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Karnani’s ’Fighting Poverty Together’ Advocates Eclectic Approaches
Aneel Karnani, perhaps one of the best-known skeptics of Base of the Pyramid approaches, corporate social responsibility and microcredit has a new book, Fighting Poverty Together. In it, Karnani levels familiar criticisms, but also provides many suggestions for how businesses, NGOs and governments should address poverty alleviation.
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- academia
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Vouchers Are Putting Kenyan Women in Charge of Care
A collaboration of the Kenyan government, German development bank KfW, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers aims to reduce pregnancy-related deaths through incentives. The program offers vouchers to stimulate demand from low-income consumers to seek care for pregnancies and to reimburse high-quality healthcare suppliers for providing the contracted services.
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Acumen Fund Launching East Africa Fellows Program
I just returned from Nairobi where I attended the selection conference for our first Regional Fellows Program in East Africa. The day was inspiring on so many levels, but most of all it was a reminder of the incredible pipeline of leaders in the region that are aching to learn, grow, connect, and create real change.
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- Education
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NexThought Monday: The Role of Social Businesses in Creating Employment
For a social business, the starting point is not the business itself. Its priority is to provide opportunities to and improve the quality of life of marginalized populations or individuals deprived of freedom and other groups who do not have access to the job market. All of these factors help to determine the type of employment that they create.
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Friday Roundup ? 6/10/11: Balancing Idealism Vs. Pragmatism
This week felt like a bit like a tennis match between pragmatism and idealism. That’s always the balancing act we try to strike on NextBillion, to mix a metaphor. But whether it was one-for-one models, the effectiveness of microcredit or the promise of $300 homes, the volleys this week seemed to move a bit more fast and furious than usual.
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ViewChange Video of the Week: Coconut Oil is Helping to Power Papua, New Guinea
It’s cheap, in plentiful supply, contributes less greenhouse gases that diesel, and smells great. The people of Bougainville have found their own solution to the energy crisis: the humble coconut tree. German emigrant Matthias Horn who established a "coconut refinery" several years ago, and now produces an oil that can replace diesel.
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The Best of May on NextBillion: Challenging Assumptions
In May, our most-read posts had a common theme: challenging assumptions. Specifically, we featured voices and counterpoints that ran against the mainstream, both supporting our sector and questioning it. So it seems fitting that we also announce a new staff writer who has dueled conventional wisdom on the subject of BoP marketing and advertising.
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- Education
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Playing Politics: Women (Truly) Empowering Women in Bangladesh
As with so many other causes, women’s empowerment, can always be trumped by politics. But in 2001, 24 women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh came together to change those politics. At the helm was Selima Ahmad, president of the Bangladesh Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI). By 2010, BWCCI counted 2,500 women-owned businesses as members.
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