-
Tools of the Trade: Building a Robust Deal Pipeline of Impact Companies in Emerging Economies – Part 3
What are the biggest lessons learned when it comes to finding high-quality companies in emerging markets? I posed this final question to our virtual panel of impact investing leaders who recommended teaming up with other investors to providing appropriate financing, making sure to select companies with a core social/environmental mission, embracing creativity, and embedding capacity building into the process.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
-
Plug and Play: Energy Access at the BoP
In India, almost 290 million people lack access to electricity, according to the 2011 survey by the International Energy Agency. While people in the developed world have access to light with the simple flip of a switch, people in rural India and other parts of the developing world struggle at the base of the energy access ladder. Improving energy access for the bottom of the pyramid is a steep challenge – as the poor ascend this ladder, they move from using traditional fuels like wood and kerosene towards universal access –what most of the developed world takes for granted.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
-
An Entrepreneur’s View: WorldHaus, A Prototype for Progress in Global Housing
After months of planning and securing the prototype location in the outskirts of Chennai, India, we were ready to build in late summer of 2011. We begin our first housing development next month and aim to build over 500 houses by the end of the year.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing, rural development
-
Have an Innovative Idea in Data, Irrigation, and/or Farming? Rockefeller Wants to Hear It
The Rockefeller Foundation has launched the 2012 Innovation Challenges to source innovative ideas that will have the potential to create long-term impact. The Innovation Challenges, which run through May 25, expect to gather ideas from around the globe in three issue areas: data, irrigation, and farming.
- Categories
- Education
-
From Potential to Market – the Microinsurance Explosion
The new microinsurance compendium, published six years after the initial volume, is an impressive effort of the microinsurance sector to reflect its progress and lessons learned over time. The total number of “risks covered” has increased from just 78 in 2006 to 500 million in 2011, but the story behind that growth is nuanced.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- research
-
As Contamination Grows, Private Water Shops Spring Up in Pakistani Slums
In Pakistan, waterborne diseases cause 40 percent of illnesses. Outdated and mismanaged city infrastructure poses serious health threats and challenges. Among the colorful storefronts of Lahore’s densely packed slum areas, new water shops have opened up that provide WHO-standard water to the neighborhoods at affordable rates.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
At GPF, Finding a Way (or Making One) for Foundations to Impact Invest
Family foundations are often considered the low-hanging fruit of impact investing: their mission-driven philosophies combined with their perceived nimbleness make them ideal candidates to become first movers and concept-provers. However, panelists at the Global Philanthropy Forum discussed the barriers that exist even for them when trying to put their money towards companies that create positive impacts.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
BoP Career Paths: Working with TechnoServe, Coca-Cola and Others Toward Sustainable Development
More than three years have passed since I returned to the U.S., but my work with TechnoServe has had a profound influence on my career path. The organization affirmed my commitment to “Business Solutions to Poverty,” and I have since earned an MBA from Duke University focused on social entrepreneurship and international development.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
