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Narratives Are Not Enough
Many of you have been tracking the aftermath of the 60 Minutes report about Greg Mortenson?s non-profit, Central Asian Institute (CAI), the allegations of mismanagement and misrepresentations in his book, Three Cups of Tea. It shows how critical it is to collect actual data on how organizations impact poverty. How can we increase transparency?
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- Impact Assessment
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New Lessons and Other Thoughts on the Presentation of the Last Book of SEKN
I recently attended a presentation in Buenos Aires on the book ’Inclusive Businesses: Market Initiatives with the Poor in Latin America.’ It’s the third book written via the collaborative efforts of academics and researchers in the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network. Among the book’s findings are six factors that shed light on inclusive business.
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- Uncategorized
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Mobilizing Savings Through Insurance
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, discusses the challenges and opportunities of match-savings programs and micro-insurance, and the importance of understanding clients. In Jordan, WWB is piloting a health insurance program where insurance products are coupled with loans, resulting in strong customer relationships.
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- Health Care
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The Results Are In: Devex Top 40 Development Innovators
Devex is delighted to present the Top 40 Development Innovators. At the core of this initiative is a survey of aid workers and international development professionals designed to recognize the most innovative of the world’s leading international development organizations. Today, the survey is complete and the results are in!
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- Health Care
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Talking Metrics: Is Standardization a Dream?
Last week I sat down with Calvert Foundation, Grassroots Business Fund and E+Co to discuss the use of metrics by socially oriented businesses. The conversation focused on how they use metrics within their organizations and what role they see metrics playing in the future. The discussion demonstrated the need to change how stakeholders view metrics.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Can Microfinance Ignite a Good Governance Epidemic?
By serving as examples of effective corporate governance, microfinance providers could succeed where so many financial institutions have failed and in ’infect’ their client and community networks with the ’disease’ of strong corporate governance. With almost 3 billion unbanked people still to reach, those are huge potential networks to infect.
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- Uncategorized
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Urban Energy Labs: Researching BoP-Focused Energy Solutions for Rural, Urban Customers
As urbanization increases, more families are moving to the cities and bringing their traditional practices with them. Although fast urbanization is a nightmare for city planners and policy makers, it proves to be very useful for the designers and researchers who create products and services targeting the world’s Base of the Pyramid markets.
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- Education
- Tags
- research
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Countdown to SOCAP/Europe Begins
From Amsterdam, Malmo, London, Zurich, to Paris, the SOCAP team asked key stakeholders what they want to see and hear at SOCAP/Europe. What innovations and entrepreneurs should be presented, and what social problems should be addressed? The output is a schedule with 70 panels, plenary, keynote and workshop sessions organized along seven tracks.
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- Uncategorized
