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An Entrepreneur’s View: WorldHaus, A Prototype for Progress in Global Housing
After months of planning and securing the prototype location in the outskirts of Chennai, India, we were ready to build in late summer of 2011. We begin our first housing development next month and aim to build over 500 houses by the end of the year.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing, rural development
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Why the Failure of the Nano Has Been a Success
The Tata Nano’s launch failed by nearly every measure, including highly publicized flame outs of just purchased cars. Yet the $2,000 Nano gave companies thinking about emerging segments in emerging markets something to talk about. The hype caused firms of many sizes and industries to plan or imagine how their products might someday reach the poor.
- Categories
- Finance
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Affordable Housing for All – In Our Lifetime
In order to fix broken affordable housing value chains, each player needed to move from a mindset where they were competing for a limited ?wallet share, to one in which multiple players ? each with different assets to make the wallet actually expand in size - came together in significant and increasing numbers to overcome major obstacles.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing
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Housing Series: The Critical Shift Toward Asset Building
For over two decades, the partnership between the Citi Foundation and Habitat for Humanity International relied heavily on a "one house, one family," volunteer house-building model. But a shift to a strategy that increases the supply of financial products and services that accelerate financial inclusion is urgently needed.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
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Housing Series: The Case for Housing Support Services
Access to finance and secure tenure has been shown to be the most effective catalysts for self-help incremental housing improvements. But while they are essential, even together, they are not sufficient to improve the living conditions for many of the world’s low-income populations.
- Categories
- Finance
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NextThought Monday: Creative Ways to Boost Youth Entrepreneurship
The risks of investing in young entrepreneurs are well known: inexperienced managers, murky business plans, overly optimistic views of the market, etc., etc. Youth Business International (YBI) recently issued Closing the Gap, a report that pulled together several case studies showing how the finance gap can be bridged for young entrepreneurs.
- Tags
- youth
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NextThought Monday Gearing Up for SOCAP11: Milaap’s Service-Focused Journey
Anoj Viswanathan is co-founder of Milaap, a pioneering online platform that enables people across the world to lend to India’s working poor. He drew inspiration from Lilla Watson?s quote, ?if you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- microfinance
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Nexthought Monday: Social Impact Bonds? An Innovative Mechanism for Social Change
Cut costs and increase effectiveness of social programs? Any government would probably sign up to a deal that combines both right away! And this is one of the key thoughts behind the Social Impact Bond concept developed and recently piloted by UK-based Social Finance. A closer look at how they work and what they could mean for social impact.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact bonds
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