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Guest Post: Lifting Africa Up By Empowering its Youth
Voices on Society, an online publication from McKinsey & Company’s Social Sector Office, launched last week. In its first edition, Fred Swaniker, founder and CEO of the African Leadership Academy, writes that Africa is sitting on a time bomb unless it creates its own jobs through the ingenuity, ability, and skill of its own people.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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FEATURED EVENT: ‘Cracking the Nut’ on Public/Private Agricultural Investment
In its second year, the Cracking the Nut 2012 Conference, set for June 25-26 at the Enrique V. Iglesias Conference Center in Washington, D.C. has a narrow focus with broad implications: Leveraging public private partnerships to develop rural and agricultural markets.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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Ripe for Innovation: Democratized Diagnostics for the BoP
Healthcare diagnostics might seem like a peculiar call-out, but a few examples suggest that this space is ripe for innovation – especially at the BoP – and with far-reaching implications.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Partnering to Improve Food and Nutrition Security in Africa
Transforming poor people’s food and nutrition security is proving to be, as expected, a massive challenge. As we approach a slew of global meetings that will address this topic in the coming months, the German Marshall Fund (GMF) has released a new report that showcases the need for and complexities of multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of this goal in Africa.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Via London and Seattle, Microfinance and Carbon Credits Intersect in Ulaanbaatar
In the Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar, more than a quarter of the population lives in “gers,” the traditional and ubiquitous tent-like structures, which are often insulated and heated by inefficient coal-burning stoves that contribute to stifling air pollution. A new multi-player partnership to finance carbon credits and energy efficiency aims to change that.
- Categories
- Environment
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How Tony Elumelu’s ‘Africapitalism’ Aims to Redefine African Economic Development
Tony Elumelu did not set out to create social change during his tenure at the helm of United Bank of Africa. "We wanted to democratize banking – at the time, it was an economic, not a social act,” he said during a keynote speech the Global Philanthropy Forum. Elumelu turned the failing Nigerian bank United Bank of Africa (UBA), which was purchased in 1997 for $5 million, into a multi-billion dollar financial services powerhouse. Elumelu is now taking his learnings from this experience to redefine strategies for African economic development.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday: Complexity is the New Black
NYT columnist David Brooks recently called on social enterprise types to take a dose of realism. I argue it’s time to accept full responsibility for changing politics as part of social impact. If in attempting to improve some economic or social aspect of people’s lives we aren’t also improving their political standing and the rule of law, any economic or social impact remains temporary.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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Weekly Wrap: The State Department’s ‘Impact Economy’ Aim
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened U.S. State Department’s Global Impact Economy Forum on Friday speaking the language of "shared value" in the global economy. In a world in which "one out of three people in the world today living on less than $2 a day," Clinton said, "We believe expanding economic opportunity is fundamental to achieving our own national interest."
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- governance
