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5 Ways To Avoid Failure, From Social Enterprises That Didn’t
We've all been to an endless procession of conferences where shiny, successful people share their triumphs and "best practices" to rounds of applause. There's plenty of such puffery in the private sector, but if anything, the pressure to please donors and stakeholders by making it seem like everything's going great is even higher in the social entrepreneurship space--even when it's not.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- failure
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MasterCard Promotes Financial Inclusion With Electronic Payments
While payment cards are often promoted as premium status-driven consumer products in the United States and Europe, in developing countries debit cards are proving valuable for delivering child benefits, pension payments and government salaries.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Millennium Development goals in rural Africa get $100 million boost
In 2011, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Earth Institute (Columbia University) formed a partnership to work with African nations to support their efforts to end extreme poverty. On Tuesday, the IsDB and the Earth Institute and its partner, Millennium Promise, announced that the IsDB and its poverty reduction arm, the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD), have now extended more than $100 million in financing to help eight African nations combat extreme poverty, improve public health and achieve more sustainable development.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Raikes steps down as CEO of Gates Foundation
Former Microsoft exec Jeff Raikes said Tuesday that he would step down as the chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, theoretically freeing himself up as Microsoft searches for a new CEO.
- Tags
- philanthropy
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Bank? What bank? Orange, Visa and the changing face of Africa’s mobile money
While relatively few Africans have a bank account, companies are finding new ways to offer consumers bank-type services just using mobile devices.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NextDrop Uses Big Data, Texting To Improve Water Distribution
The proliferation of mobile-supported business models in India is substantial. Given its ubiquity amongst lower-income groups, mobile technology is recognized as a maximum impact tool, particularly for grassroots data collection. This “tech” model of social entrepreneurship has become the norm not only in India, but also in other emerging markets throughout Asia, Africa and South America.Case in point: NextDrop, a social enterprise launched in 2011, is simplifying urban water collection in India. With its “Smart Grid ‘Lite’” solution, the enterprise collects and shares water delivery information with city residents and water utilities. In this way, efficiency and transparency are improved upon.
- Categories
- Environment, Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public health
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Developing Healthier Habits
Health-care companies facing a host of profit-threatening conditions—such as pricing pressures, patent expirations and sluggish economic growth in mature markets—are beginning to build some immunity by boosting their exposure to the developing world.According to Julia Giguere, a senior analyst who covers the health-care sector for MSCI ESG Research in Boston, developing countries are experiencing stronger economic and population growth than the developed world. They also boast rising middle classes and they increasingly need products that can address shifting disease burdens.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- impact investing
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Universal health coverage within reach for developing countries
Once seen as a distant objective, economic growth and political will are now bringing universal health coverage within reach for the developing world. But great financial and social challenges still remain to be addressed before the vision becomes reality, EurActiv France reports.Developing countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa are quickly catching up with European healthcare standards, although it will take nearly half a century before all can provide comparable treatments.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- public health
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