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Insights on Impact Investing from the US SIF Conference
Just how big is the socially responsible investing industry? One powerful example can be found in the development of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) whose signatories – with assets over $30 trillion – are now estimated to represent 20 percent of the estimated total value of global capital markets. This growing influence of SRI was a major theme at The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment.
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- Uncategorized
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- impact investing
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Avina’s Evolution: After 16 Years, the Foundation Focuses on Building Multiple Bridges
Fundación Avina describes itself as a “broker, co-investor and facilitator” across many countries in Latin America. Indeed, the organization is often working behind the scenes, building both consensus and bridges between multinational companies, governments and microenterprises, often with the goal of bringing marginalized workers into the formal economy. It’s a strategy aimed not merely at reducing poverty in the short term, but breaking the cycle for future generations.
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- Agriculture, Environment
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Technology & Savings: Competing for Kenya’s Base of the Pyramid
Last year alone, mobile phones transferred over US $10 billion representing almost 30 percent of the Kenya’s GDP. Our new research study examines how Kenya’s rapidly evolving market has opened up to a wide range of new and dynamic players and looks at what this means for savings products available at the bottom of the pyramid.
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- Education
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NexThought Monday: In Failure, a Marketing Lesson for Social Entrepreneurs: What we can learn from the closing of The Hoop Fund
The Hoop Fund was built on a truly innovative premise: Allow consumers to purchase premium goods from small businesses in the developing world, while simultaneously supporting those businesses with microloans. Unfortunately, the model suffered from critical gaps in marketing strategy, which made it almost impossible to achieve scale.
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- Education
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Weekly Roundup: This BoP Exit Brought to You, Courtesy of the Cloud
This week atyati technologies, a leading technology platform provider for the rural banking sector in India, with 2.5 million end users was purchased by Genpact, a $1.9 billion global leader in business process and technology management. The acquisition marks one of a handful of instances where a BoP-focused private initiative has been acquired in a mainstream transaction.
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Guest Post: Silicon Valley Without Stanford? The Role of Philanthropy in Impact Investing
The focus on the proper mix of philanthropy and investment at the individual deal level can obscure even bigger and, I’d argue, more important issues facing the impact investment industry – lack of good deal flow. Lack of good deal flow will become a bigger problem as more capital is mobilized. Imagine Silicon Valley without Stanford. That is the state of the early-stage impact investing movement today.
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- Uncategorized
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The NextBillion Case Writing Competition Returns for 2012-13: How You Can Contribute to Thought Leadership for Good
Discovering the very best cases exploring the risks and rewards of organizations deploying market-based approaches to economic or social development was the impetus for the NextBillion Case Writing Competition. The contest took a hiatus for the 2011-2012 academic year, but I’m happy to announce its return for 2012-2013 with a new sponsor: Citi Foundation. Find out how to enter.
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- Education
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What’s Hindering the Growth of Health Businesses in Ghana and Kenya
A new paper focuses on constraints to growth among private health firms in Ghana and Kenya.
I spoke with lead author Nicholas Burger, an economist at the nonprofit RAND Corporation, about the study’s findings: What hinders growth and how expanded engagement between the public and private health sectors could strengthen health care in Africa.- Categories
- Education, Health Care
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- public health, research
