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Improving Financial Solutions for Women Micro-Entrepreneurs: A Report Highlights Key Focus Areas for Microfinance Providers
The disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women is well-established – and for women micro-entrepreneurs, these impacts are compounded by existing business, financial and household challenges. Brit Heiring at Kiva and Liz Larson at UNESCAP explore how microfinance institutions and other providers can design financial solutions that meet these entrepreneurs’ unique needs. They share data from a report that focuses on the realities facing women micro-entrepreneurs, and explore how financial service providers can effectively support them.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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This Agricultural Enterprise Is Helping Nigerian Farmers Expand Their Business
In 2015, farmer Sule Yohana joined Babban Gona, a social enterprise organization with a focus on providing expansion services to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Answering Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh with Skills Development, Artisan Training
Innovation is often associated with the newest technology or the latest app. But it also can be seen in the fresh application of a tried-and-true strategy – just in a new context. In Cox’s Bazar, a small town on the southeastern coast of Bangladesh, extreme poverty, a fraught socio-cultural landscape and the Rohingya refugee humanitarian crisis have exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and placed an unprecedented burden on women in the host communities. Sadiaa Haque and Samira Syed of BRAC explain how the organization is helping them bounce back through artisanal skills training and employment opportunities.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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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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Solar + Housing = Impact: Why Investors Should Boost Renewable Energy in Affordable Housing
When it comes to off-grid solar energy, we tend to think of market extremes such as rural poor people in developing countries without any electricity or well-off people in developed countries looking to charge up their Teslas. But Lori Chatman of Enterprise Community Loan Fund and Ismael Guerrero of the Denver Housing Authority detail a project to bring green power to public housing residents in the Mile High City. The project could serve as a model for impact investors looking to improve health, expand green jobs and earn a return.
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Entrepreneurship is a Skill, Not a Talent: The Power of the Group-Based Graduation Model
Village Enterprise implements a cost-effective, group-based, one-year graduation program for rural Africans who live on less than $1.90 per day. The organization believes that entrepreneurship is not just for the naturally business-minded, it's a skill like leadership or teamwork that can be fostered and learned. Its aim, therefore, is to unlock the potential of those who are entrepreneurs by nature and instill the skills of entrepreneurship in those who are not.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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The Other Capital in Impact Investing: Why Human Capital May Matter More than Money, and What Investors Can Do About It
Money is not enough for impact businesses to succeed, according to Paul Breloff of Shortlist; they need an answer to their human capital challenges to unlock their world-changing potential. Here he discusses why human capital matters, why it's being under-supported by impact investors and what it will take for more investors to see it for what it is – an area of great opportunity.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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A Toolkit to Identify Sustainable, Market-Based Energy Solutions in Off-Grid Areas
The MIT D-Lab, working with Mercy Corps, developed the Energy Assessment Toolkit to help organizations with strong connections in off-grid communities assess local energy needs, and select and implement market-based solutions that meet those needs. The toolkit includes surveys and interview guides that an organization can use to gather information from a range of stakeholders.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Entrepreneurship
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