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Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Why participatory market research for BoP customers generates deep insights
Participatory market research can provide reliable data for developing inclusive business models. By involving the target group as partners rather than passive objects, researchers can not only see the world through their eyes, but also discover new solutions together with consumers. Endeava’s Christina Gradl-Knobloch and Claudia Knobloch share some lessons from recent sessions in Brazil, Sierra Leone and Madagascar.
- Categories
- Education
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The Economic Case for Wiping Out Ebola
On Aug. 22, the World Health Organization announced a draft strategy to combat the West African Ebola outbreak over the next six to nine months. That’s a sign that the global health body isn’t optimistic about a rapid end to an epidemic that has killed around 1,300 people so far. An extended outbreak of such a feared disease would have mounting economic costs.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – The Affordable Housing Puzzle: Three pilot projects in India aim to assemble the pieces –customers, financing and scale
Can the low-cost or affordable housing segment business in fact be profitable, and more importantly, scalable? asks housing developer and researcher Dhaval Monani. He points to new pilot projects that show promise in delivering safe, very low-cost homes that come with a profit for developers.
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Tata Group donates $15.5M to IIT Bombay to develop low-cost solutions for BoP consumers
Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group has donated $15.5 million (Rs 95 crore) to IIT Bombay (IIT-B) to setup a virtual centre, which would focus on developing low-cost technologies for the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) consumers, says a report in The Economic Times, quoting IIT-B director Devang V Khakhar.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Humans give malaria to mosquitoes – we need a vaccine to stop this
On Wednesday, the world marks World Mosquito Day to commemorate the 1897 discovery by British doctor Sir Ronald Ross that malaria in people is transmitted to and from mosquitoes. Ross won a Nobel prize for his discovery, and, since then, mosquitoes have been enemy No 1 when it comes to defeating a disease that takes a life every single minute – most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. But on this day, let’s focus on approaching malaria in a surprising new way: a vaccine to stop humans from giving malaria to mosquitoes.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Tags
- product design, research, vaccines
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A Year in the Life: The U.S. Financial Diaries Project’s groundbreaking exploration of the financial activities of low and moderate-income Americans
The U.S. Financial Diaries project collected highly detailed data on the financial activities of 250 lower-income households over the course of a year. A joint initiative of NYU’s Financial Access Initiative (FAI), CFSI and Bankable Frontier Associates, the project has begun publishing preliminary findings. We spoke with Tim Ogden, managing director of FAI, about the research.
- Categories
- Education
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Liberian Natives Work To Fight Ebola Outbreak From Boston
In Boston, some natives of Liberia are working to improve sanitation conditions and train health workers on the ground in their homeland, as the country and two of its neighbors battle a deadly Ebola outbreak.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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It’s About Time, It’s Also About Culture: How do varying cultural perspectives about time and productivity impact social enterprises?
Andrea Trice is researching how “soft” factors such as mutual understanding and trust influence the success of a social enterprise. While it’s too early to draw conclusions, Trice notes that it’s difficult to overestimate the role of culture in shaping how each of us thinks and acts, and therefore how businesses succeed or fail.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- research
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