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Microfinance Giant Launches Venture Capital Fund For East Africa
Accion, an international microfinance and investment firm, has launched Venture Lab, a $10 million investment vehicle which will provide seed capital and management support to financial inclusion startups worldwide, with a particular focus on East Africa and India.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Study: OLPC Fails Students as a Tool for Education
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program of low-cost laptops for developing countries has not led to any measurable impact in academic achievement, according to a recent report.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Tackling the Challenges of Urban Sanitation: A Social Enterprise Model
A micro franchise initiative founded by SC Johnson in Nairobi aims to improve levels of sanitation in low-income communities.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Why Designers Need To Stop Feeling Sorry For Africa
Taking a patronizing approach to investing in Africa undermines both the country’s people and entrepreneurial promise, argue Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Micro-health Insurance Scheme for Poor on Test
A microfinance institution has started piloting a micro-health insurance scheme as an 'alternative' mode of health financing for the Bangladeshi poor to help them overcome the cruel cycle of poverty and illness.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Daniel Izzo on Brazil’s First Impact Investing Venture Capital Firm
Recently, the Opportunities for the Majority (OMJ) Initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank hosted Daniel Izzo, co-founder and partner of Vox Capital, Brazil’s first impact investing venture capital firm, which focuses on high potential businesses that serve the Brazilian low income population through products and services with the potential to improve their lives.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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Business Lessons From A Baby Elephant
Vijay Govindarajan is the co-author, with Chris Trimble, of Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere, which hits bookshelves on April 10. A professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, Govindarajan chatted with Fast Company about $2,000 heart surgery, elephant prostheses, and the need for American businesses to, in essence, study abroad.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Government’s Heavy-handed Regulation of Microfinance Will Kill It and Bring Back Moneylenders
Among many Bills stuck in the legislative process is the Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill. This is a 2011 Bill. An earlier 2007 Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, but lapsed with the lower House's dissolution in 2009. Financial inclusion shouldn't mean only credit.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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