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Boosting Gender Equality Through Entrepreneurship: A Q&A with Pro Mujer CEO Maria Cavalcanti
Maria Cavalcanti is president and CEO of Pro Mujer, one of the largest women’s development organizations in Latin America. In this Q&A, she discusses the changing nature of women entrepreneurship, the organization's embrace of technology and for-profit structures, and her ambitious plans to make Pro Mujer "a one-stop shop for empowerment for women in the region."
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion, Health Care
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To Fix the Gender Gap, Fix the Digital Divide
Most job growth will come from STEM fields, yet women make up only 12 percent of engineering students. That’s why MIT’s new Solve initiative launched a Women and Technology Challenge asking for technology-fueled solutions that enable women and girls’ full participation in the economy. Selected solutions will receive support from cross-sector leaders interested in investing in innovative social impact projects – the Solve challenge deadline is Aug. 1.
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‘Ready, Steady, Scale!’: A Practical Tool to Assess Your Social Business
To scale in base-of-the-pyramid markets, social ventures need to learn to operate and grow in complex, uncertain and resource-limited markets, and become highly adaptive to market and social context. That's why the MIT Practical Impact Alliance developed "Ready, Steady, Scale!" It's a guide to help inclusive business practitioners better understand their organization’s readiness for scale and to clearly identify opportunities for improvement.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Fixing the Social Enterprise Skill Shortage: Why a ‘Fundamental Rethink’ is Needed
Social business advocates and intermediary organizations often focus on supporting entrepreneurs themselves – but there is a bigger challenge lurking beneath the surface, says Amani Institute co-founder Roshan Paul. It's crucial to build the teams that organizations need to grow and thrive in the marketplace. The problem, however, is there's a shortage of resources focused on growing those teams and talents that make social enterprise possible.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Social Impact Incentives: A New Solution for Blended Finance
In just six years, social enterprise Clínicas del Azúcar has grown into the largest private provider of specialized diabetes care in Mexico, but faces an almost constant challenge to balance its financial and social performance. That's where social impact incentives (SIINC) come into play. A new solution for blended finance, SIINCs align profitability with social impact by paying social enterprises directly for proven social outcomes.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship, Health Care, Investing, Technology
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Entrepreneurs Are the Same Person All Over the World. And That’s a Good Thing.
Steven R. Koltai, an entrepreneur and international development expert, believes the U.S. and other powerful nations should give to seed funds and invest in accelerators for foreign startups because "entrepreneurs are the same person all over the world." They aren't interested in socio-political and religious grievances that lead to violence and war, he says, but are a "bridge" class of people, capable of linking nations and cultures.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion, Investing
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Managing Trade-Offs Between Impact and Profit – Finding the Formula for BoP Business
Eugenia Rosca's study of small enterprises in BOP markets reveals that many of them have similar characteristics and are founded to respond to highly pressing local issues. The businesses usually identify a social need and develop a market to address it; then, in time, around one-third of them reported an increased orientation toward economic goals. To be successful, they should acquire skills, resources and capabilities for both social and economic activities.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment, Financial Inclusion
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From Extremely Poor to Entrepreneur: A Starter Asset Combined with Mentorship Forges Pathway Out of Poverty
Today Arfa Bibi runs a successful vegetable farming business in India. Only a few years ago, however, Bibi and her husband struggled to feed their family and she even resorted to begging. Her transformation into entrepreneur came thanks to Kolkata-based nonprofit Bandhan-Konnagar's graduation model program Targeting the Hardcore-Poor, whose success was cited in a six-country MIT study of 21,000 of the world's poorest people.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion
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