entrepreneurship

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Social Enterprise

Meet MicroMentor, a free 'dating' website for business mentorship

MicroMentor is the OK Cupid of business mentorship sites--and it, too, is looking for new revenue streams.

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Social Enterprise

Pakistan patches up a startup culture tattered by disorder

With unrest stirring, Pakistan needs leaders to provide constructive answers to society’s challenges. Social entrepreneurs can do that, but they need mentors, says a recent report by the Economic Policy Group.

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Social Enterprise

Extreme by design: Film tracks the world's biggest little ideas

Innovative, life-changing products offer simple solutions to complex problems in impoverished places. But their conception is often anything but simple.

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Youth Skills

In the spotlight: Two female warriors of social innovation

Two leading ladies were recognized last week for using supreme social innovation to connect youth with technology.

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Financial Inclusion

A 'demographic window' of opportunity: Why youth need bank access now

The enormous economic potential of developing countries depends on their response to a global demographic shift--a response that'll fail without universal, affordable access to financial services.

A Mexican weaver stands behind his loom. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28703188@N02/4204678905/">Knoxville Museum of Art</a>

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Value Chains

As youth artisans struggle, NGOs beef up business training

A new generation of artisans in the Global South are getting entrepreneurial training with their craft skills.

African communities are becoming increasingly mobile-centric. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70292973@N07/7192931934/">The Reboot (flickr)</a>

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Youth Skills

Windows to the world: Why Microsoft's $75 million mobile drop matters

Microsoft will spend $75 million to put tens of millions of smart devices into the hands of African youth by 2016, the company announced Monday.

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Social Enterprise

'Social franchising' is hot, but it's easier said than done

Luvuyo Rani, a teacher-turned-entrepreneur, hopes to lead a computing revolution with his low-cost internet cafes.

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Youth Skills

Rural youth seek greener pastures in the city, but farming could get hot

Even on the farm, it pays to be young, but every year, young people are "escaping" their hometown rural communities to seek the "greener pastures" of city life. Meanwhile, global buyers of commodities such as coffee and cocoa beans worry about the aging farming workforce.

The agricultural sector accounts for a significant portion of Nigeria's GDP, but youth don't find it an attractive job. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/5418217343/">The National Archives UK (Flickr)</a>

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Youth Skills

Waiting for a white-collar job: a sure way to extend unemployment in Nigeria

The Kwara state government in Nigeria is promoting traditional vocations in an effort
to change young minds uninterested in any position outside the glamorous white-collar
realm.

In Kenya, young people open small businesses to improve their communities such as this tea nursery and mushroom farm. Photo: <a href="http://www.mercycorps.org/photoessay/2012accomplishments#photo-10">Salma Bahramy/Mercy Corps</a>

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Youth Skills

Youth-led programs: A fresh perspective to solve youth unemployment

A new set of youth employment programs is built on the proposition that the best people to design such programs are young people themselves.

It's hard to get anything to remote parts of Bangladesh--even information. But one nonprofit is using upsells to get there. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/39049548@N05/4162422293/">jankie</a> via <a href="http://compfight.com">Compfight</a>.

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Value Chains

Can 'freemium' services pay for small-business training in Bangladesh?

A new business model pioneered by the IT industry is helping pay to spread information in more old-fashioned ways through rural Bangladesh.

Malawian boys are proud of their family's dairy cows. Photo: Jennifer Hyman/Land O'Lakes International Development

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Value Chains

Land O'Lakes finds success with dairy micro co-ops in Malawi

The top US dairy cooperative has brought decades of expertise to Malawi, creating micro co-ops that pool their milk for purchase by one of the country's largest processors.

Solar Sister entrepreneurs earn commissions for the sale of solar energy products to people who need them. Photo: <a href="http://www.solarsister.org/">Solar Sister</a>

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Sustainable Energy

Solar Sister: Lighting up livelihoods from one sister to another

A recent CNN article explains how one group in east Africa aims to help women create economic opportunities and eradicate energy poverty at the same time through commission-based sales of solar products

World Inequality Database on Education: Haiti Data <a href="http://www.education-inequalities.org/">visualized</a> helps program designers know who to target.

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Youth Skills

Who needs education most? A new data source visualizes it

In the race to be qualified for good jobs the starting line is jagged-some youth start further ahead than others. The best programs use data to smooth the line out.