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Solving the Educational Disparity in India: A Scalable Solution Leverages AI and Behavior Change to Reach Underserved Communities
Around 37 million Indian children lack access to any form of early education service. Vishal Sunil and Sushmita Roy at Rocket Learning discuss how their organization is addressing this issue through its learning platform, which leverages AI technology and WhatsApp to provide free educational tools to children and parents, while offering training and other resources to the daycare workers who play a key role in the country’s early childhood development landscape.
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- Education, Technology
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A Hidden Reason for Business Failure in Social Enterprise: Exploring Innovative Talent Solutions in Frontier Markets
Social enterprises need extraordinary talent and leadership to navigate the challenges of doing business in frontier markets. As Paul Breloff at Shortlist and Daniel Waldron and Coco Lim at Acumen explain, failure to find the right talent is a leading factor in company and investment failure — and top talent is in short supply, and often comes at a steep cost. They share learnings from Acumen and Shortlist's shared experience recruiting and retaining talent, exploring some innovative approaches that go beyond traditional full-time structures.
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- Social Enterprise
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Transforming Startup Financing: The Rise of Venture Debt and Alternative Finance in MENA
The venture capital ecosystem in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) experienced a 23% drop in funding and a 34% decline in the number of transactions closed in 2023. But as Reem Goussous at Village Capital and Dunya Bashiti at Capifly explain, alternative capital solutions are emerging to fill the gap — including venture debt, which reached $757 million in the region last year, a staggering 50-fold increase from 2020 levels. They explore how venture debt provides an important financing tool for early-stage, high-growth startups in MENA, enabling them to access funding without diluting their equity.
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- Investing
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Reversing Climate Change is Possible — But First, We Need to Democratise Climate Finance
Much of the current conversation around climate change focuses on the obstacles that make the problem so difficult to solve. But according to Kevin Kyer at Pyrpose, there are signs of hope, as a growing, global sense of urgency around the issue is driving consumers to embrace sustainable products and behaviors. He explores how emerging technologies and businesses are helping to reduce Co2 emissions — and how platforms like Pyrpose can help mobilize climate-conscious investors to direct climate finance to the most vulnerable parts of the world.
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- Environment, Investing
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More Data is Not the Answer: Why We Need to Reset Our Expectations for Impact Measurement and Management
Impact measurement and management (IMM) is gaining momentum. As Julia Mensink at Acumen explains, while the sector was once underfunded and under-emphasized, it is now taken much more seriously — not only by impact investors, but also by mainstream banks, pension funds and corporations. But she argues that this progress has brought with it some challenges, including investors' growing demand for rigorous impact data, regardless of the challenges this data collection and reporting may present to entrepreneurs. She proposes some ways investors can work with social enterprises to shift IMM from a burden to a means to greater impact.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Building Businesses, Rebuilding Lives: A Holistic Approach to Supporting Refugee Entrepreneurship
For refugees, running a business is often a big part of their efforts to rebuild their lives. Jacinta Mutie, Paul Karanja and Patrick Guyer at RefugePoint share learnings from RefugePoint‘s comprehensive refugee entrepreneurship support initiative, exploring how the program provides refugees with the stability, business skills and funding they need to move themselves and their households along their path towards self-reliance.
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- Education
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Promoting Financial Inclusion in the Caribbean: A Broken ATM in the Bahamas Reveals the Need for Digital Banking Solutions Across the Region
Imagine if your only access to your salary and savings depended on a single ATM. Now imagine that someone takes a hammer and smashes it up. As Nicholas Rees at Kanoo Pays explains, that was the situation facing a community in The Bahamas after vandals damaged the district’s sole ATM. He discusses the challenges experienced by remote, cash-dependent populations across the Caribbean, and explores how Kanoo Pays' digital wallet leverages offline payment capabilities and Central Bank Digital Currencies to address these customers' unique needs.
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- Finance, Technology
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Under-Leveraged Best Practices for Scaling Productive Use of Energy Appliances: Part 2 — Financing Options
Productive Use of Energy (PUE) appliances are the subject of growing attention in the development sector, but manufacturers and distributors are facing a number of challenges and misconceptions that are limiting uptake of these devices. In the second article of a two-part series exploring best practices for selling PUE appliances, Thomas Charoy and Lucie Klarsfeld McGrath at Hystra discuss the affordability challenge, sharing solutions for handling the high level of working capital and financial skills required to offer financing options to end-users.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Finance, Technology