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Impact Reporting for All: Developing an Approach That Works for Both SMEs and Their Funders
In 2020, nearly $2.3 trillion was invested with the intention of generating positive social or environmental impact – but impact measurement was only used across 28% of that total amount. What is stopping the managers of the other 72% of impact capital from measuring their investments’ impact – and how can those obstacles be addressed? Kevin Horgan, Geoff Kendall and Joanna Robertson at Future-Fit Foundation explain why the difficulty of impact reporting is at the heart of this issue, and present a solution that they believe could revolutionize the impact investment landscape.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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How Blockchain Can Support Social Impact: Three Innovative Use Cases that Highlight its Potential
When it comes to blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin seem to dominate the headlines, whereas blockchain itself – cryptocurrencies’ underlying technology – often gets overlooked. But according to Raj Jain at the Social Finance Fund, blockchain may actually have a more compelling future than cryptocurrency – and the technology is flourishing in a variety of different spaces, including the social impact sector. He highlights three organizations that are putting blockchain to innovative use in social impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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Africa: COVID-19 Aid Falling Short
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for African governments to strengthen social protection systems and fulfill people’s rights to social security and an adequate standard of living.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Impact Assessment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Charting a Pathway to Scale Through Government: Adapting a Girls’ Empowerment Program to a Public School Setting
BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) program supports vulnerable young women through group training focused on education and social/economic empowerment. But despite its longevity and impact, the program has lacked a path to self-sufficiency and scale. Esau Tugume and Jenna Grzeslo at BRAC discuss a solution to this challenge: adapting ELA to an after-school setting in Uganda, allowing it to be scaled through public schools. They explore this model, and share how they've navigated the issues that can arise when leveraging government involvement in pursuit of scale.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Bringing Cooking Poverty off the SDG Sidelines: A New Study Takes a Fresh Look at the Clean Cooking Challenge
Dirty cooking negatively affects almost four billion people and kills over 4 million each year – more than tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-AIDS combined. As Phil LaRocco at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs argues, the issue is one of the largest unsolved public health and equality crises humanity has ever faced – and failing to address it will put the Sustainable Development Goals out of reach. He explores why previous and ongoing clean cooking efforts have failed, and outlines some potential solutions that could finally turn things around, based on a recent study out of Columbia University.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment
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Analysis: The Precarious State of MSMEs: Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 and Opportunities To Support Their Recovery
In May 2020, The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI), as part of our partnership with Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, launched a six-wave, longitudinal survey examining the impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs in four countries: Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- financial inclusion, MSMEs
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Four Insights for Better Measurement: What Businesses Can Learn from the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
In the public and nonprofit sectors, comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches are increasingly common – but many small and growing businesses (SGBs) lack the time and resources for these practices. Heather Esper, director of the Performance Measurement and Improvement team at the William Davidson Institute, shares four key data collection and measurement insights from the public and nonprofit worlds that businesses — particularly SGBs — can leverage to improve their decision-making and maximize the social and financial value of their data.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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The Pandemic is Not Over for Social Enterprises: Here’s How Impact Investors and Other Funders Can Help Them Survive COVID-19
Social enterprises are developing innovative, sustainable and scalable solutions to the world's deepest economic and social issues, but many of these businesses are at risk of disappearing due to COVID-19. According to Alethia Kang at Acceso and Luke Seidle at Kiva, impact investors and other funders must step up to keep the social enterprise field afloat. They share five steps funders can take to bolster these businesses, and discuss how the partnership between their two organizations illustrates the value of flexible funding support during a crisis.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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