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Unequal COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Shows ‘It’s Business as Usual in Global Health’
Almost 130 countries with a population of over 2.5 billion had yet to vaccinate anyone.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
- Tags
- distribution
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The Big Impact of Small Improvements: How Last-Mile Distributors Have Responded to COVID-19 with ‘Incremental Innovation’
Distributing beneficial products in last-mile communities has always been difficult, but COVID-19 has made it much harder, exacerbating many of the challenges that last-mile distributors were already facing. Emma Colenbrander and Gerwin Jansen at the Global Distributors Collective explore innovative solutions to some of these challenges, many of which have tended to be incremental rather than radical.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Technology
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An Emerging Cornerstone of Last-Mile Distribution: The Power of Data and Process Digitalization
Social enterprises at the last mile are working relentlessly to close the gap in achieving the SDGs. But since their customers are generally underprivileged, they're also very sensitive to a product’s price, which means boosting efficiency is key to increasing these businesses' profitability. Thibault Lesueur and Simon Schaffner at Solaris Offgrid explore how process digitalization and interoperable software systems can streamline last-mile distribution and help these enterprises scale.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
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How Will Last-Mile Distributors Adapt to and Survive the COVID-19 Crisis?
COVID-19 is creating major challenges for last-mile distributors around the world. And though these businesses are both nimble and resilient, they urgently need financial and technical support. Emma Colenbrander at the Global Distributors Collective explores how investors, NGOs and other stakeholders can help the sector to survive this crisis, and to continue to deliver impact as the pandemic subsides.
- Categories
- Coronavirus
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Can an Integrated Energy Distribution Model Turn Around Africa’s Ailing Utilities?
Utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to provide quality, cost-effective services at a profit. The reasons for this include their inability to access affordable capital, and their low revenue collection rates. According to Simon Meier at Konexa, this is one reason that electricity access in the region continues to lag behind other geographies. He explores an innovative solution Konexa is piloting: an integrated distribution model that could provide a recipe for systems change.
- Categories
- Energy
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Beyond the Bottom Line: How Changing the Supplier-Distributor Dynamic Creates Better Products for People Living in Poverty
A good relationship between suppliers and distributors is crucial when doing business in challenging markets. But in too many cases, these relationships are purely transactional, one-way and unresponsive, say Sahil Khanna at Greenlight Planet and Murli Padmanabhan at Pollinate Group. They explore how their organizations have avoided this pitfall in creating a true partnership that allows them to distribute solar products more effectively to their customers.
- Categories
- Energy
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What Will Last Mile Distribution Look Like in 2025? Six Predictions for an Emerging Sector
From water purifiers to solar lights, the impact-oriented products can’t further development goals if they can't make it to last mile customers. Emma Colenbrader and Charlie Miller of the Global Distributors Collective explain how the organization's 140 member distributors have defied tough odds to get 13 million products and counting into the hands of last mile households. They share a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the markets for these products, the customers being reached – and the business models that can reach them.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications, Transportation
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Finding the Right Last-Mile Distribution Model
Experiments in bringing market-driven solutions to base-of-the-pyramid customers are often done in isolation, with little sharing of what works and what doesn’t. To address this knowledge gap, MIT D-Lab created the Practical Impact Alliance, which brings together leaders from diverse organizations working in inclusive business. The group has just released a 43-page guide called Best Practices for BoP Door-to-Door Distribution.
- Categories
- Education
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