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Low Maintenance, Low Cost, X-Runner Redefining the Toilet
X-Runner, a social venture based in Germany and India that has designed a low-cost mobile toilet suitable for urban slum households. The portable, low-water toilet is made of light-weight PPC material and costs $30 per unit. Included in that cost is a home service to remove the waste and deliver it to local biogas plant for eventual biogas use.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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InVest in a Small Business, See Your Impact – In Real Time
InVenture, founded by former financial analyst Shivani Siroya, melds the P2P website model - one of the founding pillars of Kiva- with investing in SMEs in the developing world. You can go on the InVenture site and invest as little as $25 in an SME in the developing world and receive constant updates on your business’ progress and social impact.
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- Uncategorized
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Progress and Promises: Exploring the BoP with Monitor Inclusive Markets
In May, Monitor Inclusive Markets released a report on market-based solutions in Africa across six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Profiling 440 enterprises, "Progress and Promises" represents the largest study to date of social enterprises in Africa. It grew out of a simple observation: the aid model is broken. But what’s the alternative?
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday: Beyond Slogans – Relevant Communications to Fight HIV
Sometimes, slogans work wonders. IBM is building a Smarter Planet - and expanding its market potential by upwards of 40 percent globally, thanks to the campaign. Just Do It stole a quarter of the U.S. sports-shoe category for Nike in its first decade. But sometimes, slogans are really, really dangerous.
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- Uncategorized
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Friday Roundup – 8/5/11 – ?Everything is a Remix?
We often confuse innovation with invention. But nothing is ever original; any innovation is just remix of things that came before and reassembled. Our staff and guest writers had a lot to say about innovation this week, both in terms of conceptual thinking around creating something new and regarding concrete innovations to reduce poverty.
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- Health Care
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Partnerships, Private Sector, Tech Dominate SID
With an international financial system teetering, the Horn of Africa marred by famine, and aid dollars jeopardized by domestic politics, the Society for International Development’s triennial World Congress held in Washington this weekend was in no short supply of substance or imperatives.
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- Education, Health Care, Technology
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- nutrition, partnerships
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ViewChange Video of the Week: Beyond a Dollar a Day
Pro Mujer, a development organization working with women in Latin America, started out focusing on training. But it discovered that education only goes so far, and began issuing microloans so that women could start their own businesses and improve not only their lives but also the lives of their families.
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- Uncategorized
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INNOVARE or the Phenomenon of the Unprecedented Question
Alejandro Aravena is one of the most internationally successful Chilean architects for his work in ELEMENTAL, a for profit "Do Tank" project with social interests that works on public impact projects at the Catholic University of Chile and COPEC. Aravena did what few can do: focus on asking the right questions to clearly define a problem to solve.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
