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Brazil’s historically poor northeast finally gets its boom
RECIFE, Brazil — The Brazilian state of Pernambuco was once known for its vast plains of parched dirt and roving bandits called cangacos, who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. For later generations, escaping the widespread poverty of the northeast customarily meant moving to livelier southeastern cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, though many migrants still ended up living in favelas, or slums.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Latin America
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A Middle Man Could Bring Smartphones to Millions of Mexicans for the First Time
After two years of intentionally losing money in a very smart way, a Mexican cell phone company is set to change the way the country’s consumers use mobile phones to access the internet. If their plan works, it could transform not only the Mexican phone industry, but consumer finance systems in developing countries around the globe.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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First Fund to Help Smallholder Farmers with Long-Term Loans
Incofin Investment Management, Fairtrade International (FLO) and Grameen Foundation will establish a ‘First Fund’ to focus on the unmet demand of smallholder farmers for long-term loans.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Latin America
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B Corps Go Global: Sistema B Certifies South American Social Enterprise
Last fall, a small group of social entrepreneurs from South America met to discuss how to foster more social enterprise in the region and create more bang for the buck at existing enterprise. The result was Sistema B, the first effort to adapt the American system of B Corporations—which ease operations for companies that combine profit and social good—to a foreign setting.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Latin America
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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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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.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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In Chile’s Slums, A Lesson in How to Make Apps for Social Good
How many of the hundreds of thousands of mobile phone applications seek to do truly great things, such as lift people out of poverty or improve health care for the poor?
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Tigo Helps Remittances Go Mobile
In countries like Guatemala, remittances from migrant workers in the U.S. are critical to the economy. Tigo, an international telecom, has a unique plan to use mobile banking to simplify a trying process.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America