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A Stock Exchange for Social Businesses and Ventures
Africa Good News -- Social investing, or socially responsible investing, means different things to different people and can be hard to define. Tamzin Ractliffe, the Chief Executive Officer for NeXii, describes it as, “strategies that aim to have a responsible mitigation impact on any negative consequences. It’s wanting to do no harm, making sure that you invest in a company that has good and responsible practices in regards to employees, the environment, and so on. In South Africa, social investing is essentially philanthropy.” According to Ractliffe, “impact investing is different from socially responsible investing in that is highly intentional in delivery of a social or environmental benefit.” Companies are set up to specifically address and find solutions to problems like poverty, climate change, and food security on a large scale...

Horn of Africa: What is Africa doing?
RNW -- After the UN raised the alarm bells on the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, it didn’t take long for aid organizations to rush to the affected regions. The press writes extensively about what these organizations do, but what is the role of Africa in this? Do neighbouring countries show solidarity? And what is the overarching role of the African Union in all this? AU: Limited resources. In a press release published two weeks ago, the African Union described being ‘deeply concerned by the drought situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa aid its humanitarian consequences’. The AU said it would review the situation and identify additional steps. Thus far, the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has been providing medical assistance to those affected in Mogadishu....

4 Keys to developing charisma and authenticity
Become a Leader -- There’s a general consensus among experts that the leadership literature has tended to exaggerate the importance of charisma in most of the everyday tasks of leading—the primary exception being crisis situations, in which people depend heavily on an alpha leader to provide reassurance and direction. So communication and speech coach Nick Morgan appears to be going against the grain when he maintains that charisma, along with authenticity, are indispensable to the leader’s core task of inspiring and motivating others...

Economic development leaving millions behind
IPS -- "The emergence of new paths to development has [grown] along with the rise of middle- and low-income countries," Rebeca Grynspan, associate administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, said at the opening plenary here on Friday. "But we have seen that we can also have growth without inclusion. In Latin America, for example, one in every four young people is not studying or working - 25 percent out of the education system and out of the labour market. If that's not exclusion, then I don't know what is," she said. Referring to the fast-approaching 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Grynspan added, "Now we need to start thinking about growth without exclusion." Grynspan stressed that the empowerment of women was essential to the solid development of global international economies, a sentiment echoed by many others at the congress.