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Four Insights for Better Measurement: What Businesses Can Learn from the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
In the public and nonprofit sectors, comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches are increasingly common – but many small and growing businesses (SGBs) lack the time and resources for these practices. Heather Esper, director of the Performance Measurement and Improvement team at the William Davidson Institute, shares four key data collection and measurement insights from the public and nonprofit worlds that businesses — particularly SGBs — can leverage to improve their decision-making and maximize the social and financial value of their data.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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Monitoring and Evaluation in E-Learning: Five M&E Practices to Measure and Boost the Impact of Online Education Programs
Educational institutions, businesses, nonprofits and other organizations have turned to e-learning during the COVID-19 crisis, and these approaches are likely to remain prevalent in a post-pandemic world. According to Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi of the William Davidson Institute and Salma Elbeblawi of Soliya, virtual exchange is an area of particular interest and innovation within the broader online education space. They share five key monitoring and evaluation insights that can strengthen these programs in real time – and that can be applied to a variety of e-learning programs.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Technology
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Flipping the Script: Why Small and Growing Businesses Should Lead the Researchers – Not the Other Way Around
All too often, global development research hinges on the interest of researchers, rather than the knowledge needs of small and growing businesses and their impacted communities. This can leave entrepreneurs with plenty of reports, but no practical tools for continuing to collect and use data themselves. Analysts at the William Davidson Institute, Gente Del Futuro, Practical Action and ANDE propose a better approach: letting small businesses lead the way.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Keeping Food on the Table During COVID-19: How Refugee Entrepreneurs Have Stayed Afloat – and Thrown a Lifeline to Others
The COVID-19 crisis has hit the food sector particularly hard, with far-reaching implications for both enterprises and the people they supply with food during the lockdown. Amy Gillett at the William Davidson Institute and Johanna Mendelson Forman at the Stimson Center discuss three key developments that are allowing food sector entrepreneurs to pivot to new business models that can help them weather these challenges.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship
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Is Vertical Integration Good or Bad for Off-Grid Energy Access? Let’s Get Specific
Pay-as-you-go off-grid energy business models are often vertically integrated, including elements of manufacturing, distribution, consumer financing, payment collection and after-sales service. But some believe it's more cost-effective to outsource many of these aspects of the business model to service providers. Paul Clyde and Colm Fay at WDI argue that vertical integration is neither inherently good, nor bad: They explore its history, and its advantages and disadvantages for the nascent off-grid energy industry.
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- Energy, Entrepreneurship
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Delivering Family Planning to Rural Customers: Are Mobile Pharmacies ‘Just What the Doctor Ordered’?
Pharmacies serve as key access points for family planning products in many emerging markets. In countries like Malawi, the number of pharmacies has ballooned by nearly 100% in the past 10 years. Yet it can be difficult to run a sustainable pharmacy business, especially in rural areas. Andrea Bare and Erika Beidelman at the William Davidson Institute discuss potential solutions – including an innovative mobile pharmacy – based on conversations with Malawian entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care
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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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A New Battleground: Why Health Care Companies in Low and Middle-Income Countries Will Challenge Today’s Market Leaders
There's no question that today’s low- and middle-income countries will be a major part of health care businesses' portfolios. The only question, writes Paul Clyde, president of the William Davidson Institute, is which businesses will succeed at serving these customers. With local firms in these growing markets already competing for low-income customers, Clyde argues that multinationals will need to invest, sometimes weathering losses, to stay competitive.
- Categories
- Health Care
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