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How ‘Designing Under the Mango Tree’ Can Prevent Digital Solution Hiccups
Like an off-road vehicle, when you build a digital solution, you want to build with the most challenging environments in mind. Why? So the digital solution can scale with fewer hiccups, as it grows outward. Mobile services company Dimagi calls it “designing under the mango tree,” and it requires working in partnership with a variety of end users. It's hard work, Kathryn M. Clifton writes, but worth it.
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- Technology
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Hooked on Sustainable Fish? Great – Now Let’s Help Fishers Who Net Them
Small-scale fishing operations play a critical role in food security and alleviating poverty, but face many challenges in developing countries. The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which has helped build social businesses that train fishers and fish farmers to adopt sustainable practices, is among a growing group of stakeholders working toward a common goal of preserving our oceans and fisheries.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment
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Tackling Tuberculosis in Southern Africa’s Mineworkers with an Innovative Approach
As many recognize World TB Day, March 24, an initiative in South Africa shows how an innovative and a more harmonized regional approach can result in more effective TB management in the mining sector.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Finding New Pathways to a More Inclusive and Humane Economy
Social entrepreneurs, in their pursuit of the common good, have taught us that solutions won't come from a single sector or organization. And that's been reinforced by recent collaborations that reflect a complete new way of envisioning social change and clear the path for a more inclusive and humane economy, where social innovation is also a source of economic performance and gradually infiltrates the DNA of every company.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Most Influential Post Winner: Finding the Right Last-Mile Distribution Model
This post, which addresses a recent effort to share what works and doesn't work in bringing market-driven solutions to base-of-the-pyramid customers, was the most popular NextBillion article in September. That earned it a place in our annual Most Influential Post contest. You can vote for it, or any of the other 11 contenders, through Jan. 2. The winner will be announced on Jan. 4.
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- Education, Entrepreneurship
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‘Inclusion is Not an End in Itself’: Takeaways from MasterCard Foundation’s Symposium on Financial Inclusion
Financial services providers need a mind-shift, says MasterCard Foundation's Ann Miles: They should not only focus on increasing uptake of a new product or service, but on the lifetime value these offerings have for customers. Their goal should be not just to increase access to formal financial products and services, but to help end-users integrate these new tools into their daily lives.
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- Uncategorized
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Breaking Out of Silos: Leave Your Disciplinary Ego at the Door
In order to create lasting social impact, program designers, implementers and donors must embrace multidisciplinary approaches and invest the resources and effort needed to execute them effectively. This is the only way we will make real progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. We need to work together, and leave our egos behind.
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- Health Care
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It’s Not Business as Usual with Women’s and Children’s Health
Because thousands of women and children die of preventable causes each day, the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities was established in 2012 with the goal of increasing access to and awareness of 13 underused lifesaving commodities. The commission has largely succeeded in its mission, the authors say, due mainly to its collaborative approach.
- Categories
- Health Care