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Human Waste as a Value Chain: ‘Sustainable sanitation’ startup has plans to expand throughout Peru and, eventually, abroad
Lima, Peru, is one of the driest capital cities in the world. That's one reason x-runner, a social enterprise, has had success selling urine-diverting dry toilets and coordinating a for-pay sanitation system for subscribers in the slums there. Another reason might be its trial and error, local-oriented approach.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- infectious diseases, waste
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Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship in Latin America: An interview with Agora Partnerships’ CEO Ben Powell
As Ben Powell, its founder and CEO puts it, Agora Partnerships "accelerates entrepreneurs that are solving social and environmental problems in Latin America." Powell describes the process – including some surprising challenges most entrepreneurs face – and discusses emerging trends in social business and investing in this video interview.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Needed: A ‘Facebook’ for Impact Investing: Why the Sector Needs to Embrace Failure – And Also Produce Some Inspiring Successes
Impact investing has had some notable success stories, but no true breakout companies that – like Facebook – can inspire public attention and draw more entrepreneurs and investors to the sector. That's a problem, says Vox Capital director Daniel Izzo – as is the fear of failure, both financial and social, among investors. He discusses these challenges, and some possible solutions, in this video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Previewing SOCAP15: A rundown of this year’s agenda – and a $500 discount for NextBillion readers!
Now in its eighth year, SOCAP15 will convene leading impact investors, world-class entrepreneurs and innovative cross-sector practitioners for three full days of networking and engaging content. The event will be held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, CA, Oct. 6-9, and NextBillion readers can get a $500 discount.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Needed: Naïve People with Stupid Ideas: An interview with Intellecap co-founder and director Vineet Rai
When Intellecap was founded in 2002, few people would have predicted that it would become a social business and investing powerhouse. According to co-founder and director Vineet Rai, the company’s early years were defined by failure. He discusses the lessons he learned from these failures (and subsequent successes), Intellecap’s unique model and future plans, and many other topics in this wide-ranging video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Feel Better Now, Pay Later: AfriMedico founders are hoping an ancient Japanese drug sales system will work in Africa
Okigusuri is a drug sales system that worked for centuries in Japan and has been successfully exported to other Asian countries. The founders of AfriMedico are betting the system – in which households are given a box of medicine, and they pay only for what they use – will work in Africa, too.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Weekly Roundup 7-11-15: Sports for Girls, Marriage Counseling for EU/Greece, Tweets for All
The NextBillion team is a bit far-flung as the summer season hits high gear, so we’re continuing our experiment of combining our weekly Roundup with our list of Twitter favorites.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Jayashree Industries: Achieving gender equity one sanitary pad at a time
What if a little, two-by-four inch piece of soft, cottony material could reduce gender inequality and restore the dignity of women in underdeveloped nations? Indian entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham has discovered that even the most basic sanitary pad can allow for women to more fully participate in society.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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