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Distribution, the Key to Unlocking the Development Toolbox: D-Prize offers $20,000 awards for start-ups with innovative distribution models across sectors
A new organization, D-Prize, believes entrepreneurs can scale up access to poverty solutions, and is backing the belief with $200,000 in available seed capital. Do you have an idea for a new distribution-focused venture? Submit your concept for a new venture that solves distribution challenges, and potentially win an award up to $20,000 to launch a pilot.
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- Uncategorized
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Why Reinvent the Wheel?: New BIF report looks at adapting existing infrastructure for distribution to the BoP
For those of us at Business Innovation Facility working directly with the companies managing these problems, it’s clear that most cookie-cutter solutions to distribution do not work. In the latest of our ‘Inside Inclusive Business’ series, BIF goes beyond theoretical solutions and focuses on some of the more innovative channel strategies we discovered during our engagement with companies.
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- Uncategorized
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Honey Care Africa’s Evolution : A video Q&A with CEO Madison Ayer on managing the challenges of beekeeping at scale
Honey Care Africa has worked with more than 15,000 farmers and helped to create 30,000 modern beehives across East Africa. It has been recognized as pioneer in the social enterprise, but CEO Madison Ayer said three years ago the company had to confront market realities to truly thrive.
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- Agriculture, Education
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Mandatory CSR in India : A bad idea from left, right and center
The lower house of the Indian parliament has passed a new Companies Bill that requires companies above a certain size to ensure that they spend at least 2 percent of annual profits on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Ernst & Young, the audit and advisory company, estimates that the law would cover about 3,000 companies in India and about $2 billion of expenditures on CSR activities.
Looked at from the perspective of the political right, and the left, and the center, the proposed law is a really bad idea.- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Meet MicroMentor, a Free ‘Dating’ Site for Business Mentorship
A business networking site might seem like an odd duck in the portfolio of its owner, Mercy Corps, an international NGO. But MicroMentor provides an affordable solution, especially for microentrepreneurs from low-income backgrounds. It’s already served more than 10,000 entrepreneurs.
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- Technology
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What Nepalese Mountaineers Can Teach You About Business
Sherpas are famous for trekking to the summit of Mount Everest. But one entrepreneur says they have much to teach the business world.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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Good show! How an NGO convinced commercial TV to serve the poor
Information is power, but only if people have access to it. In 2006, a Swiss NGO teamed with Indonesian media to bring that power to small businesses.
The program, Cabe Rawit, premiered to commercial success and a great deal of viewer interest. It increased profits for businesses featured on the program by an average of 18 percent, and managed to draw more than half its funding from outside the NGO.- Categories
- Education
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Eight Meters Squared: A Colombian startup aims to help small producers at the BoP
In Colombia, $2.8 billion in international aid money is currently being allocated for 2,560 projects. Of this amount, only three percent goes toward strengthening productivity and competition. As a result, many of these projects fail because they stop generating profits when their products don’t sell. Eight Meters Squared (8M2) seeks to change this by supporting vulnerable communities in marketing their products.
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- Social Enterprise
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