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With Video: From Strawberries to Solar Lamps, Why Profit is the Only Way to Scale
In a wide-ranging discussion with The Economist Columnist Matthew Bishop at the ANDE Annual Conference 2011, Paul Polak, serial entrepreneur and BoP thought leader, said SMEs need to think BIG. Polak used to say don’t bother if you don’t plan to reach one million customers. Today, he thinks in terms of 100 million. Watch the full video discussion.
- Categories
- Investing
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Reinventing the Mobile Market in Mexico
Without a credit card, bank account, or official employment history, mobile providers are unwilling to take the gamble on providing a post-paid monthly plan option to Mexico’s poor. It sounds a lot like what many poor people encounter when attempting to obtain a loan. It’s in this environment where the founders of Finestrella saw an opportunity.
- Categories
- Technology
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Microfinance at a Crossroads: BRAC USA’s Davis on Microcredit, Then and Now
At a time of over-indebted clients, and fear in the face of microfinance exploiters and "loan sharks," Susan Davis, founding CEO of BRAC USA and industry veteran, is adamant: "If your mission is only to offer consumer finance, I wouldn’t call it microfinance. If your core mission is to try and defeat poverty ... then we’re talking."
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- Uncategorized
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Africa Election Watch 2011: Zambia
Was this the referendum on Chinese business in Africa? In a somewhat surprising turn, perennial opposition leader Michael Sata secured victory this week against incumbent president Rupiah Banda in Zambia’s national election. Sata is known as "King Cobra" for his often vituperative statements that have targeted Chinese business practices in Zambia.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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The Doughnut Hole in Sustainable Finance
Despite the recent upsurge in attention to "social," "impact," and "clean tech" investing, there is still a structural gap ? a doughnut hole ? in sustainable finance. But this also means that there is a huge opportunity for visionary financiers to invent the new investment categories and asset classes needed to fill this gap.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
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All that Glitters is Good?
In the old and dusty-yet-safe world of development aid, things were easy: Profit was at best a necessary evil of the private sector, at worst a sign that the poor were exploited as cheap labour or consumers. In the new world of impact investing and "BoP strategies", things become more entangled.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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From No Doctor to E-Doctors in Rural India
There aren’t too many doctors in the village of Hari Ke Kalan, in the Punjab region of northern India. But for $1, residents who bicycle to a new health clinic in town can get an appointment with a physician who appears on a large-screen television, beamed in over broadband Internet. The clinic, built by a startup called Healthpoint Services, is one of a network of eight "e-health points" that the for-profit company has built in India as part of a growing effort by entrepreneurs to ...
- Region
- South Asia
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Why Should a Mainstream For-Profit Company Pursue an In-Kind BoP Partnership?
Many entrepreneurs and funders at SOCAP11 are skeptical about partnerships - and rightly so. But sometimes all the work to make partnerships click pays off. In the case of an ongoing partnership between UNICEF and for-profit Frog Design, the impact results in Malawi and Zambia include a 30% increase in early diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in children.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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