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Making Microfinance More Effective

Harvard Business Review

A major challenge for international development efforts is determining which financial tools provide durable buffers against such setbacks. The Grameen model of microfinance gained a great deal of attention in the international development field after early data showed that it was associated with high repayment and low default.

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Can Technology End Poverty?

Harvard Business Review

If you believe the hype, technology is going to help us end global poverty. Berkeley researcher Kentaro Toyama has a blog dedicated to calling out naïve or inappropriate uses of information and communication technologies (ICT). To do that, it's vital that technology be suitable and relevant to the lives of its users.

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Can Technology End Poverty?

Harvard Business Review

If you believe the hype, technology is going to help us end global poverty. Berkeley researcher Kentaro Toyama has a blog dedicated to calling out naïve or inappropriate uses of information and communication technologies (ICT). To do that, it's vital that technology be suitable and relevant to the lives of its users.

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Transforming Rural India Through Agricultural Innovation

Harvard Business Review

On my last trip to India, I witnessed an innovation experiment, National Agro Foundation (NAF) , that addresses this wicked problem. A large part of NAF’s effort with farmers is to help break their initial emotional barriers to new technologies. This has provided the platform to launch into other initiatives.

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3 Things Driving Entrepreneurial Growth in Africa

Harvard Business Review

Fatigue may be setting in for some Western investors’ interest in African innovation, particularly those that have yet to reap rewards to brag about. Another reason is that investors are myopically infatuated with snazzy technology. Innovation in Distribution. Top of the Pyramid.

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Scaling Up Without Losing Your Edge

Harvard Business Review

Schumacher, one of the fathers of the Green movement, declared that "small is beautiful" and called for "a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful." Likewise, BRAC grew into a chaebol or conglomerate for social development. So BRAC got into food processing.

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How Social Entrepreneurs Can Have the Most Impact

Harvard Business Review

And Bill Gates announced he was shifting his priorities from software development to social impact by moving full time to his foundation. Note: This post is adapted from my remarks at Babson College’s 2014 Lewis Institute Social Innovator Awards. In the broader U.S. Lead collaborations, not just organizations.