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Uganda is shutting down 63 schools backed by Zuckerberg and Gates
Uganda’s High Court has ordered the closure of more than 60 primary schools run by a U.S. education company backed by Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates and Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- education, Microfranchising, profits
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From Dunkin’ Donuts to Farm Seeds: Discovering the Promise of Social Franchising
What if the power of the franchise model was turned into a tool for solving developing world problems such as lack of access to clean water, modern energy sources, pharmaceutical medicines or agricultural inputs and know-how? We can learn a lot from mega-franchises like Dunkin' Donuts when it comes to building micro-franchises.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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Too Many Cooks: How lack of effective leadership almost killed my social enterprise
Fernando Noroña co-founded Deltarec to advance Mexico’s plastic recycling efforts. The company was initially run by two funders and four entrepreneurs, with decisions made by a 10-strong management board dominated by its funding partners. But this leadership structure soon became a prime factor in the company’s struggles, as Noroña describes in the latest post in our series on social enterprise failure.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care
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Farm Shop Cultivates Growth : In this video Q&A Farm Shop Co-Founder Madison Ayer explains the microfranchise model to supply, educate farmers
Farm Shop hopes to take the idea of the micro-franchise to another level – the ground level to be precise. Founded by Madison Ayer and Farouk Jiwa, Farm Shop is a Kenya-based social enterprise aspiring to grow into a rural network of agri-suppliers. With 25 stores in operation, proprietors supply smallholder farmers with a wide set of offerings - from basic fertilizers to more advanced hybrid seeds and drip irrigation systems.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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The Secrets of Starbucks
Twenty years ago in Nepal, the first modern example of social franchising for health – the application of commercial franchising strategies to achieve public health goals – began expanding access to quality health services. This year, PSI and Marie Stopes International, two organizations that have long-employed social franchising to improve health outcomes, came together to create an online course on social franchising, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care
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It’s About Time, It’s Also About Culture: How do varying cultural perspectives about time and productivity impact social enterprises?
Andrea Trice is researching how “soft” factors such as mutual understanding and trust influence the success of a social enterprise. While it’s too early to draw conclusions, Trice notes that it’s difficult to overestimate the role of culture in shaping how each of us thinks and acts, and therefore how businesses succeed or fail.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Entrepreneurship
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Micro-Franchising: How Business-in-a-Box Can Change Development: Why Jibu, a clean water franchise, sees power in local ownership
Micro-franchising lends the emerged market’s corporate advantage to local, emerging market entrepreneurs - propelling local innovations and adaptation. Jibu is piloting this model for clean water distribution. Why co-founder Galen Welsch thinks they may be onto something.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship
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Social Entrepreneur Profile: Peter Harris, Fairbourne Consulting
The mere mention of “social entrepreneurship” used to be enough to put me on edge.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Tags
- Microfranchising