
Chicas Poderosas is a project aiming to train Latin American female journalists to become digital and tech-savvy leaders in their newsroom.
A forward-looking company is radically changing the rules of the game in the financial industry. This is the view advanced by Lenddo, a social enterprise started in 2011 with the goal of economically empowering the middle class in developing countries. Founded by Jeff Stewart and Richard Eldridge, two businessmen who formerly worked in the financial and technology industries, Lenddo is based in Hong Kong and has a data science team in New York City. Despite a small staff of only 66, the company has grown to more than 380,000 members in the Philippines, Colombia and Mexico in the past two years. This extraordinary success is due to the company’s innovative online model.
Resource efficiency in industrial processes is a key part of corporate social responsibility policies in developed countries. For almost 20 years, institutions have been promoting the same behavior in developing countries, arguing that investing in sustainable industrial processes is cost-effective, whatever the scale. How well does the Guatemala National Cleaner Production Centre’s work illustrate this point?
Social projects that once depended on aid from donor agencies are shifting to what are known as “sustainable businesses.” But to stay sustainable, they need funding. Fortunately, as social issues arise, investors have changed how they invest capital. Instead of the biggest profit revenue, they are looking for the biggest impact—not to mention the healthiest snacks. ISTANBUL, Turkey — Somewhere in the middle of the lush, green mountainous region of Ecuador, groups of farmers are harvesting tons of potatoes, beetroots, parsnips and plantains. But instead of selling them as raw crops, they convert them into certified healthy snacks.
For each of the past five years, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Microscope on the Microfinance Business Environment has ranked Peru as the world’s best climate for microfinance. But what does that mean at a grassroots level? Some say that this environment benefits creditors more than it does debtors.