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How a 100-Year-old Tortoise Helped Build a Scalable Social Enterprise
There is no shortage of people with a vision to change the world. But how? Strategy without the proper execution is simply a dream. When met with environmental and societal issues, organisations tend to use linear thinking (give a man a fish) to identify a solution to the problem instead of taking a circular, sustainable approach (teach a man to fish) by investing in the prevention of certain situations. Take Lonesome George for example. As the last surviving tortoise of its kind, many ...
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- Latin America
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IFC to Invest USD 4.6 Million in Peru?s Microfinance Institution
IFC, a private sector arm of the World Bank Group, is contributing to the capital increase of microfinance lender, Caja Nuestra Gente with an investment of US $4.6 million. The investment will help Caja Nuestra Gente expand its operations in rural areas and among low-income urban communities in Peru. Caja Nuestra Gente is owned by Spain’s BBVA Microfinance Foundation (FMBBVA). In addition to this investment, IFC has also opened a medium-term local-currency loan facility to support C...
- Region
- Latin America
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Root Capital Makes Money By Investing Where Wall Street Won’t: Poor, Rural Farmers
Small money, big change. That, in essence, is what William Foote was banking on when he ditched Harvard Business School to start what is now Root Capital , a "nonprofit social investment fund" that lends to small and medium rural businesses in developing countries. Root Capital’s business model is to go where other banks will not --the agricultural sector of poor countries --and loan rural businesses as much as $500,000 to expand or improve t...
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- Latin America
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7.5 Lakh Families to Benefit from Cemex?s Housing Microfinance Program
Patrimonio Hoy, the housing microfinance program of CEMEX, is expanding its lending program to low-income families in Mexico and four other Latin American countries with a partial credit guarantee of up to $10 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). As many as 750,000 families are expected to benefit over the next five years through this project. Patrimonio Hoy is one of Latin America’s social enterprises that provide low-income families earning of less than four tim...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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Rio Reborn: The Favela Where Cosmetics Reps Have Replaced Drug Gangs
Miriam Pereira da Lima, 29, sheds tears as she watches her daughter dancing in the square while children ride past on bikes and fly kites. "Until a few months ago kids didn’t play out on the streets," she says, still adjusting to life after the pacificação, when the Brazilian army and police moved into the Complexo do Alemão, one of Rio de Janeiro’s infamous favelas, and drove out the drug gangs. With peace on the streets, business opportunities are on the r...
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- Latin America
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IDB Offers $25 Million Loan to Raise Farmer?s Productivity in Peru
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently offered a $25 million loan to increase productivity and exports of farmers in Peru. The program will directly benefit about 14,000 producers participating in the Program of Compensation for Competitiveness, over the next four years, of which an estimated 42 percent are women. The program aims to raise farmers’ productivity by 10 percent and increase the value of their products in domestic and foreign markets by 20 percent by the end...
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- Latin America
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ACCION Brings Microfinance to Manaus, Brazil
ACCION International inaugurated on Tuesday a new microfinance institution, ACCION Microfinancas in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas in Brazil’s northern region which is a largely underserved microfinance market. ACCION Microfinancas, which launched unofficially when it began lending operations on February 1st of this year, has Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) among its co-investors....
- Region
- Latin America
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Former U-M Students Help Honduran Farming Community Make Coffee More ’Local’
After several service trips to the mountainous villages of La Union, Honduras, former University of Michigan student Andrew Boyd was inspired. He wanted to do more, but wasn’t sure how he could make an impact. His passion led to a microfinance organization that focused on something the people of La Union already knew - coffee. And now thanks to his efforts, the Honduran farming community gets a rebirth, and Ann Arbor is d...
- Region
- Latin America
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