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Wise Ethical Investment Seeks Profit
Like motherhood and apple pie, socially responsible investment warms most people’s hearts. But during a two-year cycle trip across Africa, Swiss investment banker Klaus Tischhauser realized the SRI industry was failing in a key challenge-fighting poverty. Ten years on, the grassroots style of social investing he helped pioneer is wooing many wealthy investors The rich are different, and not just because they have more money. Wealthy individuals often have a wider sense of responsibi...
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Should Philanthropies Operate Like Businesses?
It’s your money, and you’re willing to give some of it away to a worthy cause. But you want to see results. Measurable progress toward agreed-upon goals. Regular proof that your investment is achieving maximum impact. That’s the way businesses operate, and charities should be no different. That’s one way to look at it, anyway. Others argue that things work differently in the world of nonprofits and social change. Tackling some of society’s biggest problems is u...
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- Agriculture
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NexThought Monday: Africa’s Entrepreneurial Hot-Spot
Nigeria is blessed with major oil reserves, and a petrochemical industry drives the economy. Still, more than 50 percent of Nigerians live below the international poverty line of $2 a day. In rural areas, it’s closer to 70 or 80 percent. Despite this environment (and indeed, in part because of it), Lagos is an entrepreneurial hotspot.
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- Agriculture
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Weekly Round-up 11-20-11: HealthPoint’s Push to Meet, Exceed Expectations
In a little more than two years, HealthPoint has created a network of medical clinics and clean water access points, providing 22,000 medical consultations, filling 28,000 prescriptions, and assisting more than 50,000 people a day with drinking water. This growth propelled the initial clinics to positive cash flow in the first quarter of 2011.
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- Agriculture, Health Care
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Farming to Invest in the Future
Recently, we surveyed more than 150 farmers in our cotton program to better understand the impact that TechnoServe’s work has on their lives and livelihoods. I wanted numbers - and I got them - but what stuck with me were not the facts and figures, but the deeply personal stories that those facts and figures told.
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- Agriculture
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Watch: With Smartphones, Software, Building Better Agricultural Value Chains
Funded by the Gates Foundation, African Cashew Initiative is a $48 million project that aims to raise the incomes of 150,000 smallholder farmers. From Ghana, business software giant SAP is researching how ICT software coupled with smartphones is improving efficiency and trust in the cashew value chain, from farmers to buyers/traders. (With video)
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- Agriculture, Technology, Telecommunications
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The FOUND Middle: Arogyam Organics
As part the "FOUND Middle" series, we share this interview with Kanmani Arumugasamy of Arogyam Organics Pvt. Ltd. Based in India, Arogyam works to promote organic products and improve the quality of life of local farmers by reducing middle man costs. This video is one of many highlighting businesses and organizations making up the "missing middle."
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- Agriculture, Investing
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The U.S. Secretary of State’s Global Partnership Initiative on Impact Investing
Recently, I interviewed Kris M. Balderston, Special Representative for Global Partnerships at the Global Partnership Initiative (GPI), which is located in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State, and Lala Faiz, a Senior Partnerships Advisor at GPI, and who manages their Investing with Impact initiative . Rahim Kanani: Describe a lit...
- Categories
- Agriculture
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