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SOCAP Recap: Biggest announcements from this year’s conference

The "Conservation Note" should protect large parcels of land from commercialization <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkercleaveland/1190467586/">Flickr, Adam Walker Cleaveland</a>

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Buy this forest! The Nature Conservancy puts idle capital to work for the planet

With its new "Conservation Note" initiative, the Nature Conservancy is giving back to those who give—with a guaranteed return on investment.

In India, the more important debate over Walmart may not be about whether it sells to the poor but whether it buys from them. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37936363@N00/2206316223/">Bobinson K B (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Poor Indians won't shop at Walmart - but will Walmart shop from them?

India's leaders say farmers will win big from last week's opening of the nation's retail market to multinationals.

India is subsidizing more than 100 million small-value insurance policies in an effort to help people treat health problems without falling into poverty. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nadya/4789818776/in/photostream/">Nadya Peek(flickr)</a>

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Financial Inclusion

India: Knocking the poor back on their feet with microinsurance

Hospitalization can save a life--at the cost, sometimes, of throwing it permanently off track. Two very different countries, India and the United States, recently chose a similar solution: subsidized insurance.

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Mobile Technology

Why the real threat to Apple will be the $15 iPad

As the world gets richer, competition for resources like water and livestock will likely increase. Photo: Erin Gray for MercyCorps

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Extreme poverty could end by 2030, but the planet might pay for it

The world’s soaring wealth will nearly wipe out poverty worldwide by 2030, according to the National Intelligence Council.

The frenetic pace of social impact bond imeplementation is matched only by the Saigon rush hour <a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonashansel/4548443949/">Flickr, Jonas Hansel</a>

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"Pay for success" is a hot new social impact financing tool, but does it work?

Countries and investors are lining up to implement a new way to fund social services, but with few existing projects and scant evidence that it works.

Children enjoying a book Photo: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/44681455@N00/2969510/”>Stitch (Flickr)</a>

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Competitive reading: Philippine reading contests boost student scores

Raising students' reading ability takes only a month when competition is involved.

SWEETLab director Evan Thomas shows an example of the remote sensors developed in his lab. Photo: Evan Thomas/Portland State University

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How a Portland lab uses remote sensors to measure how aid projects work

Sensors on latrines, cook stoves and water filters help monitor aid projects, and a carbon credit financing scheme generates revenue to scale-up of future projects.

The ReadySet charging kit includes a velo bicycle generator as well as a solar panel. Photo: Fenix.

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‘Trickle-up innovation’: A solar charger for the poor helps the rich, and vice versa

A pair of entrepreneurs who set out to design a solar charger for electricity-starved Ugandans has unexpectedly created a product popular with American consumers.

Global corporations and NGOs made commitments towards environmental protection and poverty reduction at the Rio+20 conference. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cgiarclimate/7415461108/sizes/m/in/photostream/">CGIAR Climate (flickr)</a>

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Who failed in Rio? The public sector, not the private

Government negotiations largely failed at the Rio+20 UN conference on sustainable development last month. But private sector players led the way with strong commitments for the immediate future.

As the world's consumers get richer, older, more urban and more demanding, small companies will see more and more rewards for exporting their goods. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/5978367807/in/photostream/">USDA (Flickr)</a>

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How 'itty-bitty multinantionals' can serve the world's rising middle class

The global consumer market is changing, and big companies are taking notice.

From nuclear to coal, power plants turn their turbines by heating and cooling water. When water starts out warm, this gets less efficient. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagalute/5127578547/in/photostream/">Bjoern Schwartz (Flickr)</a>

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Why warmer water will drive up poor people's electric bills

Impacts of energy use on climate change are widely discussed, but what about the other way around?

Gisele Bundchen and Masai warrior Keseme Ole Parsapaet in Amercan Express (RED) advert. Photo: <a href="http://www.newint.org/features/2006/11/01/productred/">American Express</a>

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All the sinners saints? Why Bono's (RED) can't redeem Western consumers

Product (RED) is a flawed market-based poverty solution that distracts from the need for genuine innovation in corporate business models, argue Brand Aid authors Lisa Richey and Stefano Ponte.

Social services provided by aid agencies at refugee camps just outside the Myanmar border should not be ended too swiftly, or returning populations won't be ready to access new opportunities that may await them. Photo: Jacqueline M. Koch for Mercy Corps

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Reform in Myanmar brings growth but needs caution

Reforms and investment are opening new doors and promising growth for Myanmar. But what’s exciting for some Burmese and the West brings a downside for many refugees.