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Essays Show Innovative Business Solutions for Low-Income Markets Continue to Evolve
The BoP Short Essay Competition organized by the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Johnson School at Cornell University attracted more than 100 submissions from 27 countries. While India is still a hotbed for BoP ventures, this year’s contest drew a diverse array of ideas and opportunities from many other parts of the world.
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- Impact Assessment
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Playing Politics: Women (Truly) Empowering Women in Bangladesh
As with so many other causes, women’s empowerment, can always be trumped by politics. But in 2001, 24 women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh came together to change those politics. At the helm was Selima Ahmad, president of the Bangladesh Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI). By 2010, BWCCI counted 2,500 women-owned businesses as members.
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- Uncategorized
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MOTECH’s Mobile Apps Bridging Rural Gap for Pregnant Women
Started in 2009, MOTECH is a mobile health platform that offers two main applications: mobile midwives and nurse services. Pregnant women and their families register for the cell service through community health centers. MOTECH boosts efficiency for nurses, to be sure. But it also gets low-income patients to think consciously about their health.
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- Technology
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When the Shoe Doesn’t Fit: An Investor’s Take on One-for-One Models
There is one model that has grabbed significantly more mainstream attention than the rest: the "one-for-one." TOMS Shoes, the best-known example, gives shoes to the shoeless when you buy a pair for yourself. But as an investor have a new set of concerns about whether and how one-for-one models can become sustainable, scalable organizations.
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- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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IDB Launches First of its Kind BoP LA, Caribbean Forum
With millions in new projects and large multinationals like PepsiCo and CMEX launching new BoP ventures and markets quickly maturing, Latin America is off and running. The Inter-American Development Bank decided the time was right to host the first forum on the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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- Uncategorized
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What Does It Take to Build a Market? (An India Session @ SOCAP Europe)
How big can impact investing become? When looking for an answer (and hoping to find an encouraging one), it?s best examine a big country - like India. That’s precisely what did McKinsey and Omidyar Network did. The two organizations presented a BoP market study at SOCAP/Europe revealing a bullish outlook despite latent demand.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Why Should Your Company Engage the BoP?
Why do corporations engage with the base of the pyramid? There appear to be several distinctly different answers to this question. My conversations with corporate leaders hoping to pursue social impact and new market growth in BoP markets reveal a frequent lack of clarity about not just how to do it, but more importantly, why they should do it.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Tapping into the Talent Pool Within the BoP
Ashoka’s Changemakers, along with the Opportunity Project from eBay Foundation, is focused on employment and income generation for vulnerable populations via its open competition for systematic/disruptive market-based innovations. You have until June 15 to submit your ideas. Read on for more details on the competition and Tuesday’s Twitter chat.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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