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Why Financial Institutions Should Close the Gender Data Gap : In 2011, Women’s World Banking launched the Gender Performance Initiative to address this gap
How can we leverage the data revolution, to improve financial services for the poor, and ultimately the lives of the women (and men) who receive them, if we don’t have the capability to collect “good” data? In 2011, WWB launched our Gender Performance Initiative to develop gender-based indicators for measuring how well we are serving women.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- microfinance
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From Pavement Begging to Stable Housing, Stable Incomes : The Equitas Bird’s Nest program is moving pavement dwellers in Chennai toward secure housing
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to interview John about Equitas’s ultra poor pilot in Chennai. In this interview, he talks about the challenges his team faced while working with the pavement dwellers, the importance of sustainability and the road ahead for Equitas Bird’s Nest program.
- Categories
- Finance
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NexThought Monday: Do Women Still Need to Prove Themselves
Instead of "trying to have it all," let’s focus our goals on increasing opportunity and cultivating and recognizing potential. After all, with women’s collective wealth, intelligence, buying power, and influence, they—at the very least—deserve our recognition.
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- Impact Assessment
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Forget Poverty – Let’s Talk About Business: ‘Generalist’ Paul Polak offers specifics for social entrepreneurs
When you talk to Paul Polak it takes about 15 seconds for him to dive into the pragmatic details of his six or so latest business ventures. It’s easy at first to be overwhelmed with detail, but if you stay with it, you realize that he has taken practicality and common sense to a blazing edge. In a very different context, it’s what I imagine it must have been like to talk to Sam Walton in the early days of Wal-Mart.
- Categories
- Education
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Impact Bonds: Boon or Boondoggle? Before We Hop on the Bandwagon, Let’s Scan the Road Ahead
Although there are many benefits to impact bonds – make no mistake – they are complicated to implement. Because they are new tools and because it is in the interests of all parties involved to reduce risk, only strong programs with proven statistical success are likely to be supported by a social or development impact bond.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Guest Post: Setting Up an Export Business (Or Folding a T-Shirt) Without Wrinkles: Brazil’s Maos de Minas helps artisans connect to global market
Maos de Minas (“the hands of Minas”) promotes the artisan sector and preserves the cultural identity of the region Minas Gerais, the fourth largest of the 26 states of Brazil. Some 500,000 of the state’s approximately 20 million inhabitants are artisans, and about 7,000 of them are active members of Maos de Minas. Our project with the Maos de Minas organization is part of the SAP Social Sabbatical program.
- Categories
- Education
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Get Your Corporate Governance Groove On: Why social entrepreneurs need get in step with reality
You started out with just an idea for a social enterprise, and you’ve worked hard to get the right pieces in place to put it into action. Who’s going to be your CEO? If you’re not ready for that question yet, you should be. You may think the answer is obvious: You. Guess again.
- Categories
- Investing
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New Leaders for a New Pakistan: In 2013 Acumen Fund launches an inaugural Pakistan Fellows Program
The Pakistan Fellows Program was created to identify and train this next generation of leadership for Pakistan. We’ve just opened the application process for the inaugural class of Pakistan Fellows, and we will be accepting applications until 11:59 PM PST (Pakistan Standard Time) on Friday 28 Sept. 2012.
- Categories
- Education
