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Know Your Goals, Know Your Audience: Lessons from the Ashoka-American Express Emerging Innovators Mexico City Boot Camp
Held in Mexico City late last month, the Ashoka American Express Emerging Innovators Boot Camp provided advice and strategic exercises to 15 emerging social innovators from across Mexico.
In collaboration with American Express and Ashoka Changemakers, this was the third boot camp in North America this summer and aimed to increase the impact of innovators’ social initiatives.- Categories
- Education
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Avon, Amway … Africa?: Can the direct sales agent model work for health goods at the BoP? Part 1
It’s not easy marketing health products to the BoP. Challenges range from remote distribution to customers’ limited awareness of the products’ benefits or correct usage. That’s why some companies are recruiting local sales teams to sell health products directly to their communities. But how can the Avon/Amway model work for low-margin goods at the BoP? The SHOPS Project analyzed five business models in Africa over 16 months. In Part 1 of this Q&A, lead researcher Michael Kubzansky describes its findings.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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- public health, research
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Pioneering in Colombia : The country has forged a strong record of BoP-focused ventures
This transformation did not occur overnight, it was a long process that began to crystalize about 14 years ago when the country suffered a deep economic recession. The economic downturn and the instability that followed was a wake up call to the nation. If Colombia was ever going to reach its true potential as South America’s second largest economy, both the public and private sector needed to join forces and build a new future together, particularly for the millions of Colombians at the BoP.
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- Uncategorized
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Measure for Measure series – Gauging Social Impact? : Here’s why you might want to send a proxy
Impact on environmental, or social issues such as gender equity obviously are more difficult to measure. But if we want businesses and markets to prioritize and create positive social impact alongside commercial benefits, it can be useful to value social impact in a similar way to net profits and losses on a spreadsheet. Proxies can help measure things that are not directly observable.
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- Impact Assessment
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Fighting HIV and Malaria in Uganda: Quality Chemical Industries produces low-cost antiretroviral drugs while spurring local manufacturing
Quality Chemical Industries produces low-cost antiretroviral drugs while spurring local manufacturing in Uganda. It has greatly increased the country’s access to malaria and HIV/AIDS treatment. The company is expanding, with hopes of exporting its drugs to other east African countries. But its growth has been held back by government subsidies of more expensive, imported drugs.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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NexThought Monday – Doing Good Responsibly: Through stop motion video, UC Berkeley Ananya Roy critiques BoP capitalism
Hardly a day goes by without a new infographic related to some aspect of global poverty. But these graphic video narratives do the same for powerful, pertinent questions about poverty and development: Who do we view as poor? Professor Ananya Roy at the University of California at Berkeley, takes us on that journey too.
- Categories
- Education
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Weekly Roundup 7/27/13 – Sparking the Diaspora
Harnessing the power of the diaspora, not just as a means of familial economic assistance, but also for wider financial and infrastructure investment, is getting less theoretical and more applied. That’s especially thanks to the power of social media to pull expatriate investors together, and the ease of money transfers. It seems the next big wave of financial innovation is coming in the form of products like diaspora bonds and profit-seeking, albeit patient capital, diaspora funds.
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- Uncategorized
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Seeking Scalable Solutions to Promote Nutrient-Rich Food: Insights from young innovators in Ashoka Changemakers’ Nutrients for All idea exchange
To have widespread, affordable access to nutrient-rich food, we need to work with the food industry, and take advantage of advances in science and technology. But how can this work in practice? Ashoka Changemakers and Thought for Food hosted an idea exchange with several young innovators, who discussed their work and the challenges of making nutritious food widely available.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
