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Participative Innovation: The Transition to a New Model of Social Capitalism
Today, we have a much more complex inter-sector reality. It isn’t unusual to find businesses that act as NGOs, private banks that give donations, development banks that set interest rates above market prices and NGOs implementing profitable projects. One wonders if the sectors are overlapping one another or if they have simply become obsolete.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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In Haiti, the Fonkoze Model of Constant Evolution
At the time of the earthquake, during which 19,000 of its clients saw homes or businesses completely wiped away, Fonkoze had been developing a micro-insurance product as a long-term solution for disaster protection. In the immediate aftermath, the firm began collecting feedback to refine the micro-insurance product before brining it to market.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- microfinance
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33Needs Turning Ideas into Action
Securities law prevents investment in companies not listed with the SEC, creating a barrier for small and medium-sized businesses from funding. Josh Tetrick decided to literally redefine that negative and turn it into a positive by forming 33Needs, a startup crowd-funding website focused on social entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Technology
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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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MIT Global Challenge, Connecting Ideas and Innovators
In 2008, the MIT Public Service Center asked: ’What would it look like if we applied that level of problem-solving to the challenges faced by under-served communities, places where markets are failing to provide basic necessities like clean water, health care, or reliable energy?’ The result is the MIT Global Challenge.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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The Best Ideas of 2010 – iHub Nairobi
The Nairobi technology community is small, but it’s also behind some of the most exciting examples of realizing the potential of mobile technology in development. The iHub in Nairobi a clubhouse for innovators in the hotbed of mobile innovation that’s most relevant to the majority of mobile phone users in the world.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
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Best Ideas of 2010: Dead Aid Reminds Us of Our Mission
It should come as no surprise that the Dead Aid prescriptions are market-based, since no economic ideology other than one rooted in the movement of capital and competition has succeeded in getting the greatest numbers of people out of poverty, in the fastest time. -Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Best Ideas of 2010: Bringing Change to the Bottom with Change at the Top
If poor governance in places like Africa has been one of the primary impediments to development, national elections there have often provided little cause for hope. But this time, the international community is not playing along.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment