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Cut Off From Infrastructure, Not From Support: SKS NGO Builds Self-Reliance in Isolated Communities
The purpose of SKS’s ultra poor programme is to create sustainable livelihoods so that those living in extreme poverty can graduate into one of two paths: Axisting microfinance programme in the area (for the few that wish to expand their business or diversify into other activities), or to continue saving in groups and use their savings to strengthen and diversify their asset base (a viable transition for most).
- Categories
- Education
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Charting the Change from BPO to BoP: Training the Next Generation of Skilled Labor in India
I’m typical of many of the entrepreneurs and professionals to benefit from the BPO boom who are thankful for the opportunities it has provided, but who also hope to drive India’s nascent Base of the Pyramid sector. The Indian government is spending a huge amount of money in training BoP candidates to skill them in their chosen field and set an aggressive goal to train more than 500 million people by 2022. Dealing with that challenge will require a scalable training solution to bridge the skills gap.
- Categories
- Education
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A Day at Husk Power University
Acumen Fund invested in Husk Power Systems (HPS) in 2010 to help scale their innovative business model of using discarded rice husks as a source for rural off-grid electricity generation. HPS has since expanded to over 90 plants all over Bihar, India, and has launched Husk Power University (HPU), a technical training institute for future mechanics and operators for HPS. I spent a day there.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment
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NexThought Monday: How Innovative Financing Mechanisms Are Helping Afghanistan’s Farmers
It’s not easy to improve farmers’ livelihoods in any developing country. Add in ongoing violence, feeble institutions, and some of the lowest living standards in the world, and the task can seem nearly impossible. But in August 2010, a project team from DAI landed in Afghanistan to do just that—by implementing USAID’s Agricultural Credit Enhancement (ACE) program, which aimed to lend $100 million to farmers and agribusinesses to invest in agriculture across the country.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
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Guest Post: Lifting Africa Up By Empowering its Youth
Voices on Society, an online publication from McKinsey & Company’s Social Sector Office, launched last week. In its first edition, Fred Swaniker, founder and CEO of the African Leadership Academy, writes that Africa is sitting on a time bomb unless it creates its own jobs through the ingenuity, ability, and skill of its own people.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Reaping the Demographic Dividend: The Challenges in Creating Jobs for Young India
Six million people are joining the Indian workforce every year, while only 1 million jobs were created last year. In advance of the Sankalp Forum later this month, organizers are hosting a live Twitter chat focused on boosting employment and skill development in the country.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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On the Impact Road Trip: How Wakami Value Chains are Weaving Change in Guatemala
Business incubator Communities of the Earth targets women in rural villages throughout Guatemala by teaching them how to make bracelets and necklaces. Women who receive the training work together in small groups (called “Wakami Value Chains”) to craft products for Kiej de los Bosques – a Guatemala City-based business that produces an assortment of handicraft products for both national and international consumption.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
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Cape Town’s Women Take the Lead in Farm-Focused Social Enterprise
Abalimi’s profitable social business, Harvest of Hope, relies on a community-supported agriculture model that provides customers (who pay in advance) a box of fresh, organically grown produce harvested from community gardens each week.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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