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How Prioritizing Profit Can Maximize Social Impact
"If your social enterprise can’t survive without grants, don’t kid yourself, you’re running a charity."
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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$12 Million From InfraCo to Develop SunCulture’s Solar Irrigation Offering in Kenya
The 12 million dollars will support the Kenyan company's expansion in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Why Social Design Projects Fail
Wizbang innovations capture the public’s imagination, but thoughtful, incremental development is often more valuable to those in need.
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Co-Creating a More Equitable World: The Transformative Benefits of Participatory Design
Technology is often designed for people — not with them or by them. Participatory design, says Sher Vogel of MIT D-Lab, is meant to change that. She explores how the method, which actively involves end-users in the design process, can produce products that are better aligned to people’s needs, while also building the skills and confidence of participants. Vogel explains how the process can be applied to business, technology and humanitarian aid, summarizes some challenges it can present, and shares links to upcoming MIT D-Lab courses that can provide a framework.
- Categories
- Technology, WASH
- Tags
- innovation, product design
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Coca-Cola and Unilever to Develop Circular Economy in China
The Coca-Cola Company has partnered with Chinese online retailer JD.com to encourage plastics recycling and help drive the circular economy in China.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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From Early Adopters to Tech Laggards: Understanding Off-Grid Energy Customers
The team at 60 Decibels recently set out to understand the motivations of customers served by off-grid energy firms in Africa. Researchers quizzed customers in Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia about their attitudes and behaviours toward new products to find out who were the early innovators, early adopters or tech laggards. Kat Harrison and Hassan Nasser of 60 Decibels explain the research and how firms can convert ambivalent customers into product ambassadors.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment, Technology
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Designing for Social Good, Not ‘Feel Good’
Designing products for multinational corporations and their affluent target markets is very different from designing products for low-income, rural consumers. Jordan Westerberg, industrial designer with social venture development firm Factor[e], has worked in both of these worlds. He discusses a recent project that redesigned a solar conduction dryer for Indian farmers, and cautions against being drawn to simplistic, feel-good products when designing for social impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Small Change: Why Behavioral Science Needs to Go Beyond ‘Nudges’ to Make a Real Impact
Behavioral science – the practice of leveraging human tendencies to produce desired outcomes – has become popular in the social sector. In particular, "nudges" – small changes that subtly encourage better behaviors – are often seen as a solution for everything from weight loss to financial health. But Mariel Beasley, co-founder of the behavioral science group Common Cents Lab, shares an uncomfortable truth: Small tweaks usually mean marginal changes, and half-measures like nudges are leaving most of the potential of behavioral science untapped.
- Categories
- Finance
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