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Weekly Roundup – 8/2/14: The NextBillion Case Writing Competition is returning for 2015
We’re thrilled to announce the return of the NextBillion Case Writing Competition, sponsored by the Citi Foundation and managed by GlobaLens. The 2015 contest will represent the fifth edition of the competition, which has attracted hundreds of entries from professors and students from dozens of countries around the world.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- research
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Chocolate at Risk?: Why sustainable finance is crucial to ensuring a steady cocoa supply for the world’s chocolate industry
Smallholder cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire produce 40 percent of the world cocoa supply. Yet the vast majority still live in poverty due to declining productivity, and in the absence of long-term financing opportunities, many have been changing to other crops. Rainforest Alliance’s Helen Roy describes how socially-minded investors are mobilizing capital to help these farmers revive their land.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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The Best-Kept Secret in Impact Investing: A little-known legal tool lets businesses tap mainstream investor capital – so why don’t more social enterprises use it?
A common complaint in impact investing is the lack of options for non-wealthy investors. Many feel that this hamstrings both mainstream investors and the social enterprises that could use their capital. But as Jenny Kassan, CEO of Cutting Edge Capital, describes it in part 4 of our Impact Investing Insights series, a solution to this problem already exists.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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Seven Strategies to Attract 40+ Million New Customers: How U.S. banks can serve immigrants today and tomorrow
The surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. border has put the immigration debate back in the headlines. But CFSI’s Thea Garon argues that the more important issue is whether the millions of immigrants who already live in the U.S. have what they need to succeed. She lays out new research from CFSI on how financial service providers can serve immigrants - both now and if comprehensive immigration reform is passed.
- Categories
- Investing
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‘Saving Lives at Birth’: Recognizing the best and brightest innovators in maternal and newborn health
USAID’s Grand Challenges for Development initiative on Friday is hosting DevelopmentXChange, a marketplace and awards ceremony centered around maternal and newborn health. The event, which will include more than 95 innovators from around the world, also includes an opportunity for the public to vote on their favorites.
- Categories
- Health Care
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In Uganda, Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships for Food Security
Failures in the Ugandan market deter farmers from adopting best practices for harvesting and handling, which in turn floods the market with low-quality crops for raw materials. Clinton Wong, a volunteer consultant for TechnoServe, helped lead an initiative to map the food sector in Uganda as part of the Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE) program.
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- Agriculture, Health Care
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Our Communities are Ours to Own: How Calvert Foundation is empowering small U.S. investors to strengthen their local cities through impact investments
Impact investing allows us to reframe the concept of “the investor” in an inclusive way that challenges all of us to invest in the future we hope to achieve, says Calvert Foundation’s Patrick Davis. Calvert’s "Ours To Own" movement embodies that goal, allowing people to invest as little as $20 to strengthen the communities they live in and love.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Nigeria’s Booming, But Can Health Care Keep Up?: Innovators across the country are designing new methods to reach more people
Nigeria now has the largest economy in Africa, but poverty levels there have remained stubbornly high and extending health care to the country’s large and diverse population is an enormous challenge. Still, innovators are designing new methods to reach more Nigerians with quality, affordable care.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment
