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MetLife Foundation & Verb Launch Competition To Accelerate Financial Innovation In Egypt & Lebanon
The competition launches in Egypt & Lebanon this week and will attract participants that have an innovative idea or solution to empower the nearly 50 million Egyptians and Lebanese that manage their day-to-day financial lives without a bank account.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Field of View: How a Chilli Cash Crop Helps Subsistence Farmers Shape Their Future
During a three-year process designed to assess the impact of growing a chilli cash crop on small farmers living in southern Africa, it was discovered that when a family earned just $500 more of net income per year, the money materially impacted at least two categories of their basic human needs. But the most profound impact, writes Tanner Methvin, was that of self-determination.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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Three Ways Entrepreneurs Can Tackle Climate Change (Hint: It’s Not Just About Scale)
There are ways entrepreneurs can make sizeable impacts on climate change without Facebook-like growth curves. Jean-Louis Racine says investors should follow the lead of the venture capital sector and support startups that won't grow or be profitable. Traditional impact metrics such as goods sold, customers served, revenues generated or jobs created no longer apply. The best way to catalyze a climate technology market is to help ensure that innovative high-risk, low-growth ventures don't fall through the cracks.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship, Environment, Financial Inclusion, Technology
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The Dirty Secret of Social Enterprise: Scale is Overrated
Author Jonathan C. Lewis writes that for some staggering societal problems – like deaths from child poverty and modern-day slavery – scaling solutions is an urgent necessity. However, for social entrepreneurs, he says the important thing is not organizational size, geographic coverage or budget, but progress toward social justice. He urges leaders to focus less on size and more on striving to maintain balance.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion, Health Care, Impact Assessment
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MIT in search of Africa’s most innovative entrepreneurs
According to the MIT Legatum Centre, the Open Mic Africa program seeks to find and showcase Africa's top innovators while developing a dialogue among local entrepreneurs, investors and MIT.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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SPRING announces 19 startups joining East Africa cohort
Disrupt Africa reported in 2015, SPRING launched its inaugural program in East Africa, focused on supporting startups improving the lives of adolescent girls living in poverty. 18 startups were selected to join the first cohort, receiving an average of US$80,000 each. A second program was conducted in Asia.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Making Microcredit Charities Better
While supporting women entrepreneurs is commendable, no data suggest that lending to women—or men, for that matter—is a miracle poverty cure. That’s primarily because lenders commonly charge the poor about 25% for loans. Six randomized studies of microlending programs from 2003 to 2012, published in the American Economic Journal, found no correlation with improved welfare. Although the loans can be helpful in some situations, there’s no evidence of a transformational effect.
- Categories
- Financial Inclusion
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Development Engineering: Scaling Tech Solutions from Ideation, to Pilot … to the World?
Scaling technologies that promote economic development is challenging. That's why UC Berkeley established the Development Impact Lab. Natasha Beale, the lab's manager, discusses the concept of "development engineering" and gives examples to illustrate that large-scale impact is indeed possible with the right mix of targeted funding, technological innovation and rigorous field work.
- Categories
- Education, Technology
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