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Creating Jobs While Fighting Poverty: An Innovative Social Micro-Franchise Model Gains Traction in Haiti
All too many global development efforts fail to appreciate the value of a steady paycheck – or the role of small businesses as job creators in poor communities, says Marc Blumenthal at Social Ventures Foundation (SVF). This has stagnated poverty reduction campaigns, leaving vulnerable populations in need after government and NGO funds dry up. He shares SVF's efforts to reverse this dynamic, through social micro-franchise business models that address poverty-related issues, while also creating sustainable jobs in low-income communities.
- Categories
- Investing
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Press Release: These Startups Have Big Ideas to Fight Hunger. Cargill and the World Food Programme Are Helping Make Them a Reality.
A handheld tool to fight hunger. Technology that turns small-scale flour mills into a front line of defense against malnutrition. Breakthroughs in disaster zone mapmaking that could save lives. The World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator and Cargill are teaming up to help three startups make those ideas a reality.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Tags
- accelerators, nutrition, startups
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Top Funders and NGOs Think Empowering Women Farmers Can Reduce Hunger. Are They Right?
This problem isn’t new; famines and food insecurity are one of the oldest development challenges in human history. What is new is a recent shift by donors—both public and private—to focus on female empowerment in agriculture as a key solution to humanity’s food and nutrition deficit.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Good Food, Good Business: How African ‘Superfoods’ Can Boost Women Entrepreneurs and Their Communities
Africa has one of the largest youth populations in the world – and it's projected to double by 2055. To support this young generation of tomorrow, we need to invest in their mothers today, says Oumar Barou Togola, the founder of Farafena Health Inc. He explores how Farafena is partnering with women farmers in Mali and Malawi, helping them start micro-businesses that bring nutrient-rich African "superfoods" to North American markets.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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Cargill and Heifer launch Hatching Hope Global Initiative in India
Farmers will be connected to markets and equipped with the goods and services that they need to be successful participants in the poultry value chain.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
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Why Sustainable Food is Key to Impact Investing in China
Tao Zhang founded one of China’s first impact investing vehicles for environmental SMEs, with a focus on the industrial sector. But he realized that there's a pressing environmental issue brewing at the consumer level – a demand for animal products increasing in tandem with rising incomes, bringing greater greenhouse gas emissions and health disparities. Zhang shares how his Dao Ventures consortium is making consumers part of the solution by partnering with other impact finance entities to boost the availability of – and appetite for – alternative protein sources.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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Press release: The PepsiCo Foundation Partners with CARE to Tackle Gender Inequality in Agriculture with an $18.2 Million Investment in She Feeds the World
Grant will provide resources and training to 5 million women farmers and their families worldwide to help them increase crop yields and income.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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The small study in Rwanda that could change the way the US does foreign aid
Development aid typically takes the form of in-kind goods and services: vaccines, medicine, education, housing, food parcels, etc. But giving out goods and services can be tricky and costly, from a logistical perspective, and runs the risk of giving people things they don’t want or need.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa