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Two Keys to Advancing Global Financial Inclusion
JP Morgan recently joined with the Gates Foundation, Bankable Frontier Associates, Accion International, Omidyar Network and others to create the Catalyst Fund. Catalyst will provide funding and mentorship to financial inclusion-focused social entrepreneurs in emerging markets that offer breakthrough technology innovations to promote financial health globally. Janis Bowdler discusses the new fund, and two key approaches to bringing financial services to the world's poorest.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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The Economic Case for Sanitation
"The economic impact of poor or zero safe sanitation is catastrophic but preventable," says Mark La Trobe, international managing director of Enviro Loo. He believes his firm – which makes waterless, chemical-free toilets that use air movement and heat from the sun to reduce solid waste – is in prime position to make a global difference.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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Smallholder Farmers and Big Business: 5 Insights from the Field
Modern agricultural practices and new technologies have transformed the productivity and lives of large farmers, but often fail to reach small and very small farmers for a variety of reasons. However, some pioneer companies and organizations across the world have sustainably increased the income and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers, by sourcing produce from them or selling products to them. What do these pioneers tell us?
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- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
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Mobile-izing Savings with Defaults in Afghanistan
The number of people with phones is far higher than the number of people who have easy access to traditional bank branches, especially among the rural poor. Until now, however, no one has tested whether mobile banking can facilitate default savings programs. This is exactly what a team led by Innovations for Poverty Action set out to do in Afghanistan.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
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Thank You
It's Thanksgiving here in the U.S. And as we have in the past, we'd like to say thank you to our readers, our sponsors and our contributors. But this year we're especially thankful. Here's why.
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- Uncategorized
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Microfinance in a Dangerous World
Held in the aftermath of the brutal Paris terrorist attacks, last week's European Microfinance Week conference had a special resonance. But the event also provided a hopeful response to recent grim headlines: it brought a strong focus to the ways the microfinance industry and broader financial inclusion movement can lessen the tensions that drive global conflicts – and how they can help communities recover when natural or man-made disasters strike.
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- Uncategorized
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‘We’re not winning this fight’
Diarrhea – which is quite treatable – still kills 1,000 per day, and children in low- and middle-income countries continue to experience about three episodes of diarrhea each year. Repeated cases of severe diarrhea, especially during important development stages in a child’s life, can have a lasting impact on physical and cognitive growth.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- vaccines
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NexThought Monday: Want to Work at a Social Enterprise? Stand out with these skills
So what do you need to stand out as a job applicant to social enterprises? In our experience here at Impact Business Leaders, where we’ve helped more than 70 professionals find new roles in social enterprises, there are a few key skill sets that have set our most successful participants apart.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
