Zipporah is one of the 16 entrepreneurs that took part in this year's Global Social Benefit Incubator, at Santa Clara University. Her project is a great example of how rural communities can be empowered and brought into the value chain of products that are key to the dignity, health, and productivity of poor women in Kenya.

Binti Africa Foundation creates microenterprises with women in rural Kenya to produce safe and affordable sanitary pads that are sold to schools and distributed to girls throughout the country. Thereby it fulfills the goals of empowering rural communities through enterprise and income generation, as well as girls in the poorer areas of the country who, thanks to Binti's sanitary pads and educational campaigns, no longer see significant changes in their routines and productivity during their menstrual periods.

Zipporah's primary objective while attending GSBI was to build a business plan to strengthen Binti's product development ability and expand it's operations into new markets like Sudan and Congo, among others.   

Stay tuned for more GSBI entrepreneurs this week as well as an upcoming post looking in retrospect at this visionary and highly impactful initiative.

If you are currently located in/ can re-locate to Hyderabad, have a strong interest in the acceleration of sustainable SMEs and their role as a driver for sustainable development, or know someone who fulfills these characteristics, please read on and see the attached file for a full job description. Applications are due next September 19.     

Position Summary:  The World Resources Institute (WRI) and CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre (CII- Godrej GBC) is seeking an entrepreneurial and dynamic Country Director for its New Ventures India program with a background in business/finance and an interest in sustainable business and investment.

New Ventures is a business accelerator that works toward long-term, sustainable natural resource use by supporting environmentally- and socially-responsible enterprises in emerging economies. We identify profitable small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) that generate unique social and environmental benefits and provide them with business advisory services and access to capital. Additionally, we work with local and international investment communities and networks to help further develop capital resources available to these enterprises. Since its inception in 1999, New Ventures has supported 178 sustainable enterprises worldwide and helped facilitate over US $120 million in investment into these enterprises.  In collaboration with local partners, New Ventures operates non-profit centers of sustainable entrepreneurship in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, China, Indonesia and India.

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Tendai used to be a teacher in his native Zimbabwe, until he saw one of his students died for reasons related to poor water quality. That event changed his life's direction and led him to become one of the founding members of Pump Aid, an NGO that has brought safe drinking water to thousands of villages in Africa by designing and manufacturing Elephant Pumps based on a centuries-old Chinese technology.

Pump Aid is experiencing an interesting transition that explains Tendai's presence at this year's GSBI. In the midst of the difficult and unstable situation in Zimbabwe, it recently re-located to Malawi where the elephant pump has been very successful since its introduction as a pilot project a few years ago. It has also experienced growing demand from households and is moving towards creating a fee-based social enterprise called WISH (Water, Irrigation, Sanitation and Hygiene) that will partner with microfinance institutions to offer the "WISH Package", a comprehensive solution for clusters of households that incorporates clean water (through the Elephant Pump), sanitation (through the Elephant Toilet) and nutrition (through nutrition gardens).

So here is Tendai, whose next steps I look forward to tracking and sharing through NextBillion.net.

The last 10 days have been truly exciting ones. I have had the amazing opportunity to participate in this year's Global Social Benefit Incubator at Santa Clara University, a two-week in-residence mentoring program with social entrepreneurs from around the world.

Over the next few days I'll be sharing a few thoughts about the program, its amazing potential and some of the specific challenges that these entrepreneurs face. I will also introduce the entrepreneurs that are participating in the program through a series of short video clips.

Today I want you to meet David Okello, who runs Coast Coconut Farms in Kenya and is improving the lives of rural farmers by adding value to the coconut crop and producing high quality, extra virgin coconut oil. So without further ado, I leave you in the company of David.

While attending the SEKN research colloquium a few days ago, I was able to sit down and talk to Harvard Business School Professor Michael Chu. During his tenure at ACCION International, Mr. Chu played a major role in the development of Mexico's Banco Compartamos. He currently co-leads the Ignia Fund, a for-profit BoP private equity fund focused on the Latin American region.

Following is a four-question summary of the notes I took during our hour-long conversation about Ignia and its prospects of transforming the BoP/SME investment landscape in this region of the world.

Francisco Noguera: What is the background of the team behind the idea of Ignia?

