Feedback Is Not a Fad
Listening to beneficiaries should be part and parcel of any initiative that seeks to help others. Part of a series produced for SSIR with the support of the Hewlett Foundation.
Poverty
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Streamlining a Foundation Initiative’s Grant Practices
How the Hewlett Foundation’s Madison Initiative has redesigned its grantmaking process to make life easier for both its staff and its grantees.
Money for Nothing?
In the Netherlands, a modest experiment in welfare policy taps into a very big idea: universal basic income.
A Strong Field Framework for SIBs
A look at the strengths and weaknesses of the US Social Impact Bond field framework, and where we need to build capacity to establish SIBs as a viable financial tool.
Impact Investors Are Raising Their Game
To bring impact investing into the mainstream, the World Economic Forum is using market-simulated games to advance the conversations.
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Design Thinking for Social Innovation
By working closely with the clients and consumers, design thinking allows high-impact solutions to social problems to bubble up from below rather than being imposed from the top.
The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee
Fair Trade-certified coffee is growing in sales, but strict certification requirements are resulting in uneven economic advantages for coffee growers and lower quality coffee for consumers.
Microfinance Misses Its Mark
Despite the hoopla over microfinance, it doesn't cure poverty. But stable jobs do. If societies are serious about helping the poorest of the poor, they should stop investing in microfinance and start supporting large, labor-intensive industries.
In Microfinance, Clients Must Come First
Few microfinance institutions articulate what, exactly, their ultimate goals are and how to achieve them. If the goal of microfinance is to alleviate poverty, the authors say, then MFIs should focus on helping their clients build successful enterprises, rather than on making more and bigger loans.
Romanticizing the Poor
Market solutions to poverty, which include services and products targeting consumers at the “bottom of the pyramid,” portray poor people as creative entrepreneurs and discerning consumers. Yet this rosy view of poverty-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful.