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Around the World with Bitcoin: How the cryptocurrency is being put to use in five hotbeds of early Bitcoin activity
Bitcoin startups are using the innovative cryptocurrency/payment system to expand financial services in areas with high mobile coverage and low participation in traditional banks. Sarah Martin runs down early Bitcoin momentum in five countries with active digital currency marketplaces: the Philippines, India, Kenya, South Africa and Argentina.
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Weekly Roundup – 9/20/14: An awkward moment, new momentum and a brewing battle highlight recent developments in finance
Muhammad Yunus has issued some pointed criticisms of microfinance’s turn toward profit. But is the sector he pioneered listening to him - and are his ideals even realistic in the first place? We discuss these questions - along with signs of momentum in impact investing and new developments in a Kenyan mobile money battle - in this Roundup.
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Keeping Up With Education Innovations: New portals provide insight into growing number of programs serving the world’s poor
The Center for Education Innovations has introduced new portals, organized by topic and country, to provide analysis, news and resources about the growing number of innovative education programs serving the world’s poor.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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Checking Out Solar at the ‘Light Library’: SunnyMoney designed a distribution model allowing customers to test products before buying
Over the years SunnyMoney, SolarAid’s social enterprise and one of the largest sellers of solar lights in Africa has been inundated with requests to use and test the lights to help build trust and demand without undermining a sustainable market. In response SunnyMoney designed the Light Library, a distribution model that gives would-be customers that opportunity.
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- distribution, research, solar
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How Price Discrimination is Good for Global Health (Part 2): Patricia Danzon describes how the concept, despite its theoretical upside, ‘is not working very well’ in practice
?In Part 1 of her interview with NBHC, professor Patricia Danzon of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania laid out some of the advantages of differential pricing in pharmaceuticals. In Part 2, she describes how the concept works in practice, including the key role of politics in its implementation.
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- Education, Health Care
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An Interview With Muhammad Yunus: The Godfather of Microcredit Shares His Views – And Concerns – About the Sector
Though he’s a tireless promoter of microcredit’s potential to help the poor, Muhammad Yunus hasn’t been shy in voicing his criticisms of its embrace of commercialism. In a video Q&A with NextBillion Financial Innovation – the first in a series of conversations with microfinance thought leaders – Yunus discusses his concerns about the industry’s direction, and points to ways it could improve.
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- Impact Assessment
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How Price Discrimination is Good for Global Health (Part 1): Professor Patricia Danzon of The Wharton School discusses differential pricing in pharmaceuticals
Professor Patricia Danzon of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, discusses differential pricing -- sometimes called price discrimination -- which she maintains increases utilization of medicines and, therefore, overall social welfare.
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- Education, Health Care
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- research, supply chains
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Looking for Hybrid Ecosystems to Serve the BoP: Scenes from the first BoP World Convention that took place last month in Singapore
The first BoP World Convention took place in Singapore at the end of August. For an inaugural conference, it attracted a remarkably large and diverse crowd—600 attendees from 40 countries that spanned a multitude of ages and topic specialties, writes organizer Al Hammond. What set this conference off from other BoP gatherings were efforts to consider how these sectors might work together in novel ways to address poverty.
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