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NexThought Monday – Eying the Prizes: Can innovation challenges tackle the problem of energy access?
Over the past few years, innovation prizes have become common with development partners seeking to sponsor innovations that are likely to yield solutions to common development challenges. The opportunities to take part in these innovation prizes are numerous, but are they actually effective when it comes to getting the products into the hands of the people who need them?
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- Energy
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NexThought Monday – Eight Takeaways from the BASE Forum III
Without the knowledge, equipment or infrastructure to truly thrive as entrepreneurs, BoP businesses will falter. At BASE Forum III more than 100 panelists from across the region and around the world came together to discuss how to enable merchants and consumers to alleviate poverty. Here are eight takeaways from the two-day event.
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- Uncategorized
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Export, Learn … Profit: A new randomized evaluation reveals emerging market businesses that export have the advantage
Export promotion programs work under the assumption that the experience of exporting helps firms learn new skills and techniques and thereby become more productive. However, until now, no research determined whether exporting actually causes businesses to improve. Innovations for Poverty Action helped conduct the first randomized controlled trial investigating whether firms actually learn through exporting.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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With 2.7 million customer base, iPay gears up to become a billion-dollar company in India
iPay offers a tablet based e-inventory which connects the consumers to e-sellers through local retailers, allowing consumers in smaller cities to purchase online by paying offline.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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The Big Advantages of Being Small: How a mobile money startup beat the major players in Zambia
Once called “the best kept secret in Africa,” the digital finance company Zoona has quickly advanced from a scrappy startup to one of the leading mobile money providers in Zambia. Jungwon Byun describes how, despite being outmatched in terms of size and capital, Zoona has outcompeted the telcos and established banks in the country.
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- Uncategorized
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Thundafund: The crowdfunding platform made for Africa
One South African company has created an ethically-conscious platform for entrepreneurs from the continent -- and it's leaving its rivals by the wayside in the process.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – How 5,000 Stranded Flip-Flops Almost Doomed Three Social Startups
Five years ago, Village Capital made its first investment – in Feelgoodz, the a U.S. fair-trade rubber company, which sells comfortable flip-flops that are responsibly manufactured in South Asia. Feelgoodz got a major purchase order from Whole Foods that January. Sounds like a great story, so why is the headline so depressing?
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- Uncategorized
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CSR in Practice: Creating business value and development impact in the WASH sector
Neil Jeffery, CEO of Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, believes the WASH sector affords opportunities for companies to create business value and generate lasting social impact at the same time – and points to five multinationals to prove it.
- Categories
- Health Care