one year. What can stop the churn? Research shows that higher income would help, and that can result from better training.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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What We’re Learning Every Step of the Energy Ladder
We spent the last year at Acumen collecting impact data on companies across our portfolio using our Lean Data approach, which harnesses the power of technology to give voice to low-income customers and allows us to provide quality customer feedback to drive business decisions for our investees. From these surveys, our entrepreneurs will get real insight into their customers: who they are, how and where they utilize energy, how much energy they use, and what they spend on a weekly or monthly basis, among other valuable feedback.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Stopping the Spread of ‘Superbugs’: Six Promising Solutions
The use, overuse and misuse of antimicrobial drugs has created resistant strains of bacteria that could be a greater threat in poorer nations than in richer ones, due to the absence of monitoring and surveillance systems for drug resistance and lack of regulation. And if new antibiotics become available, they are likely to be expensive and unaffordable in the developing world. Here are six ways the global health community can respond.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Three Keys to Scaling Technology in Africa
Based on the success of Mama Rescue, a cloud-based transport voucher and emergency dispatch system for mothers in rural Uganda, UNICEF and the Ugandan Ministry of Health decided that the platform should be scaled up to the entire country. Here are three key lessons they've learned for successfully scaling technology.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Closing the $2.5 Trillion Gap: How blended finance can help achieve the SDGs
The UN estimates it will take $3.9 trillion a year to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Based on current global development spending, that implies an annual funding shortfall of $2.5 trillion. Convergence describes how blended finance can bring together private and public investors to fill that gap.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing, SDGs
