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The Big Idea: (UPDATED) Simple Truths About Mobile Money
Wow, the role of mobile money has been hotly discussed across the mainstream media in recent weeks - even in Slate. There is much that I agree with in that article, and in a related critique of technology-centered development by Kentaro Toyama in CNN. So let’s unpack some of the conclusions presented in these two articles. (UPDATED: The Slate authors respond to this post).
- Categories
- Technology
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Weekly Roundup – 2-26-12: Making a Better Cookstove
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves’ ‘100 by 20’ goal calls for 100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.
Key to reaching that goal is creating one industry standard defining what constitutes a “clean” cookstove.- Categories
- Technology
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Transforming ‘Minegolia,’ Harnessing Mongolia’s Resource Wealth to Spur Social Development
Mongolia has been coined “the Saudi Arabia of Asia”. In this regard, Mongolia can learn from countries such as such as Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on how to best catalyze human development via business strategies through the resource boom.
- Categories
- Environment
- Tags
- impact investing
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Assembling a Network for Impact Across Latin America
How far has impact investing come in Latin America, and what steps need to be taken to unleash the potential of business to address social and environmental problems in the region? These are the questions that more than 300 leaders in the impact investing field came together to address in Merida, Mexico at last week’s Foro Latinoamericano de Inversion de Impacto (Latin American Impact Investing Forum), hosted by New Ventures Mexico.
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- Uncategorized
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Social Enterprising: DR Congo’s Untapped Resource?
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the world of Social Entrepreneurship may seem strange bedfellows. One is constantly in the media for its good, the other for bad. One demonstrates economic empowerment, the other an absence thereof. But that’s not what I found on a recent trip there.
- Categories
- Education
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Gearing up for the 2012 Harvard Social Enterprise Conference
NextBillion is heading to Harvard this coming weekend along with 1,500 attendees and 75 speakers to cover the annual Social Enterprise Conference. The student-run conference, jointly produced by Harvard Business School and Harvard School of Government, is in its 13th year and boasts a wide array of keynotes, panels, a social business plan competition, and a career fair - all embodying innovation, inclusion, and impact.
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- Uncategorized
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Your Coffee, Their Lives, Our Planet
At the most basic level, engaging smallholder farmers in global agricultural supply chains may be one of the most powerful ways to reduce global poverty and ameliorate environmental degradation. It was a key point of discussion at the Sustainable Value Chain Finance Workshop, co-hosted by the Rainforest Alliance and Citi Foundation.
- Categories
- Environment
- Tags
- supply chains
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On World Day of Social Justice, the Role For Business
Jake Walter is the country director of TechnoServe/Mozambique. Since 1998, he has led TechnoServe’s efforts to create a competitive and sustainable commercial agricultural sector that promotes opportunities for small-scale producers and creates jobs for the rural poor. Prior to joining TechnoServe, Jake was a vice president for ABS Global, a bovine genetics and technology company.On the World Day of Social Justice, Jake discusses how TechnoServe’s work in Mozambique contributes to a stronger society, and how business can be a means to promote social justice.
- Categories
- Agriculture
