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Does Your Organization Actually Empower Women?
Although many organizations working in international development make grandiose claims of their programs’ ability to empower women, with few tools available to actually measure empowerment, it is hard to tell if these claims are based on fact. The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index is one way to ensure that they are.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
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eBay Founder’s Philanthropic Firm to Invest $350M in India
Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investing firm of billionaire eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, plans to invest over $350 million (Rs.2,333 crore) in for-profit ventures and non-profit organisations in India by 2020.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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The World’s First Impact Focused Equity Crowdfunding Portal Launches to Fund Pan African Start Ups
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) are the primary job creation engine in Africa, accounting for over 95% of firms and 60%-70% of employment. Yet, SME's on the continent report access to finance as the biggest obstacle to growth. Malaik, an impact-focused equity crowdfunding portal, test launched today, to connect investors interested in impact investment opportunities and entrepreneurs raising equity finance. Malaik offers the global community clear and well-documented opportunities for high impact investing in African businesses, a chance to participate in Africa's growth story.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Impact Investing Done Right
Impact investing—the art of creating portfolios that earn market-rate returns while also seeking to advance social or environmental aims—is a mercurial child of the 21st century. Hard to pin down with precise definitions and interpreted in a variety of ways, impact investing is nonetheless a fast-growing force below the surface of our financial markets, effectively blurring the lines between philanthropy and investing.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Putting the Good in Greed
Last April, two months after being named the first global head for impact investing at BlackRock, Deborah Winshel flew to San Francisco to meet with Ryan LaFond, a hedge fund manager at the firm. LaFond and a team of researchers had spent two years studying whether algorithms used to predict fluctuations in the stock market could also spot a company whose business is doing good. Identifying responsible corporate citizens was part of the reason Winshel left her job as president of the poverty-fighting Robin Hood Foundation; she believes Wall Street has a role to play in fixing some of the world’s most urgent problems.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Smallholder Farmers and Big Business: 5 Insights from the Field
Modern agricultural practices and new technologies have transformed the productivity and lives of large farmers, but often fail to reach small and very small farmers for a variety of reasons. However, some pioneer companies and organizations across the world have sustainably increased the income and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers, by sourcing produce from them or selling products to them. What do these pioneers tell us?
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
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Mobile-izing Savings with Defaults in Afghanistan
The number of people with phones is far higher than the number of people who have easy access to traditional bank branches, especially among the rural poor. Until now, however, no one has tested whether mobile banking can facilitate default savings programs. This is exactly what a team led by Innovations for Poverty Action set out to do in Afghanistan.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
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Vodafone India Looks to Double Impact of CSR Programme
Vodafone India wants to double the impact of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Last year, around 50 employees volunteered for CSR initiatives, working for eight weeks at 25 NGOs and impacting about 1 million lives.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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