NextBillion.net | Development Through Enterprise

Agriculture & Environment

A series of blog posts highlighting an important topic or trend in the development through enterprise community. In the most recent Big Idea series, NextBillion partnered with Ashoka to showcase affordable housing innovations.

Monday, April 01, 2013

NexThought Monday - Early Risks, Big Returns: What's next for Impact Investing series - rethinking what's 'investible'

By Paul Breloff

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TAGS:Impact Assessment, impact investing, investment fund, What's Next for Impact Investing

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

What's Next for Impact Investing - Facing Market Realities: Why the environment is the core of impact investing in China

By Tao Zhang

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TAGS:impact investing, investment fund, sustainability, What's Next for Impact Investing

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

What's Next for Impact Investing Series: : 5 Things You Need to Know About Impact Investing Metrics

By Lina M. Salazar Ortegón — Inter-American Development Bank

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TAGS:IDB, Impact Assessment, impact investing, metrics, Opportunities for the Majority, What's Next for Impact Investing

Monday, March 04, 2013

What's Next for Impact Investing : How to bridge the 'Pioneer Gap' and support entrepreneurs in the earliest stages

By Sachi Shenoy and Brian Arbogast

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TAGS:impact investing, investment fund, social capital, What's Next for Impact Investing

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Made to Measure? Understanding Investor Challenges with Social Impact Measurement: Two new publications explore the upsides and downsides of metrics platforms

By Hilary Best

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TAGS:Impact Assessment, impact investing, measurement, metrics, What's Next for Impact Investing

Monday, February 25, 2013

What's Next for Impact Investing?: The value of a formal fund structure to maximize impact

By Bob Webster

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TAGS:ANDE, impact investing, NGO, social impact, What's Next for Impact Investing

Monday, February 18, 2013

Special Series (Part 6): BPO for the BoP : Thoughts on moving impact sourcing forward

By Sateen Sheth — WDI

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, impact sourcing, poverty alleviation, Rockefeller Foundation, William Davidson Institute

Monday, February 11, 2013

Special Series (Part 5): BPO for the BoP – The Path Towards Sustainability and Scale: Lessons on Expansion from a Mature Impact Sourcing Provider

By Sateen Sheth — WDI

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TAGS:business development, employment, impact sourcing, skill development

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Identifying Digital Opportunities for African Youth

By Sarah Troup

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TAGS:employment, impact sourcing, Rockefeller Foundation, skill development, technology

Monday, February 04, 2013

Special Series (Part 4): BPO for the BoP – Work+Study=Job: Understanding of employment impact of a mid-stage Impact Sourcing Service Provider in Africa

By Sateen Sheth — WDI

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TAGS:business development, employment, impact sourcing, skill development

Monday, January 28, 2013

Special Series (Part 3): BPO for the BoP : The trials and successes of an early-stage Impact Sourcing Service Provider in Africa

By Ekta Jhaveri — WDI

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TAGS:business case, employment, impact sourcing, Rockefeller Foundation, William Davidson Institute

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Special Series (Part 2): BPO for the BoP – The need for (and promise of) Impact Sourcing

By Sateen Sheth — WDI

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TAGS:employment, Impact Assessment, impact sourcing, Rockefeller Foundation, skill development, water

Monday, January 21, 2013

Special Series (Part 1): BPO for the BoP – defining Impact Sourcing and its potential to boost employment opportunity

By Sateen Sheth — WDI

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TAGS:employment, impact sourcing, microenterprise, Rockefeller Foundation, skill development, technology, William Davidson Institute

Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Best of 2012: Using Mobile to Reach Scale

By Josh Cleveland

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, mobile applications, mobile phones, retail

Friday, December 14, 2012

A Light Bulb Goes On: A Major Innovation in Asset Finance: M-KOPA's model could illuminate other sectors

By Jake Kendall

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TAGS:microcredit, mobile applications, solar

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

A Growing Lifeline: Mobile Technologies in Agricultural Development

By Simon Winter

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TAGS:farmers, mobile applications, TechnoServe, telecommunications

Monday, October 08, 2012

A 5 Billion Mobile Workforce

By Eric Tyler

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TAGS:crowdsourcing, mobile applications, technology

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

THE BIG IDEA: Global Spread of Affordable Housing - Now Available in Spanish: Our e-book with Ashoka is available to download and focuses on solutions in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Jenny Melo

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Keep the Change: Lost Profits Offer Yet Another Reason Why Mobile Money is Better than Cash: A recent study shows African SMEs lose up to 8% in profits just fetching change

By Jake Kendall

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TAGS:mobile banking, small and medium enterprises

Thursday, September 20, 2012

How a Mobile Airtime Vendor Became Zimbabwe's Fastest-Growing Bank: EcoCash has reached a million subscribers in less than 6 months

By Erik Mandell — Mercy Corps

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TAGS:mobile applications, mobile banking, technology, telecommunications

Friday, July 20, 2012

Guest Post: @ Rio+20 True Engagement: Discussions on Bringing the BoP into Product Development, Marketing

By Filippo Veglio

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, conferences, events and competitions, leadership, multinational corporation

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Achieving Green and Inclusive Markets Through Public-Private Collaboration: A Bright Spot at Rio

By Giulia Christianson and Sreyamsa Bairiganjan

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TAGS:New Ventures, renewable energy, SME finance, sustainability, World Resources Institute

Monday, June 04, 2012

NexThought Monday: Mindful Metrics - A Conversation With GBF's Metrics Officer

By Michael Stulman

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TAGS:ANDE, Impact Assessment, measurement, metrics

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Announcing Our New E-book: THE Big IDEA: Global Spread of Affordable Housing

By Scott Anderson — WDI

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, NGO, social enterprise

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Big Idea: Why Hands-On Regulation of Mobile Money Could Be Dangerous

By Nathan Wyeth

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TAGS:consumer products, financial inclusion, mobile banking, technology, telecommunications

Thursday, March 01, 2012

The Big Idea: Taking Mobile Money Forward

By Eric Tyler

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TAGS:mobile banking, mobile phones, technology, telecommunications

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Big Idea: Domestic Remittances in Africa - Demand is There, Will the Teleco's Step Up?

