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Building Back Boldly: How Decisive Government Action Can Support Entrepreneurship in a Post-COVID-19 Economy
COVID-19 caused a global economic contraction of 3.5% last year, inflicting particular damage on emerging economies and pushing approximately 120 million individuals back into extreme poverty. Consultants Kate Collins and Bar Pereg argue that disruption of this magnitude demands large-scale government investment – not only to address the pandemic's economic damage, but also to support the growth of innovative companies in an economy re-shaped by the crisis. They explore the impacts government interventions can have on entrepreneurship, and the importance of taking an ecosystem-wide approach.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Investing
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Innovation in Action: Lessons From Healthcare Innovators That Rapidly Pivoted To Respond to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced health-focused social enterprises to adjust their methods and priorities, shifting their modes of patient engagement and even developing entirely new programs. Innovations in Healthcare, a nonprofit housed at Duke University, studied a group of health innovators working in low- and middle-income countries to understand these shifts. Victoria Hsiung, Sowmya Rajan and Katie Flowers share insights from a recent white paper analyzing how these organizations have adapted, assessing four groups' choices and exploring the lessons learned.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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The Value and Limitations of Market-Based Innovations for Impact: Three Takeaways After COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has made one thing clear: Digital innovation in service delivery and infrastructure is critical to economic inclusion – both in emerging markets and around the world. But as Tilman Ehrbeck at Flourish Ventures points out, the crisis has also provided a humble reminder that digital infrastructure, private-sector innovation and market-based solutions are not sufficient to ensure broad-based prosperity. He shares three observations, rooted in the experiences of the pandemic, about the value — and limitations — of private-sector approaches in a post-COVID-19 world.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Tags
- COVID-19, digital finance, scale
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Rethinking Community Connectivity: As the Pandemic Wears On, NGOs Turn to Technology for Information Dissemination and Behaviour Change
Behavior change and information dissemination initiatives face many challenges in emerging economies, and COVID-19 has made their work even more difficult. But according to Abhishek Sharma at Glific, these efforts remain essential – whether they're focused on raising awareness of government programs or sharing accurate information about the pandemic. He explores how a growing movement of NGOs, governments and social enterprises are turning to digital communications channels to reach marginalized communities, and discusses Glific's WhatsApp-based approach.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
- Tags
- COVID-19, data, digital inclusion, NGOs, nonprofits
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Financial Inclusion During – And After – COVID-19: The 2021 Compass Survey Reveals the True Scale of the Challenges Ahead
COVID-19 has upended the global financial inclusion sector, causing immense new challenges for low-income clients, their households and businesses, providers, funders, and the broader ecosystem. The full extent of this impact won't be seen until the pandemic fully subsides, but trends are emerging. Sam Mendelson at e-MFP shares findings from the organization's most recent Financial Inclusion Compass survey, which asked a broad cross-section of stakeholders where they see these increasingly complex issues trending — and what they’d like to see in the future.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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The Supply and Demand Dilemma in COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing: Could Lessons from the Fashion Industry Provide Ideas for a Solution?
Expanding access to the COVID-19 vaccine is essential to stopping global transmission and halting the emergence of new variants of the virus. But efforts to optimize vaccine manufacturing and distribution have been hampered by multifaceted challenges involving supply and demand. Prashant Yadav at INSEAD, Rebecca Weintraub at Harvard Medical School, and biotech and vaccine industry consultant Tom Johnston explain how solutions to those issues may be found in another sector with volatile product demand and a global manufacturing base: the fashion apparel industry.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Making This Year Better Than the Last: A Recent Survey Assesses the Pandemic’s Impacts on Micro and Small Businesses
Micro and small businesses dealt with massive challenges during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and even those that adapted and survived still face major struggles. Juan Carlos Thomas at TechnoServe shares the results of a recent study on COVID-19's impact on these enterprises, and explores how his organization has been supporting them – including through a crisis toolkit that helps them weather the pandemic's challenges, and through digital tools focused on business training and access to finance.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology, Transportation
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Improving COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Around the World: Leveraging Partnerships and Technology to Optimize Medical Supply Chains
Effective vaccine distribution is key to overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries. Similar vaccination efforts for routine childhood diseases have been widely successful, but targeting an adult population presents unique challenges, say Wade Warren at Deloitte Consulting and Marian W. Wentworth at Management Sciences for Health. They explore four challenges that vaccine distribution efforts will face – and four tried-and-proven ways to improve the process.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Transportation
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