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What the IMF Mandate Means for the Poor: The organization says it’s focused on narrowing the income gap – but will this affect policy?
The International Monetary Fund is known for its multi-billion dollar bailouts of struggling countries, but the organization now says narrowing the income gap between the very poor and the very rich is a key tenet of its mission. How income inequality fits into aid packages is yet to be seen, says Isaac Otto, but it is beginning to enter into the equation.
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- Impact Assessment
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NexThought Monday: Expanding the Universe of Impact Investing: How international NGOs can access investor capital to increase their impact on a large scale
Impact investments started out as mostly start-up or early-stage investments in small but promising companies that aim for a measurable social impact. But what’s next? Zurich Insurance Group and Population Services International explore how impact investing could work for a larger universe of private investors and international NGOs.
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- Impact Assessment
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Making Impact Easier: How impact investing can put capital providers and seekers on the road to more investible deals
A growing number of financial institutions are embracing impact investing, but much work remains to be done to build a robust market. Impact Economy’s new report explores how major financial advisors and institutions could align their investments, build viable pipelines of investible deals, and make impact both commercially viable and socially transformative.
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- Impact Assessment
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Facilitating New Markets: Philanthropies are uniquely suited to fostering market-based solutions to poverty
Monitor Deloitte’s recently released Beyond the Pioneer report includes a call for organizations to step up as “industry facilitators” to help overcome key challenges to scaling market-based solutions to social problems. Based on its experience in India, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation describes several ways philanthropies can play that role.
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- Impact Assessment
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Trouble Brewing in Microfinance?: Peru and Mexico’s microcredit sectors appear to be in danger of collapsing – and the market-driven model is to blame
In spite of its well-publicized struggles, the market-driven microcredit model remains a revered concept, linked to the belief that free markets and business solutions are the best solutions to poverty. But according to Milford Bateman, flaws in the market-driven model itself are responsible for grave challenges facing Peru and Mexico’s celebrated microcredit sectors.
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- Impact Assessment
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The Impact of Inclusion: CGAP report looks at recent evidence of how financial inclusion can help the poor
There’s a strong consensus that access to suitable financial services can help poor households improve their lives, while spurring economic activity. But what is the evidence for these positive impacts? CGAP tackled that topic in a recent Focus Note, and we spoke with Nina Holle, an associate microfinance analyst at CGAP, and a co-author of the report.
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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Taking a Multi-Dimensional View: Free WDI webinar series on assessing poverty impact
Many BoP ventures struggle to capture a complete picture of what is going on inside their organization. WDI’s Heather Esper on a new webinar series focused on how to how ventures can understand how their actions are truly influencing poverty.
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- Impact Assessment
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Mainstreaming the Movement: Toniic CEO Stephanie Cohn Rupp discusses the future of impact investing
"Eventually, I think the victory will be when everyone who is investing ... can put their capital into impact," says Toniic CEO Stephanie Cohn Rupp. But can retail investors accurately assess their investments’ social impact? Is it responsible for pensions or IRAs to offer impact options? And which investments should qualify as "impact"? In part two of our Q&A, Cohn Rupp discusses these and other questions.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment