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Enabling the Business of Recycling: How Innovative Public-Private Partnerships Help to Build Sustainable Cities
Conversations around environmental sustainability often reduce the issue to a false dichotomy: better policies vs. better business practices. But in fact, leveraging both the government and business sectors can provide unique benefits, say Jorge Noguera at Mastercard and Caleb Shreve at Global Fairness Initiative. They explore the impact of an innovative public-private partnership linking city governments in Peru with a network of waste-pickers to deliver recycling services to households and businesses.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
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If You Build It, They Will Come: Four Ways Impact Investors Can Boost Ecosystem Development
An entrepreneurial ecosystem isn't just "nice to have" - it's essential, both for a company’s long-term success and for investor performance. Ecosystems have a critical impact on a company’s ability to recruit a capable management team, hire skilled staff, benefit from effective mentorship and source new capital for growth – among many other areas. Dia Martin, Managing Director for Social Enterprise Finance at OPIC charts out some concrete actions investors can take today to build ecosystems for tomorrow.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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What Was the Top NextBillion Post of 2018? Vote for Your Favorite
As 2018 comes to a close and we look back at the year's top posts, it's clear that the social sector is developing an increasingly willingness to challenge long-held assumptions – even when this leads to uncomfortable discussions and difficult course corrections. As NextBillion launches our seventh annual "Top Post of the Year" contest, we encourage you to vote for the post that influenced you most in 2018. You can vote up to once every six hours until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (U.S.) on Jan. 3, and the winners will be announced on Jan. 4. Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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The Trouble with ‘Free’: Why Treating the Poor as Customers Works Better than Charity
Lack of access to safe water is a leading cause of illness in developing countries. Yet for years, Guatemalan entrepreneur Philip Wilson's family foundation worked to distribute free water filters across the countryside, only to see recipients repurpose them as flower pots and garbage cans. After going into the field to meet real families that were living with unsafe water, he came up with a better approach: a business model that treats the rural poor as consumers of products rather than objects of charity. He explores the reasons this model is working, and the challenges it has faced.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, WASH
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Ease Off on the Accelerators: Why GALI’s Latest Study on Accelerator Programs May Be Overstating Their Impact
Early-stage social venture accelerators are growing at a rapid pace in emerging markets, and they receive widespread acclaim – driven in part by positive results from research conducted by the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI). But South Africa-based investor Nicky Khaki cautions that, while accelerators can certainly have value, their benefits to participating companies may not be as clear cut as GALI's data suggests. He explores why the studies may be exaggerating accelerators' impact – and how they could do better.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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How Western Definitions Perpetuate Ethnocentric Bias – Even Among the Social Impact Crowd
You'd think that ethnocentrism – judging another culture by the standards or values of one's own – would be relatively rare in the global, cosmopolitan social impact sector. In fact, says KadAfrica founder Rebecca Kaduru, it's alive and well, as social entrepreneurs must often adapt to ethnocentric definitions to secure the funding necessary to grow their enterprises. She explores why this dynamic has to change.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Social Enterprise
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Hidden Opportunity: How Investors Can Unlock the Potential of Refugee Entrepreneurs
Globally, almost 70 million people were displaced as of 2017. But though this refugee crisis is serious and growing, a more hopeful narrative is being overlooked, say John Kluge and Tim Docking at the Refugee Investment Network. Refugees are natural entrepreneurs whose businesses can make a major impact on themselves, their families and their communities – an impact that would grow with more investor support. Kluge and Docking discuss a recent RIN report that explores the emerging “refugee investing” movement, and why it represents an exciting field in impact investing.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Pulling Back the Curtain on a Social Enterprise Merger: Practicalities and Surprises as Two Companies Become One
When Pollinate Energy began executing its recent merger with a former competitor, Empower Generation, some stakeholders doubted they would succeed. But as its CEO Alexie Seller describes, though the two companies were based in different countries, their models and missions were similar. Even so, they faced multiple challenges – and more than a few surprises – in the merger process. In this revealing post, Seller explores what has worked, and what hasn’t, as the companies have combined.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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