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Reimagining the World’s Dirtiest Job: How Pit Vidura is Professionalizing Waste Management
Around 2.7 billion people – 35 percent of the world’s population – use on-site sanitation systems that are not connected to sewers. When they become full, they need to be emptied – a job that’s often done manually, presenting hazards to both the workers and their communities. Pit Vidura is tackling this challenge in Kigali, Rwanda, offering safe hygienic pit latrine and septic tank emptying for people in hard-to-reach areas. Katie Sottilare discusses the company’s innovative approach, and the impact it’s having.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, WASH
- Tags
- LMICs, public health, sanitation, social enterprise, toilets, WASH, waste
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Good Food, Good Business: How African ‘Superfoods’ Can Boost Women Entrepreneurs and Their Communities
Africa has one of the largest youth populations in the world – and it's projected to double by 2055. To support this young generation of tomorrow, we need to invest in their mothers today, says Oumar Barou Togola, the founder of Farafena Health Inc. He explores how Farafena is partnering with women farmers in Mali and Malawi, helping them start micro-businesses that bring nutrient-rich African "superfoods" to North American markets.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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Why Aren’t More Social Enterprises Measuring Impact? A New Study in South Africa Raises Questions for the Global Sector
South Africa has arguably the most mature impact ecosystem in Africa, with both seasoned and new social enterprises, incubators, accelerators and funders. And a new study from Impact Amplifier and Genesis Analytics revealed a similarly robust impact assessment sector, with 72 percent of study participants claiming to have an impact measurement practice. But as Tanner Methvin at Impact Amplifier explains, those numbers contrast significantly with what his organization has observed on the ground. He explores that discrepancy and the broader findings in this revealing post.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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Medical Equipment Graveyards: Three Causes of the Problem – And How Blockchain Can Help
Medical equipment is essential for diagnosing and treating patients. Yet due to inefficiencies and a lack of coordination in donations, much of this equipment sits unused in low-income countries — a situation often referred to as equipment graveyards. According to global health consultant Vikas Meka, blockchain could provide a solution. In this post – the first in a series – he explores three common problems with the current medical equipment donation system, and how a blockchain-driven platform could help.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Adapt or Die: Accelerating Growth Amid a Rapidly Changing Energy Landscape
The clean cooking sector has made incredible strides in the past decade, with bilateral organizations and the development community working together to create standardized environmental impact goals. Now the industry is facing a new set of scaling challenges, say Jessica Alderman and Ron Bills of Envirofit International. The two share advice for enterprises seeking to level up, including how to avoid mission creep.
- Categories
- Energy
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Managing Money in Retirement is Hard – Fintech May Make it Easier
As many as 42 million Americans aged 50 or older struggle with some aspect of their financial lives, according to new research by the Center for Financial Services Innovation. The new report shows how the work-to-retire model of building savings and paying off debt has been replaced with far more complex scenarios and, for many, delayed retirement. Karen Andres, Vice President at CFSI, sees a solution in fintech – she highlights several apps that leverage tools like prize-linked savings, automated transaction monitoring, and innovative ways to create steady income streams.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Getting to the SDGs – And What’s Next for Multi-Sector Collaboration
We live in an era of multi-sector solutions. But it's easy to forget that diverse sectors working closely toward big global development goals is a recent phenomenon that didn’t happen by chance. At a talk at the William Davidson Institute, Tami Kesselman, founder of Aligned Investing Global, discussed several key tipping points that have allowed the business, government, philanthropic and impact investing communities to overcome misaligned priorities and mistrust. Check out her interview and her predictions on what will come next in multi-sector development.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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The Power of Messaging: How WhatsApp is Becoming a Not-So-Secret Weapon Among Small Enterprises in Emerging Markets
Doing business in emerging markets requires significant and often remote communication – from managing inventory to keeping track of transactions and employees in the field. But though donor-funded digitization efforts often focus on building payments use cases, some of the most needed advancements are happening via existing communications channels like WhatsApp, says Strategic Impact Advisors VP Hamilton McNutt. He explores the innovative ways companies are using WhatsApp – and how messaging apps could better serve their needs.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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