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Acumen Fund Launching East Africa Fellows Program
I just returned from Nairobi where I attended the selection conference for our first Regional Fellows Program in East Africa. The day was inspiring on so many levels, but most of all it was a reminder of the incredible pipeline of leaders in the region that are aching to learn, grow, connect, and create real change.
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- Education
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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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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.
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- Impact Assessment
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Laterite Aims to Build a Rock-Solid Business Layer in Rwanda
While Rwanda’s GDP has averaged 6.6% growth over the last four years, the business infrastructure to support new investment and government economic policy, is still trailing behind the surge. Launched in February by Sachin Gathani and Dimitri Stoelinga, social venture Laterite aims to address that need and spin off new businesses in the process.
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The Results Are In: Devex Top 40 Development Innovators
Devex is delighted to present the Top 40 Development Innovators. At the core of this initiative is a survey of aid workers and international development professionals designed to recognize the most innovative of the world’s leading international development organizations. Today, the survey is complete and the results are in!
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- Health Care
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Inclusive Business and CSR ? How To Grow Local Innovation Clusters? Reflections From Cali
Do concepts like ’base of the pyramid’ and ’Inclusive Business’ really enter into the mainstream practice of businesses located in or close to poor communities? Do local business leaders really care about the "endless opportunities" that academic thought-leaders proclaim? Or do they smell another buzzword storm and continue with business as usual?
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Thoughts On Strategic Transitions From Humanitarian to Development Work
The Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), outside of improving humanitarian aid practices, may present an opportunity for us to better examine this cross-section of modern change by innovating programs that consider the important transition from short-term (humanitarian) to long-term (development and beyond) ownership of projects.
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Through SGBs, Entrepreneurs Are Transforming the Developing World
Small and growing businesses (SGBs) are key to long-term poverty eradication. More and more investors are realizing that they can reap financial rewards as well as social and environmental impacts by investing in them. Our upcoming Impact Report will share research that demonstrates that in 2010 alone, 31 new funds targeting SGBs were launched.
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