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Critics: Give Development Impact Bonds a Chance to Learn to Walk Before They Run
Brian Boland, co-founder of The Delta Fund - a donor-advised fund focused on poverty alleviation and justice reform - pushes back on a recent critique of development impact bonds. That critique, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review by Kevin Starr, took DIBs to task for high costs and questioned whether the investor returns are justifiable. Boland argues that DIBs are in their infancy, investors are already learning a lot from early pilots, and any pioneering new system requires time before it can scale.
- Categories
- Investing
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How to Help Social Enterprises Scale: New Research Suggests it’s Not Just About Financial Capital
For businesses that need to scale, human capital support can provide long-lasting benefits. But Mark Horoszowski, co-founder and CEO at MovingWorlds.org, says that in spite of the value of investing in the people behind the enterprises, initiatives for capacity building, coaching and consulting largely go underfunded. Horoszowski explores findings from a first-of-its-kind report that show the power of human capital, and discusses three paths for building talent in the sector.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Three Ways Inclusive Businesses Can Become More Customer-Centric
In any successful business, the customer always comes first. However, impact-focused enterprises often paint customers at the base of the pyramid with wide brush strokes, overlooking nuances in culture, location and literacy. Christian Jahn, Executive Director of the Inclusive Business Action Network, understands the desire to "help" poor people – but notes well-intended social entrepreneurs risk ignoring what their customers really want. Instead, Jahn recommends businesses develop a holistic view of customer needs, viewing them through a realistic lens for more meaningful impact.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Faster, Lighter Touch and Group-based: A Different Approach to Poverty Graduation
The poverty graduation model has continued to show great promise in helping ultra-poor people develop sustainable livelihoods. But Dianne Calvi of Village Enterprise points out that those programs, as currently practiced, are often too expensive to scale. In advocating a more streamlined approach to poverty graduation, Calvi reveals key findings from a randomized control trial involving some of the poorest households across 138 villages in rural Uganda.
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- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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The Secret to Social Business Scale? An Overlooked Need in Moving Past the Startup Phase
How can social entrepreneurs move from the startup phase into the growth phase? Whatever the focus of their business, entrepreneurs have to build capacity to benefit and employ more people as they scale – and this requires a unique set of skills. Carola Schwank at Siemens Stiftung Foundation discusses the crucial but often overlooked need of organizational development in social business, and describes how the foundation is helping entrepreneurs address it.
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- Entrepreneurship
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Does Rwanda need a law on social enterprises?
People running social enterprises in Rwanda are increasingly concerned that there is no law governing social enterprises in the country which could have provided tax exemptions for their companies.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Most Influential Post Nominee: There is Such a Thing as Too Much, Too Fast: Avoiding ‘Mismatched Expectations’ in Off-Grid Energy Investing
A recent post by impact investing firm Ceniarth on the "Energy Access Hype Cycle" has generated considerable discussion, prompting critical responses from fellow impact investors Persistent Energy Capital and the off-grid lighting trade organization GOGLA. With this post, writers at the IFC join the discussion, analyzing the effect of rapid growth rates, high levels of consumer financing and operational efficiency on the liquidity of solar home system providers.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Technology
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We need solutions that can be scaled up, and that too across diverse regions: Shrikant Sinha
Nasscom Foundation chief Shrikant Sinha talks about why he believes scalability is more important than pure innovation and how technology-led innovations can help India transform.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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