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Social Innovation Needs Data, This Free Platform Provides It
New social innovations are exciting, but there’s also great value in scaling existing solutions that show promise. There’s just one problem with this approach, says Sweta Govani: The information about these innovations is incomplete, complicated and fragmented, making it hard to determine which ones deserve support. She discusses a new solution called Global Innovation Exchange, a free, data-driven technology platform that gives funders, social entrepreneurs and others easy access to high-quality, up-to-date information about existing global development innovations.
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- Investing
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Robo-advisor Nutmeg launches socially responsible investment portfolios
Nutmeg is the latest robo-advice investment firm to join the growing socially responsible investing movement by launching a new portfolio range.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing, research
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Four Ways to Support Vulnerable Youth: Key Takeaways from a Six-Year Livelihood Program
The world’s current generation of 1.8 billion young people is the largest in history. But harnessing this demographic dividend has proven difficult, as youth unemployment rates have remained persistently high for the last decade. Save the Children’s recently concluded Youth in Action program was designed to improve the socioeconomic status of 40,000 out-of-school youth in rural Africa. To find out how well it worked, the organization embedded 32 studies into the program. It recently shared the results – and Nikhit D’Sa discusses four lessons from the findings.
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- Education
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The Future of Fintech is Now: Takeaways from Harvard’s Rethinking Financial Inclusion 2018
Those looking to technology to boost financial inclusion should stay focused on problems rather than solutions. That may sound counterintuitive, but Michael Fryar at Harvard's Evidence for Policy Design cautions that it's tantalizingly easy to treat fresh tech like a shiny new hammer and every problem as a nail. Fryar discusses this and other key insights from the recent "Rethinking Financial Inclusion" program at Harvard Kennedy School.
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- Finance, Technology
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Press release: Sustainable investing assets reach $12 trillion as reported by the US SIF Foundation’s biennial Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends
The US SIF Foundation’s 2018 biennial Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends, released today, found that sustainable, responsible and impact investing (SRI) assets now account for $12.0 trillion—or one in four dollars—of the $46.6 trillion in total assets under professional management in the United States. This represents a 38 percent increase over 2016.
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- Investing
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You Can’t Change What You Can’t See: Taking America’s Financial Health Pulse
Last week, a new FDIC survey revealed that the number of unbanked U.S. households has reached the lowest point since the survey started in 2009. Meanwhile, advances in fintech and a strong overall economy suggest that the financial prospects of most Americans should be looking up. But as Center for Financial Services Innovation president Jennifer Tescher points out, the story is not that simple. In reality, she says, a massive number of Americans are struggling financially. She explores this and other troubling findings in the U.S. Financial Health Pulse, a landmark new study that aims to show the true picture of Americans’ financial lives.
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- Finance
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International aid saves 700 million lives but gains at risk: report
“The lives saved amount to twice the population of the United States,” said Gayle Smith, the ONE Campaign’s chief executive. “We’ve shown that we can do this, and to slow down – or step back – at this critical juncture would be to leave progress on the table.”
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- Health Care
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Diving into the Gap: What Separates Savers from Non-Savers?
In three years, the gap between the poorest 40 percent and the richest 60 percent nearly doubled across many developing countries. Meanwhile, the gap between primary and secondary school graduates has also doubled – and these inequalities in income and education are more significant than ever in dividing savers and non-savers. Scott Graham at FINCA International analyzes the latest FINDEX numbers to explore how we can reconcile a decline in savings, while poverty is largely falling throughout the world.
- Categories
- Finance
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