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The Best of 2012: Making the Most of Missteps: At Harvard Social Enterprise Conference, SKS’s Akula Opens up on Failure
Conferences usually are not the venue for owning up to failure. But on first day of the 2012 Social Enterprise Conference, Vikram Akula, the founder of SKS Microfinance who left the organization in November 2011, made just such an confession.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- failure, microfinance
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NexThought Monday: Why the Mobile Phone Might Not Be as Inclusive as You Think
Though we are optimistic that mobile technology will play a large role in providing financial access, we must continuously monitor how the phones are actually being used, and continue to develop alternative methods of participation for those do not have easy access to their own phone.
- Categories
- Technology
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From the Field : Improving Industries in Mozambique
A business can improve a community. But having a real impact on the lives of significant numbers of families requires change at the industry level. Last month, my colleagues on the TechnoServe board of directors and I had the privilege to witness the effects of this type of change in Mozambique, where more than half of the country’s 23.5 million people live below the poverty line.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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All About India: A Health Care Market in Transition (Part 2)
Zeena Johar is president of IKP Centre for Technologies in Public Health, and CEO of SughaVazhvu Healthcare. In this second post in a four-part series on developments and challenges in Indian health care, Johar provides insights on addressing the country’s provider shortage, and reaching rural markets.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Solar Now, Water Later: An Interview With Sunsaluter’s Eden Full
Twenty-year-old Eden Full, who has been tinkering with solar technology for more than half of her young life, saw these dual challenges and designed a dual-purpose system that uses mechanical water flow to control the rotation of a solar panel to meet them. The SunSaluter, winner of the Mashable-UN Foundation Startups for Social Good Challenge, is a low-cost solar tracker and water filtration system.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- interviews, renewable energy, solar
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Insights On Intrapreneurship From A Google Hangout With Ashoka Changemakers: Watch last week’s session of industry insiders
Ashoka Changemakers broadcasted, via YouTube, a Google Hangout that brought industry insiders face to face with the two early-round prizewinning teams of Ashoka’s League of Intrapreneurs, a competition that rewards prominent intrapreneurs with media coverage and consulting support from Accenture Development Partnerships.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
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All About India: A Health Care Market in Transition (Part 1)
The Indian health care system is in a crucial phase of its development. The country has no shortage of challenges - but it also presents unique opportunities to social enterprises.
In Part 1 of our series on Indian health care, Zeena Johar identifies the major growth areas in the market, and discusses a potentially game-changing development that may be on the horizon.- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- public health
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Calvert Foundation’s Theory of Change
Impact investing is undoubtedly an idea whose time has come. As budgets of philanthropies and governments have shrunk, investment capital has come to be recognized as a tool that can address some of the world’s most pressing problems. An independent 501(c)3 nonprofit, Calvert Foundation has been a quiet but constant presence in the impact investing sector for the past 16 years, helping to lay the groundwork for this field and creating opportunities for others to explore and grow.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
