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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.
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- Education, Impact Assessment, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Starbucks: Venti Plans for Micro Loans
The micro-lending revolution , which made it possible for community-based lending institutions to bundle together micro-donations of $25 into loans for entrepreneurs in emerging markets, is making its way to your local Starbucks . Starting No...
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- Education
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- academia
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Where’s the Bank? Proximity is Critical, So Why Aren’t Academics Writing About It?
Most academic papers on access to finance focus on behavioral economics and product design issues, but skip proximity and cost of access. Yet if there is one common element in all successful microfinance schemes it’s been finding ways to get closer to customers. An argument for learning how the nuances of distance influences market behavior.
- Categories
- Education
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Does Fighting for the Cause Actually Solve the Problem?
My biggest advice to entrepreneurs looking to do something purposeful: build a model which ’never’ sacrifices commercial profit for ’purpose’ or vice-versa. I believe that the most impactful businesses in the 21st century will maximize both. If you are looking to create a purposeful business, then focus your energies on the for-profit first.
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- Education
- Tags
- academia
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Back From the Brink: How Good Governance Spurs Growth in Post-War Liberia
Liberia has become much friendlier to entrepreneurs and business interests since President Sirleaf took office. The average number of days required to start a business plummeted from 68 to 20. (The worldwide average is 24). The number of start-up procedures required to register a business dropped from 10 to five, below the global average of 7.8.
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- Education
- Tags
- academia
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Let’s Talk: IDB Inaugural BoP Forum Highlights SME Growth, Network Connections
The 1st IDB Forum for the Development of the Base of the Pyramid in Latin America and the Caribbean kicked off Monday in Sao Paulo, Brazil by emphasizing the critical role of SME creation and growth. To highlight the increasing importance of the sector, the IDB announced plans to double investments in BoP-related businesses in 2012 to $100 million.
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- Education
- Tags
- academia
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Karnani’s ’Fighting Poverty Together’ Advocates Eclectic Approaches
Aneel Karnani, perhaps one of the best-known skeptics of Base of the Pyramid approaches, corporate social responsibility and microcredit has a new book, Fighting Poverty Together. In it, Karnani levels familiar criticisms, but also provides many suggestions for how businesses, NGOs and governments should address poverty alleviation.
- Categories
- Education
- Tags
- academia
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Ashoka’s Drayton: Education and the Future Marketplace
Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton views the more than 2,700 Ashoka Fellows as a sensitive Geiger counter for detecting big economic and social shifts. He sees critical gaps in empathy, teamwork, leadership, and change-making being taught to young people. The "parts of the world that do not master these traits will be left in terrible shape," he says.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise