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Australia’s DFAT and XPRIZE Team Up to Tackle Water Scarcity
XPRIZE, Tata Group and innovationXchange are together funding a prize for an affordable solution to water scarcity. The idea is to generate clean water from the air, in situations where water is currently unavailable or inaccessible. XPRIZE will help the top five finalists access advance market commitments, allowing them to test their technology in the field, at scale. Teams have until April 28 to register.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
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Ford Foundation Sends Message to Those Still on Impact Investing Fence: A Q&A with Darren Walker
Earlier this month, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker announced the 81-year-old organization is putting "our money where our mouth is" and investing $1 billion over the next 10 years in affordable housing and financial services for people in developing countries. In this email Q&A, Walker talks about why the foundation made the shift and the signals he hopes it sends.
- Categories
- Investing
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Four Ways to Bring Evidence into Education Policy: Lessons from IPA’s Work in Emerging Markets
Evidence-based policymaking makes sense, but can be hard to achieve. To help better understand the issues involved, IPA has compiled summaries of evidence highlighting education policy lessons. Here, Heidi McAnnally-Linz and Bridget Konadu Gyamfi detail four strategies the organization is pursuing in different contexts, all of which are leading to a greater understanding of evidence – to varying degrees of impact so far.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Microfinance for Water and Sanitation: Opportunities and Challenges for MFIs
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) presents an opportunity for MFIs to meaningfully impact their customers’ lives and aid in their struggle against poverty. However, a variety of issues play a role in determining the suitability of a WASH finance product. To help MFIs navigate through these, MicroSave and Water.Org have developed a series of toolkits.
- Categories
- Health Care
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The Girl Effect: Accelerator Connects Girls in Poverty with Silicon Valley Innovators
What if girls destined for poverty in developing countries were connected with some of the best minds in Silicon Valley? They can be, thanks to the Girl Effect Accelerator, an initiative of the Nike Foundation and the Unreasonable Group. The program helped Annetty Chama go from having no job – and no hope of getting one – to becoming her family's primary bread-winner in Zambia.
- Categories
- Education
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World Bank issues first UN sustainable development bond
The World Bank has raised its first bond linked to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as it looks to help a global effort to end poverty, tackle climate change and promote equality.
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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Social Business Roundup: A $1 Smartphone, the Upshot of Disparity and the Quizzing of Presidents
If you manufacture a phone that comes with apps advertising to low-income consumers, can you sell it for as little as $1? The folks at SocialEco think so. Other items NextBillion's editors came across for this week's Roundup included a concentration on wealth concentration, an unhappy birthday for M-Pesa, plus a presidential Q that will hopefully result in an A.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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Client Outcomes Data in Microfinance: Few Have It But Everybody Needs It
Many recent studies have found that microfinance has no impact, or minimal positive impact, on clients’ lives. To find out why and to fix the problem, financial service providers need client outcomes data, but few FSPs collect it because they think it would be too expensive and time-consuming. Turns out, according to the SPTF Outcomes Working Group, it's not.
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- Uncategorized