The Next Mobile Revolution: Boosting Women's Entrepreneurship via Mobile Money
For Marion, the challenge of starting her own business was not lack of initiative – she had plenty – but rather dearth of start-up capital. At 20-years old, Marion dropped out of school because she didn’t have sufficient school fees. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she lives, this is a common trend for many […]
The Next Mobile Revolution: Boosting Women’s Entrepreneurship via Mobile Money
For Marion, the challenge of starting her own business was not lack of initiative – she had plenty – but rather dearth of start-up capital. At 20-years old, Marion dropped out of school because she didn’t have sufficient school fees. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she lives, this is a common trend for many […]
BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, visits lendwithcare.org entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina
In early December BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, accompanied staff from The Co-operative and CARE to visit female entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina who have received microloans through lendwithcare.org. DAY ONE So here we are, arrived in Sarajevo. I’ve been given an amazing tour of the city by lendwithcare.org’s local microfinance partner and CARE Bosnia. Then straight […]
The challenges facing women micro entrepreneurs
Lendwithcare.org, CARE International Women microentrepreneurs face many difficulties in developing their businesses: lack of appropriate skills, lack of mobility and lack of infrastructure may all pose significant challenges. In such instances the provision of microfinance to address the problem of lack of capital may have a limited effect unless steps are taken to address other […]
Has the debate on microfinance made us forget about the poor?
Ines ©Nancy Thomas/CARE The microfinance community can be a confusing and contradictory place. Ever growing and buzzing, it is a community built upon grand ‘for’ and ‘against’ statements, a place that is bursting at the seams with facts and figures and a place, let’s face it, that leaves even the most persistent of ‘truth-seekers’ feeling […]
Microfinance over the last 10 years: Reflections and suggestions for the future
lendwithcare.org The UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Microfinance recently celebrated 10 years’ of raising awareness of microfinance and the role it can play in reducing poverty. At an event, hosted by CARE International, Dr Ajaz Khan (lendwithcare.org‘s Microfinance Advisor) reflected on the last 10 years and made some suggestions for the future. Since the […]
Alive & Kicking – Africa’s Ball Maker Enters New Markets
It is increasingly acknowledged that growth in manufacturing is key to reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The 120 – 150 jobs sustained by stitching sports balls in Kenya and Zambia, with up to 50 more to come in Ghana, is a small but significant part of that crucial trend. With ‘Balls For Africa’ currently on […]
Alive & Kicking – Africa’s Ball Maker Enters New Markets
It is increasingly acknowledged that growth in manufacturing is key to reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The 120 – 150 jobs sustained by stitching sports balls in Kenya and Zambia, with up to 50 more to come in Ghana, is a small but significant part of that crucial trend. With ‘Balls For Africa’ currently on […]
Fashioning Sustainability With Style
Photo: Sougha Designer Training Emirati Artisan Saima Al Mansoori Ayesha Mustafa, Founder and Director, Fashion ComPassion Fashion ComPassion was created as a retail platform for socially responsible fashion labels. Through a combination of online sales and distribution, pop-up shops and boutique exhibitions, a global marketplace is given access to the brands we work with and, […]
Stepping Away From the Rat Race to Give Back… for a Year
Employee volunteer programsare one thing, but what about centering your entire enterprise around service? It might sound like a pipe dream, but San Francisco-based Fuse Corps is making it happen. Fuse Corps is dedicated to helping entrepreneurial professionals spend a year supporting governors, mayors and community leaders across the country to drive meaningful social change. […]
Unlearning to innovate: 7 steps entrepreneurs need to know when getting into inclusive business
Dr. Fernando Casado Cañeque. Director, Centre of Partnerships for Development It is typically in crisis situations when the absence of political leadership becomes most evident. In such situations, it is also when social innovation becomes most needed. However, as a concept, for innovation to be really social, it should challenge current thinking models and recognize […]
THE LAST 500 FEET
By Paul Polak, Founder, iDE, Author Out of Poverty Developing new practical and profitable ways to cross the last 500 feet to the remote rural places where poor families now live and work is the first step towards creating vibrant new markets that serve poor customers. In rural Orissa, India, the women are not permitted […]
Paul Polak: The Last 500 Feet
By Paul Polak, Founder, iDE, Author Out of Poverty Developing new practical and profitable ways to cross the last 500 feet to the remote rural places where poor families now live and work is the first step towards creating vibrant new markets that serve poor customers. In rural Orissa, India, the women are not permitted […]
Planting the Seeds for Development
It has been eight years since Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work planting trees in Kenya. During that period, the Rio+ 20 conference has been and gone, Climate Change has finally come to be recognised as a serious worldwide threat, and terms such as ‘Green Growth’ have started to emerge. In […]
Women Mean Business: Supporting Enterprising Women
At Paper Craft Africa in the Bwebajja neighborhood of Kampala, Uganda, Harriet Nantale oversees a bustling workshop. Outside, employees soak and recycle paper, banana fiber and pineapple fiber, creating thick sheets of paper in vibrant colors. Inside, the team uses the paper and other recycled material to craft calendars, notebooks, cards, jewelry, soap and other […]
The Promise of Measuring Shared Value
Can something simultaneously be both a cliché and an emergent, nascent approach? Consider corporate approaches to working with smallholder farmers. This is fairly mainstream thinking in international development. We hear these examples at every conference and in every report on agricultural development. Companies create shared value by helping improve yields of critical crops such as […]
Building a new framework for youth entrepreneurship
From November 12 – 18, 35,000 events in 127 countries will take place during Global Entrepreneurship Week to inspire people to become a force for change. The time is right, as governments across the world are desperate to find solutions to the growing challenge of youth unemployment. High youth unemployment is no longer limited to […]
Helping Corporates achieve Sustainable Development Goals through new funding models
The innovative Carbon for Water programme unlocked private sector finance to deliver safe water to 4.5 million people a year. For 15 years, ClimateCare has worked with large blue chip organisations who, having taken steps to reduce carbon emissions and want to address their residual footprint, by funding external emission reduction projects. Our name is […]
Promoting New Thinking About Collaboration
Millions of Australians will end it comatose, as the annual Melbourne Cup tradition of drinking-your-entire-body-weight-in-beer-before-lunch will ensure that particular country’s collective outputs for 24 hours will be, at best, sub-optimal. As the table-top dancing down under comes to a close, the United States of America will awake to Election Day, with polls still saying the […]
Business, the MDGs and Beyond
The world has made more gains against poverty in the last 50 years than in the last 500. Since 1990, over six hundred million people have been lifted out of poverty. The world is within reach of seeing every child enrolled in primary school, and many fewer lives are being lost to hunger and disease. […]