In India, and also in Africa, there are several services for farmers. They can send a question by SMS, and will get a reply. How to fight certain plant diseases, or which crop is best to plant in a season. Some examples are mKrishi in India, and Farmer's Friend in Uganda. The latter is a cooperation between Grameen Foundation, Google and MTN.

Inspiration | Tagged by 1 person

When seeking investments for Social Businesses, it’s important to remember that the wealthy are not the only ones who can help. In fact, while a wealthy individual can donate a higher absolute amount, studies have shown that those with average means are often donating a higher % of their own incomes. And of course, there are many more people of average means vs. those with significant wealth. The power of raising funds through small contributions from many individuals has been demonstrated everywhere from politics (Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign setting numerous new record amounts raised by small donations, enabling him to be the 1st major-party presidential candidate to turn down general election public financing) to microfinance (Kiva has raised ~$225 million for almost 600K working poor individuals, though individual no-interest loans that are as small as $25 and average ~$240).

Concept | Tagged by 1 person

OpenIDEO has partnered with the Holistic Social Business Movement (HSBM) of Caldas – a joint venture between the Grameen Creative Lab and the Government of Caldas, Colombia – to consider how social businesses can improve the health of low-income communities in Colombia and around the world. Together, with your help, we hope to develop a set of implementable and high impact solutions to support and promote social business development and improve health in low-income areas like Caldas, where 26% of the population lives in extreme poverty.

Challenge | Tagged by 1 person