-
Solar Lighting in Remote Rural Areas: Oversold or Truly Illuminating?
It's common wisdom that solar lighting can make a dent in serious problems plaguing the developing world. But the underwhelming social impact measured in a recent randomized controlled trial calls that belief into question. However, research conducted by Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, based on in-depth interviews with solar lighting users in Tanzania, found much more positive results. Thane Kreiner and Leslie Gray of Santa Clara University explore possible reasons for the disparate findings.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
-
Financial Inclusion is Failing Farmers: How the Sector Can Finally Reach the $200 Billion Smallholder Market
There are 450 million smallholder farmers supporting about 2 billion people worldwide. Yet financing available to farmers lags behind the need, which is estimated in excess of $200 billion. Blaine Stephens of MIX and Mike Warmington of One Acre Fund explore the reasons why and offer potential solutions – including a new, centralized directory their organizations are building, which provides useful information on existing smallholder finance products.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
-
Making WASH Sexy: An Often Neglected Sector Comes Into Its Own
In a social business landscape littered with apps and accelerators, WASH doesn’t come across as the sexiest of sectors. So when NextBillion launched its August focus on WASH, we editors weren’t expecting words like “hope” and “innovation” and “opportunity” to be thrown around a lot. But they were. And as the month ends, we’re feeling – dare we say it – excited about the long-term future of water, sanitation and hygiene, and about the businesses focused on improving them.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, WASH
-
Register for SOCAP: Get a $250 Discount
SOCAP17 is still over a month away, but September 1 is the last chance to get tickets for under $1,000. Act now to get SOCAP17 tickets for $945 (a savings of $550 off full-price SOCAP tickets) using discount code MP_NextBillion applied to the Summer Special rate. Register soon!
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
-
Social Entrepreneurs, Ignore the Mantra of Focus at Your Own Peril
When SunFarmer went through Y Combinator in 2015, its founders heard a lot of startup wisdom, including the mantra of focus. But according to co-founder Andy Moon, the Nepal-based social enterprise ignored this advice – then struggled to sell multiple products to multiple customer segments simultaneously. Moon discusses what went wrong, and how his firm is regrouping.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- Base of the Pyramid, solar
-
Why Startup Accelerators Won’t Create the Global Climate Technology Revolution
Accelerators may be a great way to launch the next Pokémon Go app or even Airbnb, but they're not as suited for climate startups in low- and middle-income countries. Jean-Louis Racine, leader of the infoDev Climate Technology Program at the World Bank Group, explores several reasons why accelerators are "at best an incomplete tool for building climate tech sectors."
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise, Technology
-
Five Key Building Blocks for Sustainable, Inclusive Recycling Systems
For the past year, a working group formed by the MIT Practical Impact Alliance (an MIT D-Lab program) has been exploring strategies for developing effective inclusive recycling systems in India, Africa and Latin America. The result is the publication of a guide for practitioners that includes five key steps for developing inclusive systems, nine case studies and a tool for promoting recycling systems that benefit all stakeholders.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise, WASH
-
Enhancing Access to Finance for Women Entrepreneurs – What Should Financial Institutions Do?
IFC determined that 70 percent of women entrepreneurs are un(der)served and face a USD $300 billion annual credit deficit. Anup Singh and Christine Wanjiru Gachui of MicroSave make the case for banks extending credit to women, who end up being roughly twice as profitable for them as men.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.