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Subsidies at the BOP?
Cheikh Mbengue, an expert from Abt Associates on community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes in Africa, said something that perked my ears last Wednesday at a USAID After Hours Seminar on microinsurance. He said that he thinks CBHIs can’t function effectively without subsidies. No one...
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Hard vs. Soft: Defining Critical Skills at the BoP
When I?ve asked those who are active at the BoP what skills are needed in the space, the answer I receive is deceptively simple: ?everything.? Perhaps this is because, as long time BoP entrepreneur Patrick Donohue explained, BoP is really about the ?creation of markets.? After...
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Tom Friedman’s Perfect Column: Patient Capital in Africa
I really like Tom Friedman - I have since high school, when a summer program I attended assigned his book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. I’ve also seen him sitting in DC cafes, running to catch cabs, and even met him in person at WRI’s 25th Anniversary Dinner. Nice guy. Smart, too....
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- Education
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- academia
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Rising Ventures: Envirovision Aims to Move Businesses Beyond Greenwashing
This Investor Feature is based on a recent interview with Yeung Hau Man, founder of Envirovision. Hau Man is dedicating his career to creating sound, standardized sustainability reporting at a time when such reporting is frequently ambiguous, unreliable, and extremely easy to manipulate for the...
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- Education
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- academia, greenwashing
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Jane Nelson on Business’ Role in Development
Jane Nelson, who wears many hats (IBLF, Kennedy School, Brookings), spoke yesterday at a meeting of the Global Poverty Roundtable at the GlobalWorks Foundation here in Washington. Jane offered a wide-ranging, yet concise summary of all of the ways business can engage in development. Jane said ...
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Next Billion Customers? Intel’s Already a World Ahead
Last week, I sat in a conference room full of DC development-types over lunch, listening to a presentation sponsored by the Society for International Development.? It was standard stuff - the woman next to me was reading the New York Times as folks shuffled in, and I spotted a few people I...
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The Spark Group: Igniting Possibilities
I came across, by chance, what promises to be a very interesting venture.A group of Indian youngsters are launching a social venture called The Spark Group. They have been educated at Ivy League universities such as MIT Sloan and Yale. Ayan Sarkar and Priya Naik - two of the founders - have...
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Guest Post: Africa’s ICT Wave Reaches San Francisco Bay
Andrew Mack is a former World Bank official and Principal of AMGlobal Consulting. He previously blogged for NextBillion .net about Rwanda’s IT development and leapfrog technologies, in January 2007. By Andrew Mack About three weeks ago, I sat in a conference hall in San Francisco...
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- Education
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- academia
