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Progress and Promises: Exploring the BoP with Monitor Inclusive Markets
In May, Monitor Inclusive Markets released a report on market-based solutions in Africa across six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Profiling 440 enterprises, "Progress and Promises" represents the largest study to date of social enterprises in Africa. It grew out of a simple observation: the aid model is broken. But what’s the alternative?
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The Evolution of Financial Inclusion: A Survey of the Future
ACCION International’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) released an important report this week that has people in the microfinance sector taking notice." Opportunities and Obstacles to Financial Inclusion" is a comprehensive survey of 301 industry participants from around the world on "how to make full financial inclusion a reality."
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City of God’s Plan for Financial Inclusion
Isolation and lack of economic opportunity made The City of God community susceptible to drugs and violence, issues spotlighted by the 2002 movie. But soon, CDD as it’s known, will have its own bank and currency. Modeled after Banco Palmas, a bank established in Fortaleza, CDD’s community bank will be the first of its kind in Rio de Janeiro.
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Friday Roundup 7-8-11: The Wisdom of the Crowds (Funding)
We’ve been talking about the promise and, as some see it, the perils of Impact Investing this week and continuing through the month, on our newly launched Big Idea Page. Whether technically "impact" investing or not, the week saw several major deals break for socially inclined enterprises.
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- Social Enterprise
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Friday Roundup 7/1/11: Kiva Launches First ’Kiva City’ in Detroit
The new Kiva City initiative combines the power of civic leaders, community organizations, and financial institutions. Rolling out first in Detroit, Kiva has partnered with Michigan Corps and ACCION USA to bring financial inclusion to a city that is wholly determined - from the government level to the individual level - on working collaboratively.
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Telenor’s Easypaisa Penetrating Pakistan’s Poor, Unbanked Populations
Since Pakistan mobile operator Telenor launched Easypaisa in October 2009, it’s seen rapid adoption. In March 2011, 1.3 million customers processed 1.9 million Easypaisa transactions and $39.2 million in transaction flows. Easypaisa has conducted more transactions in its first 18 months than any mobile money deployment except M-PESA.
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- Impact Assessment, Technology
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The Best of May on NextBillion: Challenging Assumptions
In May, our most-read posts had a common theme: challenging assumptions. Specifically, we featured voices and counterpoints that ran against the mainstream, both supporting our sector and questioning it. So it seems fitting that we also announce a new staff writer who has dueled conventional wisdom on the subject of BoP marketing and advertising.
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- Education
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Thinking About the Box – Not Just Outside of It
’Think outside of the box’ is one of the most clich?d expressions in English. But when’s the last time we actually defined the box? In her book, Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development, Cal-Berkeley Professor Ananya Roy not only defines the dominant boxes of development, but unpacks their paradoxes, hypocrisy, and absurdities.
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