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Meat Every Day: How a Rwandan Entrepreneur Aims to Satisfy Africa’s Changing Appetites
Some predict that, by the end of the century, 13 African cities will surpass New York City in population. As African economies grow and their citizens become more urbanized, their standards of living and meat consumption are also likely to increase. This shift will reshape the continent's agriculture industry – and entrepreneurs like Herve Tuyishime are responding. Tuyishime explains how his two interrelated businesses are helping satisfy Africans' growing appetite for meat, and bringing Rwandan farmers into the supply chain.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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Purifying Water Using a Ceramic Pot in Uganda
When the well is contaminated: The Purifaaya pot, made by Spouts of Water, is 99.9% effective and its water is potable, say Ugandan authorities
- Categories
- WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- SDGs, social enterprise
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Up to 2.5 Billion People Need Glasses: Can This Hardware Innovation Deliver?
Roughly 25 percent of the global population needs glasses, but lacks access. The problem isn't cost: Affordable glasses are readily available in emerging markets. What's lacking are trained eye care specialists. The social startup PlenOptika is tackling that issue with a device called the QuickSee: a binocular-sized autorefractor that non-specialists can use to scan a patient’s eyes and produce an eyeglass prescription within seconds. Paul Scott, director of engineering for ASME, discusses the innovation, and the challenges and rewards of running a social hardware startup.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
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The Funder Problem: Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
Despite their good intentions, funders are often the biggest barriers to social enterprises or nonprofits achieving impact. Open Road Alliance, a philanthropic initiative that gives emergency grants to impact-focused organizations, gathered and analyzed five years of data about roadblocks faced by over 100 grantees. Nearly half of the problems the group found were caused by funders. Laurie Michaels describes the three categories of funder-related barriers that account for the most frequent challenges – and offers some surprisingly easy fixes.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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SAARC fund to launch social enterprise programme in India and 7 other member nations
SDF is in the process of launching the SEDP as part of its social window, Motiwal said in an interview to PTI.
- Region
- South Asia
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UN says Asia’s social enterprises face $2.5T funding gap
To address the $2.5 trillion funding gap in Asia, the United Nations is counting on the private sector to support social enterprises.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Making the Case for Early-Stage Impact Investing
In many emerging markets, social entrepreneurs are financing their ventures with personal funds and high-interest loans - mainly because it's so tough to grow out of the startup phase without being able to show financial returns. The nonprofit Beyond Capital Fund provides pro bono advisory services to help investee enterprises establish and implement operating procedures and regular impact reporting systems, writes CEO Eva Yazhari. She explains how these formalized structures lend credibility and stability to sustain the businesses and attract potential investors - functions that are often lacking in the impact investing ecosystem.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Younger Entrepreneurs Choose Social Impact As Their Top Business Priority
One in five entrepreneurs considers social responsibility, being active in the community, or environmental responsibility as their top priority as a business owner, rather than prioritising areas such as maximising shareholder value or economic prosperity.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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