Acumen Fund - Measuring market-based approaches

Market-based approaches, which can sustainably provide needed goods and services once donor dollars have dried up, must be a part of the solution to the problems of poverty. However, building new models that provide such goods and services at affordable prices – in the face of high transaction costs, poor distribution systems, dispersed customers, limited financing options and, often, corruption – requires imaginative business solutions and partnerships supported by investors willing to take risks that traditional financiers will not take.