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NextThought Monday: Creative Ways to Boost Youth Entrepreneurship
The risks of investing in young entrepreneurs are well known: inexperienced managers, murky business plans, overly optimistic views of the market, etc., etc. Youth Business International (YBI) recently issued Closing the Gap, a report that pulled together several case studies showing how the finance gap can be bridged for young entrepreneurs.
- Tags
- youth
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NextThought Monday Gearing Up for SOCAP11: Milaap’s Service-Focused Journey
Anoj Viswanathan is co-founder of Milaap, a pioneering online platform that enables people across the world to lend to India’s working poor. He drew inspiration from Lilla Watson?s quote, ?if you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- microfinance
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Nexthought Monday: Social Impact Bonds? An Innovative Mechanism for Social Change
Cut costs and increase effectiveness of social programs? Any government would probably sign up to a deal that combines both right away! And this is one of the key thoughts behind the Social Impact Bond concept developed and recently piloted by UK-based Social Finance. A closer look at how they work and what they could mean for social impact.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
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- impact bonds
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NextThought: Quick Reflections from Harvard’s Social Enterprise Conference
The students of Harvard met and exceeded expectations at their annual Social Enterprise Conference through a healthy mix of panel discussions, hands-on workshops and a student-driven entrepreneurial spirit that was palpable in every hallway.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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NextThought Monday: How Can I Pay My Loans If I Can’t Afford an Onion?
Sure, one might argue that growing debts and high interest rates have lead to suicides in India and rising default rates. Perhaps you may even conclude that greed finally got the better of the MFIs. But when I visited Andhra Pradesh and almost couldn’t afford a watermelon, I gained a whole new perspective on the MFI crisis.
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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What Are Social-Impact Bonds?
By DAVID LEONHARDT My column this week describes a new strategy for improving the performance of government programs. In short, private investors - typically foundations - pay the costs of a new program in its early years, and the government later repays the investors,...
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- impact bonds
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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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NextThought Monday: A Closer Look at the Numbers Behind Branchless Banking
While the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman breathlessly reports on the latest mobile banking advancement in India, can we really believe the hype? Mark Pickens, Microfinance Analyst with CGAP’s Technology Program, says based on his study of 18 branchless banking providers, in fact, we can.
- Categories
- Finance
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