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A New Era of Farming: Unlocking Innovations for Smallholders Via Non-Traditional Finance
Non-Traditional Finance (NTF) may be critical to unlocking innovation processes among smallholder farmers, and could represent an untapped opportunity to enable them to break the cycle of poverty. But there's a lack of guidance on promising practices for the systemic application of NTF to support scaling of smallholder farmer innovations. That's why MEDA launched a call for proposals for NTF ideas, for which the deadline is Oct. 6.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Inclusive Fintech
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The 7 Trillion Dollar Question: Can Sustainable Financial Products Close the SDG Financing Gap?
Val Smith of Citi gives global context to what sound like the impossibly high costs of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals on clean energy and global warming, saying there is good news behind the daunting gap. The challenge is that current investment levels in development and climate-positive activity remain far below what is required – but current trends in innovative finance are heartening.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Investing
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MetLife Named to the 2017 Dow Jones Sustainability Index
MetLife was eligible for the DJSI North America, which recognizes a group of the top 20 percent of sustainability performers across the 600 largest U.S. and Canadian companies. MetLife was one of only seven insurers in North America to make the list.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
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No Internet? No Problem: Turning a Feature Phone Into a Digital Library Can Transform Lives
The cycle of poverty in developing countries is real and often riddled with misinformation. That's why the 3-2-1 Service on simple feature phones – which functions like a search engine without the internet – is so important. And people are willing to pay for it. This not only changes how users engage with their phone but also how international development agencies can engage with users to improve livelihoods.
- Categories
- Education, Entrepreneurship, Technology
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The Trump White House Gave These Mutual Funds a Big Boost
“This field is global in nature and has a tremendous amount of momentum,” says Jon Hale, director of sustainable investing research at Chicago-based Morningstar. “In some ways, the election has actually galvanized ESG investors.”
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North America
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Smart containers ready to disrupt the seafood industry
The seafood industry must comply with increasingly strict demands from consumers on sustainable seafood production. For that reason, a group of graduates have spent their summer at DNV GL developing smart “robot containers” with cooling systems that can sail to ports without any human interaction.
- Categories
- Technology
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Solar Lighting in Remote Rural Areas: Oversold or Truly Illuminating?
It's common wisdom that solar lighting can make a dent in serious problems plaguing the developing world. But the underwhelming social impact measured in a recent randomized controlled trial calls that belief into question. However, research conducted by Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, based on in-depth interviews with solar lighting users in Tanzania, found much more positive results. Thane Kreiner and Leslie Gray of Santa Clara University explore possible reasons for the disparate findings.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship
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Social Entrepreneurs, Ignore the Mantra of Focus at Your Own Peril
When SunFarmer went through Y Combinator in 2015, its founders heard a lot of startup wisdom, including the mantra of focus. But according to co-founder Andy Moon, the Nepal-based social enterprise ignored this advice – then struggled to sell multiple products to multiple customer segments simultaneously. Moon discusses what went wrong, and how his firm is regrouping.
- Categories
- Energy, Entrepreneurship
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