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Scaling Mobile for Development: Strengthening the business case for social enterprises, including those delivering health care
The developing world is rapidly gaining access to mobile phones, but still lags in services key to development. This gap presents an opportunity for social entrepreneurs, impact investors, NGOs and mobile operators who would like to achieve positive social impact through commercially viable businesses.
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- Education, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise, Technology
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NexThought Monday – The Real 4Ps of Inclusive Business: Perseverance, pilots, partnerships and passion
We started last September – looking across the entire portfolio of businesses supported by the Business Innovation Facility since 2010. The more we looked, the stronger the common themes appeared. Most companies ended up innovating more than they expected, and in more parts of the value chain.
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- Education
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Weekly Roundup (2/14/14): The Kiva Debate
If you were reading NextBillion this week, you probably couldn’t help but notice - and perhaps get drawn into - a debate over Kiva. It started with Hugh Sinclair’s NexThought Monday post, and continued with Kiva’s response. Today, NextBillion’s editors explain why we published this controversial post, and why we believe the ensuing debate was worth having.
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- Uncategorized
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The Power of National Targets in Financial Inclusion: The Alliance for Financial Inclusion discusses their potential and proper use
“National targets” are a familiar concept, and they’ve been used extensively by countries that rely on central planning for socio-economic development. However, many countries have misused the concept, misaligning their capacity and incentives. But Nimal Fernando argues that the process of setting national targets, if carried out right, can advance a country’s efforts toward financial inclusion.
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- Uncategorized
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How to Keep Clean-Burning Cookstoves From Gathering Dust: Devices that cut down on respiratory diseases too often aren’t being used
Smoky indoor cook fires and traditional stoves lead to 2 million deaths per year. In response, various programs have distributed cookstoves to 830 million people over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, many of these clean-burning cookstoves are unused. New monitoring technologies are being designed to find out why.
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- Education, Health Care, Technology
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Kiva Responds: The famed microlender replies to Hugh Sinclair’s scathing critique
On Monday, NextBillion Financial Innovation published a post by Hugh Sinclair, a prominent critic of microcredit, in which he leveled some sharp criticisms of Kiva, its microlending model and business practices. Today, Kiva’s co-founder/CEO and president give their side of the story.
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- Uncategorized
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Can Mobile Money Really Transform the Lives of the Poor?: BRAC will discuss its potential at the 2nd Frugal Innovation Forum on March 28-30
By the end of 2014, there will be more mobile phones than people in the world. This opens up a significant opportunity for new strategies to help people move out of poverty. But how big can the impact be, and what obstacles stand in the way? These and other topics will be under discussion at BRAC’s 2nd Frugal Innovation Forum on March 28-30, 2014.
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- Uncategorized
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Insuring Impact: A Q&A with the co-founder of HUGInsure, the world’s first social impact insurance
Few new products or concepts can be described as "the first of their kind." But Dalberg and Hollard Insurance recently launched what they believe to be the world’s first social impact insurance entity, HUGinsure. It applies rating methodologies and risk management principles to social impact funding, helping facilitate loans to projects that impact the poor.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
