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Success at Scale: How CARD Bank activated 480,000 poor savers in the Philippines
Grameen Foundation recently completed an innovative 4-year project with CARD Bank in the Philippines. Their goal: to provide access to secure, accessible and convenient savings accounts targeted to the poor. Julie Peachey describes how Grameen helped the bank open 480,000 new active savings accounts and create the infrastructure for implementation of mobile financial services, while helping its partner ensure sustainability.
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- Uncategorized
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‘Vanity is Not Monopolized By the Rich’: VisionSpring’s innovative way to sell eyeglasses proving to be sustainable; a Q&A with COO Peter Eliassen
Through a hub-and-spoke business model, middle-income customers are subsidizing company’s work with BoP consumers. And it’s proving to be sustainable.
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- Environment, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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- supply chains
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‘I had 250 angry police officers banging at my door’: The CEO of Roshan on the promise and perils of providing mobile money in Afghanistan
As the CEO of Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications provider, Karim Khoja has been at the front lines of that country’s struggles to modernize its economy - and his experiences have been both inspiring and nerve-racking. In Part 2 of our Mobile Money Movers series, he talks with Global Envision’s Kyla Yeoman about the lessons he’s learned about mobile money’s potential to transform lives.
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- Technology
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- digital payments
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Beyond the Metros: Nurturing regional social enterprise ecosystems in India
The social enterprise ecosystem, including impact investors, are centered in India’s major metros, a world away from some of the most pressing needs and challenging contexts for entrepreneurship in India. Villgro is hoping to break new ground by organizing a series of 15 single-day Unconvention|L (Unconvention|Local) events across India. The goal is create awareness of, and enthusiasm for, social enterprise in smaller cities across the vast country.
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- Education
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Part 2: the ABCs of Innovation and Prosperity in Latin America: abc* Foundation Picks Three Top Social Entrepreneur Innovators for their potential to bring economic and social good to the region
What do a Brazilian technology policy expert, a Zimbabwe climate change activist, and a Mexican inventor of new building materials have in common? They just won two years of financial support and high-level media, investors, and business partnerships as winners of this year’s abc* Foundation innovation awards, picked from among 21 Ashoka Fellow Finalists.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday 12/9/13: Jed Emerson on creating a supportive environment for seed stage impact ventures
Countless early stage entrepreneurs are developing innovative solutions to market problems. Yet investors are inherently looking to manage risks. This difference in perspective is at the heart of a persistent gap in seed stage funding for social entrepreneurs. But as impact investing guru Jed Emerson explains, there is great investment opportunity in this gap—and the fragmented seed stage impact investing ecosystem is ripe for innovation.
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- Uncategorized
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- impact investing
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Weekly Roundup (12/7/13) : Amazon can drone on about flying delivery, but the BoP will be the first beneficary
As intriguing as the Amazon drone, the Prime Air was in its reveal on 60 Minutes, count me among the skeptical. But while drones - also referred to as “unmanned aerial vehicles” (UAVs) - are still a very dubious prospect for commerce in the United States, they could serve other purposes at the BoP.
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- Technology
