I somehow missed this when it happened, but it’s such great news, I’m still passing it along.  Ann Cotton, who founded 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur Camfed, has been honored as one of the UK Women of the Year.  As part of this, she recieved the Window to the World award from Sarah Brown, the wife of the UK prime minister. The award “salutes women whose courage and determination has brought much-needed attention to an international issue – in Ann’s case, the lack of educational opportunity for girls in rural Africa.”

Ann penned a column this week for the FT in which she talks about the value of having partnered with the FT’s the last two years on its seasonal appeal, as well as the inspiration she continues to derive from the African girls she works with.  She also talks a bit about the Windows to the World award ceremony.

Pamela Hartigan, co-author of “The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entreprenuers Create Markets that Change the World,” is blogging on Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership blog about social entrepreneurship.  We blogged about her first post here.  She’s now got a second post up (of a planned five five).  This one references Barefoot College, a 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur.  The focus is on sustainability, and she argues social entrepreneurs, including folks like Barefoot’s Bunker Roy, really understand what creates sustainablity and promote programs that are designed so that men and women “at the grassroots are systematically supported to become the guardians of their own futures.”

The Skoll Foundation has worked with FRONTLINE/World to promote social entrepreneurs through a series of films highlighting successful social entrepreneurial initiatives around the world.  In September, FRONTLINE/World struck up a partnership with the American Library Association to create a traveling film festival to bring the social entrepreneurs series to libraries and communities across the country. FRONTLINE/World distributed $500 grants to support the screenings to a mix of both large and small public and academic libraries that are participating in the film program.

The program includes four featured profiles that show a range of creative solutions and services developed by social entrepreneurs, as well as a special guide to help facilitate discussion with community and college-level audiences. In addition, there is a classroom guide to support educators teaching in grades 6-12. Libraries also receive a disc with the complete 17 film Social Entrepreneurs Series arranged by subject areas and by country/region of the world.

The road show is ongoing and has been integrated into social entrepreneur activities and curricula at a number of universities and public libraries.  At Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, it focused on social entrepreneurs in Michigan who make a difference both locally and internationally through innovative ventures.  The Caldwell Public Library in Caldwell, NJ, hosted a film screening in partnership with Teach for America (a Skoll social entrepreneur partner through their Teach for All initiative) which was attended by a wide-ranging audience - teens, college students, high school teachers, college professors, and members of the community.  The library at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville hosted two screenings of programs from the social entrepreneurs series, using the content as a hook for discussions involving the Director of the Innovative Social Impact Initiative in the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at UF and  the “Change the World: Student Social Entrepreneurs at UF” group.

And you’re not too late to catch this, if you’re in the right place.  St. Louis University is tapping into the program as part of its Sustainable and Ethnical Development Forum on Thursday, Nov. 20.  There’s a special focus on water supply. Click here for details.

Earlier this week, Skoll social entreprenuer Ceres and several partners put out an announcement around growing investor demands for urgent policy progress on climate change.  The initiative was coordinated by three leading investor groups on climate change:  the US-based Investor Network on Climate Risk, headed by Ceres’ Mindy Lubber, the European Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, and the Investors Group on Climate Change in Australia and New Zealand.  135 leading institutional investors, representing more than $6.4 trillion in assets, signed a joint statement to head of governments and climate negotiators calling for “a strong, binding framework to succeed the Kyoto Protocol” and warning that “clear and long-term policy signals are essential if investors are to allocate the huge amounts of private capital required to fund the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

The news of this initiative was picked up by Reuters and the FT.

Premal Shah of Kiva, a 2008 Skoll social entrepreneur, spoke at the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Online Giving Marketplaces conference last month on how Kiva is doing, what principles they operate by, and the challenges looking ahead.  SSIR has make the presentation available as an audio file here.  Some great statistics in there, including a goal of $1 billion in loans on Kiva in the next 5 years.

Skoll social entrepreneur KickStart, which focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty by helping subsistence farmers become income farmers, has garnered three high-profile awards over the last few months.

In June, co-founder Martin Fisher received the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. The award recognizes inventors whose products help address complicated challenges around poverty and global development. Watch Martin at the award ceremony.

In September, Martin was named the Engineer of the Year by Design News magazine, a leading publication for design engineers, for his work on the hand-powered irrigation pumps that are the core of Kickstart’s business.

Finally, last month, KickStart received the Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation, granted to a social sector organization that “demonstrates Drucker’s definition of innovation - change that creates a new dimension of performance.”  You can watch a video the Drucker Institute prepared on Kickstart here.

A very nice trifecta for Kickstart, which serves as a great example of the key role innovation plays in successful social entrepreneurship.

FastCompany has a great profile in its November edition on the Hub, the new video-sharing website founded by Skoll social entrepreneur Witness to publicize human rights abuses around the globe.  The article quotes Witness founder Peter Gabriel extensively and explains why Witness has moved to create the Hub.  Per Gabriel, “Once everyone has a camera inside a mobile phone, the issue is about creating a place where people can upload footage safely and make connections with people who might further their cause and their campaigns,” Gabriel says. “That’s the dream for the Hub.”

Skoll social entrepreneur Fundacion Paraguaya’s Agriculture School is a finalist in the World Challenge, a joint BBC-Newsweek initiative to identify projects and small businesses around the globe exhibiting innovative grass roots solutions to challenging problems.    Click here to see a write up and short film on the school.  The Agricultural School is one of 12 finalists competing for grant money as part of the challenge.  Go to the site and vote!

Fundacion Paraguaya is also hosting the second annual International Conference on Sustainable Education in South Africa next week.  The conference, entitled “Education That Pays for Itself 2008,” is part of the Teach a  Man to Fish initiative, launched by Fundacion Paraguaya to help take its model of self-sufficent education to other countries.   There are more than 40 countries represented among the 200 plus participants expected at the conference.

Sam Goldman, the founder of d.light design and a blogger on Social Edge, has just landed $6 million in investment funding for his initiative to deliver solar powered LED lights to replace kerosene lanterns in developing countries.  d.light design has an ambitious goal:  to be the leading player in off-grid lighting and power solutions worldwide.  The $6 million in funding was led by Nexus India Capital, and included Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Garage Technology Ventures, Mahindra and Mahindra, Acumen Fund and Gray Matters Capital. Sam started blogging on Social Edge in August of last year, so you can get a “real time” view into how d.light has progressed over the last year.

Skoll social entrepreneur Youthbuild features in President-elect Obama’s plans to promote national service in his administration.  On the new Change.gov site, there’s a page about service that outlines plans to expand Americorps and the Peace Corps, as well as create additional service groups for education, health, clean energy and veterans.  Per the site, “Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as YouthBuild and Head Start.”