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Microfinance CEOs: Smart Campaign Certification is a Clear Step Toward Responsible Microfinance
As co-chairs of the Microfinance CEO Working Group, we are pleased to share with NextBillion readers this joint statement from the Working Group in support of the recently announced Smart Campaign Client Protection Certification Program. Certification will offer public recognition for institutions that meet adequate standards of care in appropriately protecting microfinance clients, as verified by an independent evaluation. It marks a clear step forward in ensuring the microfinance industry puts the treatment of its clients first.
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- Uncategorized
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- microfinance
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$200,000 for BoP Health Care Innovators : A big opportunity for social enterprises
The USAID-funded Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) project has announced the launch of the Health Enterprise Fund, a challenge fund designed to address the lack of available capital for health enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa. This support will include technical assistance and grant funding of up to $200,000. In this post, Colm Fay of the SHOPS project explains the fund and how to apply.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Part 2: What Really Happens at a BoP Clinic?: A new study shows surprising results
Do trained primary care providers reliably provide better care than untrained ones in BoP communities? That’s one of the questions explored by Jishnu Das, Senior Economist in the Development Research Group at The World Bank, in a recent Health Affairs study on provider quality in India. In Part 2 of his interview with CHMI’s Rose Reis, Das talks about the limitations of existing data on BoP health care quality, the lessons of the study - and its surprising findings on the relative quality of untrained providers.
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- Education, Health Care
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- public health, research
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Special Series (Part 3): BPO for the BoP : The trials and successes of an early-stage Impact Sourcing Service Provider in Africa
Impact Sourcing Service Providers (ISSPs) constitute a critical component of the emerging Impact Sourcing space. ISSPs are business process outsourcing (BPO) organizations with the specific social objective, often outlined in their mission, to hire workers from poor and vulnerable communities to perform BPO work. ISSPs are emerging in rural areas as reaction to rising costs in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in developing countries.
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- Education, Technology
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Weekly Roundup 1/27/13: Social Entrepreneurs, Davos and making infrastructure sexy
The rarified air and the elites who occupy it during the World Economic Forum in snowy Davos, Switzerland always receive their fair share of criticism. But anecdotally, there seems to be a noticeable shift in how social entrepreneurs are approaching lasting and sustainable impact, and the mechanism is infrastructure.
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- Uncategorized
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A Changemaker’s Secret: The Role of Self-permission in Changemaking
I recently attended an event in Toronto hosted by Ashoka Canada, convening a community of people who are changing systems and frameworks by partnering with businesses, schools and communities. While there, I met Peter Mortifee, a retired physician and founder of Somerset Foundation. His journey reflects the most fundamental step in becoming a changemaker: giving ourselves permission.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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Part 1: What Really Happens at a BoP Clinic?: A new study shows surprising results
Jishnu Das, Senior Economist in the Development Research Group at The World Bank, recently co-authored a Health Affairs study on quality of primary care in India. In Part 1 of a two-part interview, Rose Reis of CHMI asks Das about the study’s unique methods and disturbing findings.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- public health, research
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A Doctor in your Pocket: The medical potential of smart phones
Mobile access has provided vast new opportunities for businesses and non-profits serving the base of the pyramid – even though most BoP cell phone users have feature phones limited to voice and texting. But with improving networks and falling prices, smart phone technology promises to expand the mobile revolution in developing markets in the coming years, providing game-changing possibilities for health care consumers and companies.
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- Health Care, Technology
