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Being a Changemaker in an Era of Accelerating Change: A Q&A with Ashoka Founder and Social Entrepreneurship Pioneer Bill Drayton
NextBillion last interviewed Bill Drayton — the founder of Ashoka and a seminal figure in the social entrepreneurship movement — on the sidelines of SOCAP almost 10 years. Since that time, the sector (and the world around us) have experienced massive change, but one thing has remained consistent: Drayton’s focus on empowering changemakers around the world to transform their innovative ideas into lasting impact. Earlier this year, he was given the Skoll Foundation’s Global Treasure Award in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the field of social entrepreneurship: In this Q&A, he shares his thoughts on the sector as it enters a new era full of emerging challenges — and exciting opportunities.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Analysis: Local Leaders Are Driving Systems Change. Philanthropy Must Follow.
Now is the time for funders to back local leaders who are making lasting improvements to people's lives and the systems that shape them, even amidst global disruption.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Global
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US $80 Million Partnership to Boost Learning and Strengthen Ghana’s Education System
Private and philanthropic partners, known as SCALE (System Change Architecture for Learning Excellence), have announced a major new investment in the country’s education system during a partnership signing event in Accra.
- Categories
- Education
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Current Approach to Scaling Impact Capital isn’t Working: Why Addressing the Polycrisis Requires More ‘Impact-Native’ Capital
Impact investing must scale if it hopes to address the interconnected social and environmental problems that comprise the global polycrisis. Yet as Tripp Baird at Builders Fund explains, a substantial amount of "impact" capital flows to large asset aggregator financial institutions whose impact and ESG-branded funds include investments in unaligned or actively counter-productive assets — e.g., sustainability funds that invest in mining companies — making it virtually impossible to effect lasting change. He argues that purpose-driven investors should choose “impact-native” investment firms, which provide a real alternative to the extractive and short-term focus of traditional capital markets.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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A Milestone in the Modernization of Indian Healthcare: How Digital Integration is Transforming the Country’s Health System
India's Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), launched in 2021, is working to create a national digital health ecosystem by leveraging the country’s existing IT infrastructure and technologies. As Nivedita Mishra and Rashika Anand at Sambodhi Research and Communications explain, the mission represents a significant step toward modernizing India’s healthcare system. They explore ABDM's work from a health systems perspective, highlighting the existing gaps and wider systemic challenges it's addressing, and discussing the strategies it's using to foster a resilient digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage.
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- Health Care, Technology
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Viewpoint: Entrepreneur as Agent of Social Impact and Its Implications on Development Work
Development work often requires long-term, patient processes that involve gradual community engagement, trust-building, and the slow but steady implementation of programs that address root causes rather than just symptoms.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Global
- Tags
- impact investing, scale, SDGs, startups, systems change
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Introducing Miller Center for Global Impact: A Bold Step Toward 2030
This change is more than just a new name. It represents an evolution in how they approach impact and a deep commitment to their 2030 strategy.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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Africa’s Startups Need Patient Capital: Could the African Diaspora Help Provide it?
African startup funding amounts to a tiny fraction of global venture capital (VC), and these investments are often concentrated on sectors like fintech and e-commerce. As a result, as Kristin H. Wilson at Innovate Africa Fund argues, African founders often lack the capital and incentive to tackle the continent’s biggest development challenges. She proposes a new approach to funding innovative African-made solutions to these issues — one that leverages the capital and entrepreneurial expertise of the African diaspora.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
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