By Jake Kendall

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TAGS:mobile banking, research

Monday, February 27, 2012

The Big Idea: (UPDATED) Simple Truths About Mobile Money

By Ignacio Mas

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TAGS:financial inclusion, mobile banking, mobile phones

Monday, December 26, 2011

Best Ideas of 2011: Green Economy and Green Growth

By Tracy Elsen

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TAGS:sustainability, World Resources Institute

Monday, December 19, 2011

Jane Goodall and Affordable Housing

By Rochelle Beck — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

TED's City 2.0 Prize - A Collective Wish 'Big Enough to Change the World'

By Rochelle Beck — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Affordable Housing for All - In Our Lifetime

By Valeria Budinich — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Housing Series: Empowering an Urban Community After Disaster

By Ted Baumann

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TAGS:affordable housing, urban

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Housing Series: The Critical Shift Toward Asset Building

By Irena Shiba — Citi Foundation

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TAGS:affordable housing, Citi Foundation, financial inclusion, Microfinance, supply chains

Friday, November 25, 2011

Housing Series: The Case for Bundling Housing Finance With Housing Support Services

By Steven Weir and Susana Rojas Williams

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TAGS:affordable housing, Microfinance

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Housing Series: The Case for Housing Support Services

By Steven Weir and Susana Rojas Williams

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TAGS:affordable housing, financial inclusion, urban

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Beauty of Bricks and Mortar: Low-cost Housing as a Foundation for Impact

By Aden Van Noppen

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TAGS:affordable housing, impact investing, patient capital

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Housing Series: Establishing Quality Standards for Affordable Housing

By Martina Wengle — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Monday, November 07, 2011

Housing Series: Sustainable Communities Generating Sustainable Habitats

By Francesco Piazzesi

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, rural development

Friday, November 04, 2011

Housing Series: Shelter After Disaster - Temporary Aid Or Pathway to a Better Future?

By Mario Flores

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Housing Series: The Power of Collecting Accurate Data

By Keerthi Kiran — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, technology

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Housing Series: From the Field, Reflections From Two Dow Corning Leaders on Building a BoP Market

By Ronda Grosse and Frank DeLano

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, Base of the Pyramid

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Housing Series: Why Dow Corning Sends Employees to Serve BoP Projects around the World

By Chip Reeves

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneur

Monday, October 31, 2011

Housing Series: Building a Strong Foundation, When Earthquakes Hurricanes Hit Affordable Housing

By Rochelle Beck — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, social enterprise

Friday, October 28, 2011

Housing Series: Strategies to Add Quality and Value to Incremental Home Improvement

By Sadna Samaranayake

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Affordable Housing for All Series: In the Race for Affordable Housing, Who Has the Head Start?

By Sadna Samaranayake

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, Base of the Pyramid

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Affordable Housing Series: The Rights to the Land Under Your Home

By André Albuquerque

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, urban

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Beyond Four Walls

By Melissa Scott

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka, Base of the Pyramid

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Enabling Safety in Self-Construction Practices: The Value Proposition for Technical Assistance

By Rakhi Mehra and Marco Ferrario

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TAGS:affordable housing, urban

Monday, October 17, 2011

The Pyramid Within the Pyramid: Segmenting the BoP Affordable Housing Market

By Vishnu Swaminathan — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Housing for All Series: Sizing Up the Affordable Housing Deficit

By Oliver Kayser and Lucie Klarsfeld

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Launching a New Series: The Global Spread of Affordable Housing

By Rochelle Beck — Ashoka

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TAGS:affordable housing, Ashoka

Friday, September 09, 2011

Why Should a Mainstream For-Profit Company Pursue an In-Kind BoP Partnership?

By Josh Cleveland

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, business development, social enterprise

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Mozambikes Pedals to Promote Development Via Low-Cost Bicycles

By Andrew Eder

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, consumer products, leadership, transportation

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

SOCAP11: Waste Management that Works

By Josh Cleveland

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TAGS:business development, poverty alleviation, sanitation, sustainability

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Accelerating BoP Development at the Intersection of CSR & Impact Investing

By Josh Cleveland

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, corporate social responsibility, impact investing

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Tough Love for Impact Investors - the Europe Session at SOCAP

By Martin Herrndorf

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TAGS:impact investing, social enterprise

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

What Does It Take to Build a Market? (An India Session @ SOCAP Europe)

By Martin Herrndorf

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, health care, impact investing, social impact

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

An Insider's Look at the NextBillion 2011 Case Writing Competition

By Nilima Achwal

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TAGS:Acumen Fund, business case, NextBillion.net, social enterprise, William Davidson Institute

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Ten Years From Now ... A Day With the SOCAP/Europe Entrepreneurs

By Martin Herrndorf

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TAGS:farmers, impact investing, solar, sustainability

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Winners Announced for the NextBillion 2011 Case Writing Competition

By Nilima Achwal

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TAGS:Acumen Fund, Ashoka, business case, NextBillion.net, William Davidson Institute

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Unleash Social Impact: Ashoka's Globalizer and Skoll World Forum

By Nilima Achwal

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TAGS:ANDE, social enterprise, social impact

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Reinvent Maternal Health: It's a Challenge

By Nilima Achwal

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TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, health care, public health

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Detroit: Emerging from the Ground Up

By Nilima Achwal

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TAGS:social development, social enterprise

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