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Cultivating Small Business and the Environment: Building on the work of New Ventures
Over the coming year, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs will work with several partners (including Village Capital, Emory University, I-DEV and Halloran Philanthropies) to expand on what New Ventures and many others have begun—and ultimately accelerate the accelerators. To do this, we are looking at pipelines, operations, and evaluation.
- Categories
- Investing
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Learning to Love Quacks: The Untapped Potential of Informal Health Care Providers
The lack of trained medical providers is a global crisis. But rather than simply recruiting and training new health care workers, the global health community could focus on improving the vibrant marketplace of informal providers who are already there.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- research
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Runa Wins WWF Switzerland Tropical Forest Challenge : The social enterprise has a taste tea and conservation
A global initiative, the WWF Switzerland Tropical Forest Challenge sought the best for-profit solutions around the world addressing the conservation of tropical forest biodiversity. The challenge generated 306 nominations, and 74 applications from Latin America, Africa, South East Asia and beyond.
Runa was selected as the winner in the company category for their inspiring work promoting sustainable tropical forest conservation in the Ecuadorian Amazon through guayusa tea.- Categories
- Agriculture
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A Cure for Baldness – But Not Malaria?: Attracting Businesses to Global Health R&D
The business of global health R&D isn’t working. Companies are seeking profitable treatments for relatively minor health problems, while largely ignoring major global diseases. But innovative new funding models are combining profit motives with an integrated social cause. Can they change the face of global health R&D?
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Technology
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The Next Million: Grameen Shakti – an innovative model for rural energy business
A small group of people began experimenting how to bring solar electricity to rural Bangladesh and in 1996 started its first rural renewable energy service company – Grameen Shakti – which literally translates to rural energy. The company installed 20 solar systems by the end of 1996, 2,800 systems after a decade of growth, and on Nov. 30, 2012 – 16 years after its launch – installed a total of 1 million solar systems in village homes, schools, clinics and businesses.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy, scale, solar
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Weekly Roundup : 6 Billion Mobile Users – Billions of Business Possibilities
This week a group of telecommunications and nonprofit leaders got together at the Brookings Institution to talk mobile technology, poverty, and business. The meeting was framed with commentary on how mobile devices and phones – growing ever smarter – are penetrating every corner of the world. With 5 billion of the 6 billion mobile users living the the developing nations, the infrastructure and the applications to go with it are expanding exponentially.
- Categories
- Technology
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Impact Career Series : Why Community Development Financial Institutions are a good place to start
Millennials are playing an important role in the growth of the impact investing industry, and increasingly more 20- and 30-year olds are looking for careers in the field. However, many young professionals looking to start their careers or transition into the impact investing field are discouraged by the limited number of opportunities. Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), which have a long history of investing in hard to reach, are a good place to start.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact investing
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A Light Bulb Goes On: A Major Innovation in Asset Finance: M-KOPA’s model could illuminate other sectors
The creators of M-KOPA , which sells solar base stations that can charge phones, power lights, and other limited applications, has come up with one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in the mobile money space in some time.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Tags
- solar
