-
An Ecosystem Approach for Building Affordable, Climate Resilient Housing
Indonesia has seen some of the worst natural calamities in recent times, and its demand for houses exceeds an estimated 1 million, with a supply between 300,000 - 400,000 annually. This highlights a business opportunity for private firms in the country’s affordable housing sector. As a part of the Rockefeller Foundation Technical Assistance Facility, Intellecap worked with Lafarge in Medan and Aceh, Indonesia to create a climate-resilient housing product model that is sustainable and caters to the urban poor.
- Categories
- Environment
-
Innovations in Financial Capability: Four Lessons For Providers
Building successful financial capability requires moving beyond traditional modes of product delivery and financial education. Accion identified several best practices from organizations that habitually learn from their clients’ needs and behaviors, and tailor their products to meet those needs and build capability. Here are four lessons from their new report on the topic.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Commercializing Health Tech in India
Preventing hypothermia is recognized as an essential part of care for all newborns by the World Health Organization and the Indian government, but it is often missed, especially in resource-poor settings. The Bempu bracelet is designed to overcome that problem by empowering nurses and parents to detect and prevent hypothermia in babies.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
-
NexThought Monday: Our inaugural podcast – a conversation with the MasterCard Foundation’s Ann Miles
In April, the MasterCard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity awarded over $10 million to five innovative companies working to increase financial access in rural Africa. In NextBillion's inaugural podcast, we spoke to Ann Miles, Director of Financial Inclusion & Youth Livelihoods at the MasterCard Foundation, about the competition's winners and the broader digital financial inclusion space in Africa.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
-
Weekly Roundup: Burning the Ivory to Save It
Late last week Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta helped set 105 tons of poached elephant ivory and rhino horns ablaze. It was a drastic step to help kill a black market where the horns and tusks would have fetched $100 million. This week we were reminded of other market building forces in Africa and Ecuador.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Investing
-
Finding a Sanitation Destiny: ‘I Am Supposed to Design Toilets’
Jasmine Burton of Wish for WASH: "Although we are still very much researching and iterating our design, (the) SafiChoo (toilet) is innovative because it seeks to incorporate human-centered design and community-driven solutions to best improve the user experience in all parts of the market (from manufacturing to shipping to distributing to customers to end users)."
- Categories
- Health Care, WASH
- Tags
- sanitation
-
Three ‘Golden Rules’ of Investing in Health-Focused BoP Models
With an estimated $140 billion needed per year to finance the health-related Sustainable Development Goals, the role of private sector finance is more critical than ever. Dalberg, after exploring the topic from a variety of angles and analyzing successes, synthesized three golden rules of investing in health-focused BoP models to help guide businesses, investors and start-ups.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
What STEM Skillsets, Mindsets Bring to Sustainable Development
Many people still believe that all scientists and engineers work in science and engineering. Do all scientists pipette solutions in a clean white lab while all engineers take measurements on a construction site and programmers write apps in a cubicle? While many STEM professionals do fit these traditional roles, many more use their analytical skills to solve problems in other fields. According to the National Science Board, fewer than half the undergraduate STEM majors in the U.S. end up in STEM occupations. Part two in a series on STEM careers and directions for sustainable development.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Technology
- Tags
- research
