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Pakistan’s social entrepreneurs eager to unlock innovation potential
A changing mindset can help the country establish an enabling environment in which social enterprises can flourish
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Life of Pi to bridge the funds gap
A new company is attempting to help bridge a US$3.5 billion (Dh12.85bn) funding gap for the Middle East's poorest entrepreneurs by linking them to microcredit loans bankrolled by the social media generation.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
- Tags
- impact investing
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Egypt: Empowering Women Challenges Poverty – CEO of Thomson Reuters Foundation
The Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Reuters Foundation, Monique Villa, said on Monday that helping women know and defend their rights tackles the very root of poverty.
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- Education
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Why the Arab awakening depends on social entrepreneurs
For two years, I have resisted use of the term Arab Spring to describe the events that have been unfolding in Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa. It is an unrealistic label to use, its application verging on naïve, even lazy, in this situation. Spring is a time where something with strong roots, carefully nurtured, flourishes and grows. We are not there yet; I hope that we may be soon.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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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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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Where social problems and business solutions meet
Israeli entrepreneurs seek to lure companies into the nascent field of development technology.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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The Latest Way to Solve Poverty in the Middle East
In the last two years, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has increasingly focused on supporting social entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa region as a way of tackling the region’s socio-economic challenges that cause poverty.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
- Tags
- employment
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Egypt: Impact Investing Is Key to Inclusive Development in Egypt
Demographic pressures and years of under investment in meeting social needs suggest that Egypt will not be able to provide jobs, housing and basic services without adopting a wide strategy for inclusive development. Impact investing should be encouraged as one of the strategy's pillars.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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