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Good Cloud, Bad Cloud: Multinational ICT vendors are pushing services in Africa, why the solutions are in Africans’ hands
While global multinational companies are pushing private cloud computing services, the only viable solution for most enterprises in Africa, then, is the public cloud. The hope for Africa lies in the rapidly decreasing cost of broadband Internet and smaller, homegrown cloud service providers (CSPs) that are willing to invest in cloud data centers in Africa.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
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Small is Powerful: Join the Changemakers’ Discussion: NextBillion is partnering with SAP and Ashoka to highlight big impact from small entrepreneurs
Recognizing and managing this massive challenge is at the heart of the new global competition from SAP and Ashoka Changemakers called The Power of Small: Entrepreneurs Strengthening Local Economies. This week Logan Yonavjak, with the Conservation Investment Note Program and a regular NextBillion contributor, is currating the online chat. Several of Logan’s and other NextBillion contributors’ articles will also be cross-posted on the competition blog.
- Categories
- Technology
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Peering Through a Gender Lens at SOCAP12
I was invited to join a fascinating conversation at SOCAP12 about Gender Lens investing. Criterion Institute, one of the main organizations driving the conversation, describes a “Gender Lens “as a viewfinder that reveals opportunities for the world of investing with a focus on women and girls. The goal of Gender Lens investing is to drive increased investing and return through the implementation of a Gender Lens.
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- Uncategorized
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Sanergy is Breathing ‘Fresh Life’ into the Sanitation Loop
Sanergy is a Kenya-based company that builds low-cost sanitation in urban slums, benefits local entrepreneurs, and processes waste into electricity and fertilizer. Since its launch in 2011, it has sold more than 100 toilets, and is looking to expand in a partnership with Kiva.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Weekly Roundup: E+Co’s Slow Burn and What it Means for Impact Investing
E+Co’s effective demise raises questions beyond those of the immediate management, governance, due diligence and investment squabbles. Those factors are relevant of course, but the central point illustrated by the E+Co story is what it means for the impact investing sector writ large.
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- Energy
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A Missing Opportunity for Investment: Bringing the Bedroom to the Boardroom
During SOCAP 2012, impact investing funds and social impact bonds were among mechanisms for bringing access to family planning to scale. But the first step is simply naming family planning as an impact investing priority. This requires moving the issue from the margins to the center of social causes.
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- Health Care
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Aligning Strategy to Maximize Impact: Reflections from Columbia’s Social Enterprise Conference 2012
At this year’s Columbia Business School Social Enterprise Conference, Aligning Strategy to Maximize Impact, the themes of technology and business model innovation, partnerships and capital mobilization featured prominently. Almost in direct contrast to last year’s back-to-basics themes of connection, and the network, this year’s conference was decidedly forward looking, covering a smattering of emerging strategies and sectors experiencing rapid redefinition.
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- Social Enterprise
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Clock is Ticking: Friday’s the First NB Case Writing Competition Deadline
Deadlines. We all have them, we all need them, and we’ve got one looming on Friday, Oct. 12. That’s the first deadline for the NextBillion Case Writing Competition highlighting the top innovations in market solutions to poverty and social innovation. But don’t stress, this first hurdle is the smallest.
- Categories
- Education
