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Reinventing the Mobile Market in Mexico
Without a credit card, bank account, or official employment history, mobile providers are unwilling to take the gamble on providing a post-paid monthly plan option to Mexico’s poor. It sounds a lot like what many poor people encounter when attempting to obtain a loan. It’s in this environment where the founders of Finestrella saw an opportunity.
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- Technology
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The Doughnut Hole in Sustainable Finance
Despite the recent upsurge in attention to "social," "impact," and "clean tech" investing, there is still a structural gap ? a doughnut hole ? in sustainable finance. But this also means that there is a huge opportunity for visionary financiers to invent the new investment categories and asset classes needed to fill this gap.
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- Environment, Technology
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How would Muhammad Yunus Redesign Microcredit? How Can We Better Design Models for Social Change?
Given the past year of controversies in microcredit and an opportunity to meet Dr. Muhammad Yunus at Change Model, a workshop focused on innovating development approaches, we asked Dr. Yunus how the sector could have been designed differently. His resolute response: "I would not let the profit-makers be part of the movement."
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- Technology
- Tags
- scale
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New Ideas for Saving the Lives of Women, Children
From UN Innovation Working Group, a new report on mHealth programs carries an emphasis on viable and scalable business models to improve the way healthcare is delivered to women and children. Indeed, many believe mobile ICT platforms are potential game-changers in delivering health information and services to combat maternal and child mortality.
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- Health Care, Technology
- Tags
- scale
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How to Reach Out to Rural India? Practitioners and Academics In Dialogue
There is no shortage of ideas, and some would even say no shortage of products, that would help the rural poor to improve their social and economic situation. But distribution remains a key challenge. At the oikos swiss Practitioner Day 2011, young scholars, local experts and practitioners from several companies discussed how to tackle the issue.
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- Agriculture, Technology
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Partnerships, Private Sector, Tech Dominate SID
With an international financial system teetering, the Horn of Africa marred by famine, and aid dollars jeopardized by domestic politics, the Society for International Development’s triennial World Congress held in Washington this weekend was in no short supply of substance or imperatives.
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- Education, Health Care, Technology
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- nutrition, partnerships
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Citi, OPIC, Bank Danamon Back Indonesia?s Microfinance with USD20 Million Loan
Citi Indonesia, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Bank Danamon will extend a USD20 million term loan to fund the growth of Bank Danamon’s microfinance programme, Danamon Simpan Pinjam (DSP), and to promote the financial inclusion of microentrepreneurs and small businesses in Indonesia. This loan will be the first from Citi and OPIC for the microfinance sector in Indonesia, and is part of Citi’s and OPIC’s USD250 million joint global initiative to support micro...
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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The Next Phase of Storytelling
Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have to create empathy, raise capital and connect people. Those who travel back and fourth from the slums of Kenya to the conference halls of Aspen are seen as the carriers of these stories. My current work leads me to ask: What are my responsibilities as a storyteller?
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- Technology