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Building India’s Social Enterprise Ecosystem – Where it Matters
While the dozens of conferences, competitions, incubators, impact investors, and online platforms have ushered in a new wave of dedicated social entrepreneurs, they still only reach urban-educated entrepreneurs. For these entrepreneurs, the connection to rural India can be as unfamiliar as a foreign country. Recently, different platforms have begun to reach out beyond the busy metropolises.
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Olivia Mukam on Founding Cameroon’s First Social Entrepreneurship Program
As President and Founder of Harambe-Cameroon, Olivia Mukam established Cameroon’s first Social Entrepreneurship Program: an opportunity zone for Cameroonian university students to translate their ideas into actions, as they propose business enterprises to solve local problems. The initiative Harambe-Cameroon is led by an alliance of young Cameroonians in the Diaspora, from the US, UK, France and Asia. Founded in 2009, Harambe Cameroon is an independent branch of the global alliance Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, recognized and supported by the White House, the UK's Westminster, the Ghanaian Parliament, plus African and global leaders such as Mo Ibrahim and Aliko Dan Gote.
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In Pakistan, Savings Circles Beat Banks
Ali has been selling wall clocks and wristwatches in a crowded Karachi market for 15 years. He’s been participating in savings circles with fellow shopkeepers for just as long, and has used the proceeds to buy a car and acquire a new store.Now he’s a few months away from getting 400,000 rupees ($4,100) from a savings group of 16 shopkeepers into which he’s been paying 1,000 rupees a day for almost a year. He plans to put a down payment on an apartment. “This system is flawless,” says Ali, 35, who goes by one name. “You can never save this way without this binding commitment of making payments every day or every month. At banks there are hassles and procedures that waste time. This is simple. The organizer comes to collect the money himself, and because of the trust element, it’s a given that we’ll get the money.”
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- North Africa & Near East
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The Weekly Roundup (2/2/13) : Formal, informal and ‘Unreasonable’
This week’s roundup looks at tactics for building a BoP customer base, the new Informal City Dialogues project and the 2013 cohort of social entrepreneurs hoping to attend the Unreasonable Institute.
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Asia’s Rising Economic Tide Doesn’t Lift All Boats: Multiple strategies for inclusive business investment from the ADB Forum
At the conclusion of a two-year scoping study of how to optimize financial support for inclusive businesses in the Asia Pacific, the Asian Development Bank convened the first Regional Forum for Investing in Inclusive Business in Asia last November, at its headquarters in Manila. The event brought together regional company executives, social impact investors, and development agencies to discuss how all of these actors can better support private sector engagement in inclusive development through targeted investment.
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And the Most Influential Post of 2012 is … Drumroll Please
Some 731 of you cast ballots the Most Influential Post on NextBillion in 2012. Thank you for participating! … And now, here are the results.
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Community + Entrepreneurship: How community can strengthen the impact movement – Watch the replay of the Google Hangout
Meet three of today’s daring impact entrepreneurs in a Google Hangout broadcasting live here at Nextbillion.net from 1-2 p.m. today (Jan. 30). This Hangout, entitled “Community + Entrepreneurship,” will explore a variety of themes around the importance of community to impact entrepreneurs across Latin America.
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Microfinance CEOs: Smart Campaign Certification is a Clear Step Toward Responsible Microfinance
As co-chairs of the Microfinance CEO Working Group, we are pleased to share with NextBillion readers this joint statement from the Working Group in support of the recently announced Smart Campaign Client Protection Certification Program. Certification will offer public recognition for institutions that meet adequate standards of care in appropriately protecting microfinance clients, as verified by an independent evaluation. It marks a clear step forward in ensuring the microfinance industry puts the treatment of its clients first.
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