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Built to Scale? Growing Pains Hit Cambodia’s Businesses for Good
With the ‘Markle Sparkle’, the little-known business - which employs survivors of human trafficking and other vulnerable women to make ethically sourced, environmentally friendly jeans - exploded. However, the spotlight also created a dilemma for the young social enterprise - or business using profits for good.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Five Ways the Private Sector Can Align with the Sustainable Development Goals
How can the private sector advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and what’s the best way to measure the success of these efforts? Those questions were among the topics explored at the recent Sustainability and Development Conference at the University of Michigan. Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi and Dana Gorodetsky at the William Davidson Institute attended the event, and they share some essential insights on the private sector’s role in supporting the SDGs.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Entrepreneurship, Environment, Impact Assessment
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Creating Jobs While Fighting Poverty: An Innovative Social Micro-Franchise Model Gains Traction in Haiti
All too many global development efforts fail to appreciate the value of a steady paycheck – or the role of small businesses as job creators in poor communities, says Marc Blumenthal at Social Ventures Foundation (SVF). This has stagnated poverty reduction campaigns, leaving vulnerable populations in need after government and NGO funds dry up. He shares SVF's efforts to reverse this dynamic, through social micro-franchise business models that address poverty-related issues, while also creating sustainable jobs in low-income communities.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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On the Ground at SOCAP19: Live Interviews and Insights from the Social Impact Sector’s Flagship Event
NextBillion’s editors are on the ground at SOCAP19, live-tweeting from panels, conducting live interviews, and providing coverage of key conversations and innovators. We’ll be updating this blog regularly from Wednesday to Friday. Also, we’ll be broadcasting live Q&As with thought leaders in social impact from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PST on Wednesday, and 2:00 – 3:00 pm PST on Thursday. You can view them live at NextBillion’s Facebook page, and we’ll embed the videos here after they’re over.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing, NextBillion Originals
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Political jitters drive U.S. to biggest fall in global social entrepreneurs poll
Opportunities to build businesses with a mission to do good in the United States have plummeted since 2016 due largely to a decline in government support, according to the second global poll on the best countries for social entrepreneurs on Tuesday. The United States fell the most out of 45 countries in the Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of about 900 social enterprise experts, diving to 32nd place from the top ranking in the inaugural survey three years ago. The poll found the United States fell the most of all nations when respondents were asked if government policy supported social entrepreneurs, and came last in a combined ranking about women’s leading role in running such businesses.
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- Entrepreneurship
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Announcing the New(ish) NextBillion: How – and Why – We’ve Updated the Site
NextBillion is announcing several small but important changes to our site's design and content, aimed at making the platform more intuitive for readers to navigate – and easier for guest writers, potential partners and others to utilize. We explain the changes, and the reasoning behind them, in this article.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, NextBillion Originals
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In Remembrance of Pro-Poor Business Pioneer Paul Polak: 1933-2019
Paul Polak, a pioneer of pro-poor technologies and social impact-focused business, passed away peacefully over the weekend, surrounded by his family. A true "serial entrepreneur" since long before that term became popular, Polak founded numerous organizations and businesses aimed at alleviating poverty – and he served as a source of wisdom, inspiration and humor for the social business sector for decades. He will be greatly missed.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Rwanda’s Trash Warrior Tackles E-Waste With Blockchain
his week, the 19-year-old will join climate activist Greta Thunberg at the U.N. Youth Climate Summit in New York as one of 100 selected young people offering solutions on climate change.
- Categories
- Environment, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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