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UBS Raises $325 Million for Bono-Backed Impact Investment Fund
The Rise Fund, which counts Irish rock star Bono among its co-founders, aims to achieve "measurable, positive social and environmental outcomes alongside competitive financial returns", UBS said in a statement on Monday.
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- Investing
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Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are backing a controversial education program in East Africa
Though it operates with the mission of providing high-quality, low-cost education for all, Bridge has drawn criticism from some education experts and teachers unions for the model it uses to make good on that mission.
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Two years in: How’s the world’s first development impact bond for education doing?
Two years after the launch of the first development impact bond(DIB) for education, this innovative financing model is reporting promising results in both enrollment and learning gains.
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- Education
- Region
- South Asia
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Mars launches Farmer Income Lab to help eradicate smallholder poverty
The Farmer Income Lab will commission research and generate discussion to develop measurable frameworks and new business models to significantly reduce farmer poverty.
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- Agriculture
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Report: Reaching deep in low-income markets
This report was developed jointly by Monitor Deloitte, the MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and the Rockefeller Foundation to help provide transparency and guidance to advance the broader field of funding for businesses serving the deep BOP.
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- Uncategorized
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Can a Tech Start-Up Successfully Educate Children in the Developing World?
Bridge International Academies — a chain of inexpensive private schools — has ambitious plans to revolutionize education for poor children. But can its for-profit model work in some of the most impoverished places on Earth?
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- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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How Blockchains Could Revolutionize International Aid
It’s this sort of problem–a lack of traceability in aid–that encouraged Thompson to develop a system to transfer and track international development payments. AID:Tech is one of several startups working with blockchain technology, trying to ensure more funds go where they’re supposed to go. “Transparency is really needed in aid and welfare payments because there’s not a functioning system that works globally,” he says.
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- Technology
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‘One size fits all’ investing is limiting innovations in East Africa and India
The reality is different. Despite all of the hype, most startups in India and East Africa are failing to attract the investment capital they need to grow and scale. For example, although startup investment in East Africa is at an all-time high, in the past two years 72 percent of venture capital went to only three startups. The vast majority of startups in these regions are not being given a fair shot.
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- Investing