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Ten Years From Now … A Day With the SOCAP/Europe Entrepreneurs
How could impact investing make a real difference on our everyday lives? NextBillion writer Martin Herrndorf takes a pleasant stroll through "Socapia" in May 2021, observing the impact of the winners of the SOCAP/Europe Social Entrepreneur Scholarship a decade later.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment
- Tags
- impact investing, solar
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19 Days, 6,600 km: ’Ride for Light’ Motorcycle Journey to Illuminate the Philippines
Solar technology-focused social enterprises in Africa and Asia have used many creative marketing/PR strategies to share their products with light deprived communities. Kicking off on April 16, "Ride for Light" riders will travel thousands of miles across the Philippines archipelago on motorcycle to spread the word about the power of solar.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- rural development, solar
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ViewChange Video of the Week: Burning In the Sun
An entrepreneur decides to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels - the first of its kind in the sun-drenched nation. Burning the Sun tells the story of Daniel’s journey growing the budding idea into a viable company and of the business’ impact on Daniel’s first customers in the tiny village of Banko.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Tags
- rural development, solar
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How to Save Rural Kenyan Farmers $200 Per Year
An innovative natural resource management program in Kenya is smartly integrating efficiency improvements into already strong agricultural programs. Leveraging the profit-enhancing work underway in programs, such as TechnoServe?s dairy development work in Kenya, makes products like solar more accessible for families in rural communities.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment
- Tags
- rural development, solar
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NextThought (Tuesday): Meeting Customers in the Middle and Other HBR Insights
This month’s Harvard Business Review ambitiously re-calibrates the dialogue on corporate social responsibility and the true meaning of shared value in rebuilding capitalism?s sullied reputation following the financial crisis. The HBR authors also implore established companies to "take a page from startups" by treating each emerging market as new.
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Energy for the BoP Made ’Simple’
Simpa Networks manufactures a solar household system that, unlike some others, is off-the-shelf, and easy to install and maintain. Inspired by mobile phone prepayment systems, the big innovation is Simpa’s unique "Progressive Purchase" pricing model, a micropayment system specifically designed to fit the unpredictable incomes of the poor.
- Categories
- Energy
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Innovations and Challenges in Carbon Finance
Several clean tech projects serving the poor are, in part, financed by the creation and sale of carbon offsets. Carbon finance improves the product’s value proposition by providing additional revenue streams to make them financially viable and available at a lower price point for end-users.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Tags
- solar
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Power to the People: New Report on Energy for the Base of the Pyramid
WRI’s new report, Power to the People, produced in collaboration with the Center for Development Finance-IFMR, looks at the market potential for clean and renewable energy in rural India. The following interview, with co-Author and NextBillion Staff Writer Saurabh Lall, explores the study’s main insights and conclusions.
- Categories
- Energy