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‘Software is Eating the World’ (Including the BoP): GIZ’s upcoming sector workshop nets ICT practice, progress
GIZ is hosting practitioner workshop Nov. 6-7 in Berlin focused on practical guidance for companies on how to leverage ICT to improve their inclusive business models. It builds on the previous BoP Sector Dialogues and is particularly geared towards company representatives from the ICT, energy, pharmaceutical, agricultural, microfinance and microinsurance sectors.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Combining Profitability and Social Impact: Salud Fácil makes a commitment to health in Mexico’s low-income communities
In Mexico, people seeking health care in the overburdened public sector must often wait six to eight months. Salud Facil offers them low-cost financing so they can seek treatment in the private sector, where there is excess capacity.
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- Health Care
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Ethnographic Design: The best ideas come from your users
In this second post in Grameen Foundation’s series on designing products and services for the BoP, Julius Matovu reviews the use of design ethnography in early research phases to gain insights into the financial needs of the poor. He describes what to do - and what to avoid - when spending time with potential users to gain a deep understanding of their wants and needs.
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- Education
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Cost vs. Tech: Will innovation make it affordable to transact with the BoP?
NextBillion Financial Innovation’s introductory series features the views of top innovators and leaders on what’s driving financial innovation, where momentum is heading, and what obstacles remain. Today, Anurag Agrawal, CEO of Intellecap lays out the core isssues involved in bringing low-cost financial products to customers at the base of the pyramid.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday – Life of a Social Entrepreneur: Managing the flurry of conferences and your expectations
We have been to all types of conferences: big and small, near and far, focused on international development and focused on entrepreneurship. We have been attendees, panelists, and presenters. But unlike some of the competitions and prizes that Starr mentioned, we have found that these conferences can either be incredibly helpful or not helpful at all. It depends entirely on expectations.
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- Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup – 10/4/13: Global health can’t afford a shutdown
Experts tell us that a key to achieving global health is focus. As we’ve seen this week with the U.S. government shutdown, the bigger the organization, the harder it is to focus. But as Kyle Poplin argues in this Roundup post, with about 800 days left to meet the Millennium Development Goal of reducing child and maternal deaths across the planet, global health organizations are working through obstacles far greater than politics.
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- Health Care
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- public health
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Practical Insight: Studies support mobile money decision making
Contextual, demand-side research can make all the difference when mobile money providers make decisions about what products and services to offer and how to attract and keep customers. In many developing countries, however, such research is often in short supply. Recent studies conducted by InterMedia shed light on the mobile money markets in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, providing insight that is not always intuitive.
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- Education
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New Evidence on How Poverty Affects Decision Making: And what the business, development community can learn from it
Many previous studies of poor populations show a relationship between poverty and counterproductive behavior. But new research in the August issue of Science magazine presents some very important evidence on how poverty affects decision making through a different channel.
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- Education