Michael Chu: My partner Alvaro Rodriguez holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and his first job out of School was with ACCION International. He then moved on to be CFO of Grupo Vitro (one of the world's largest glass manufacturers), CEO of Farmacia Benavides (Mexico's largest pharmacy chain) and then CFO of Grupo Elektra. He also held a seat at the board of ACCION. For my own part, I worked for the Boston Consulting Group after earning my MBA from Harvard, and then did leveraged buyouts in the private equity industry with KKR before joining ACCION, by the time Bancosol was launched. I also served as President and CEO of ACCION and also started an investment fund in Argentina called Pegasus capital.

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The Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN) brings together a number of Latin America academic institutions interested in exploring the concept of social enterprise and market-based solutions to poverty. Last week the network convened for a research colloquium in Harvard Business School to share the major findings of their upcoming publication titled Inclusive Business in Iberoamerica: Challenges and Opportunities.

It was an interesting venue in which I had the opportunity to learn about thriving BoP business models in Latin America like Cruzsalud in Venezuela, which is bringing high-quality healthcare services to the poor of Caracas. It was also exciting to meet and talk to very interesting people like Nancy Barry and Michael Chu, surely two of the most influential characters of the microfinance revolution. Interestingly, both have moved on from microfinance to engage in the broader BoP/ Social Enterprise space. Stay tuned for upcoming posts in which I'll summarize my conversations with both of them and their current ventures.

I would like to use the rest of this post to present two simple ideas that I believe could be of use to SEKN, as it enters its new research cycle. In particular, I see great opportunities for the network to more effectively deliver its messages and findings while also turning their academic research into action, by further engaging with students and practitioners in the countries where the network is present. 

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If you have between 2 and 5 years of professional experience, a strong interest in social enterprise/ venture philanthropy and a desire to spend 10 months working for organizations in Latin America, Africa or Asia, please read on.

The LGT Group is the asset management group of the Princely House of Liechtenstein. Each year, the Group's philanthropy arm conducts a call for applications to its fellowship program, through which it engages professionals and social enterprises in developing countries, seeking to go beyond financial support and offer their portfolio organizations access to increased intellectual and social capital. This year's program features organizations working in an interesting array of disciplines in Brazil, Colombia, South Africa and Tanzania.

The deadline for applications is September 14, 2008. Click here to learn more about the programs and the specific requirements for applicants.

Guest blogger Lauren Withey is a research analyst working on the World Resources Report at the World Resources Institute. She is a contributing writer to the newly-released World Resources 2008 - Roots of Resilience: Growing the Wealth of the Poor.

By Lauren Withey

Sofia Begum never imagined that she would be running her own poultry business. In 2000, the former housewife from northern Bangladesh was struggling to make ends meet for her family. She and her husband, a fisherman, were too poor to send their children to school. Like most of the families around them, the couple relied heavily on the local wetland to provide the protein and income necessary to sustain their daily lives. But degradation to the wetland from agricultural pollution, sediment from deforestation upstream, and overfishing had taken its toll in recent years. Fish harvests had fallen dramatically and the communities reliant on the wetlands had few other economic opportunities to fall back on.

Fortunately for Sofia, a new effort was just beginning in the area that aimed to help her community develop alternative income sources while restoring the wetlands under community management. The Managing of Aquatic Ecosystems through Community Husbandry (MACH) program was funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and executed by four civil society organizations with the support of the Bangladeshi government.

Communities across northern Bangladesh created two types of groups to carry out this process: Resource Management Organizations (RMOs) designed and implemented wetland management plans to aid the wetlands' recovery, while Resource User Groups (RUGs) served as training and financing mechanisms to develop alternative income sources. Specialty vegetable farms, fruit orchards, livestock-rearing operations, energy and clothing businesses, small stores are just a few of the fruits of the RUG's efforts in MACH communities.

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Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Entrepreneurship and Development Reception, which marked the launch of the ANDE Network in Washington DC. My biggest takeaway: nothing says more about the bridging spirit of this initiative than the event being co-hosted by organizations representing the government, the donor community and the entrepreneurs working in the field -- as described below.

I asked Katherine Samuels -- Summer Associate at Agora Partnerships and co-host of this great venue -- to share her insights on the event and the network with the NextBillion.net community, to which she kindly agreed. Katherine is a candidate for a Masters of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.

By Katherine Samuels

Something was in the air, a buzz, a special energy. It was the feeling that I was witnessing the start of something new, something important for the development community. Following the Aspen Institute's initial launch of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) in Colorado, the Rockefeller Foundation sponsored an Entrepreneurship and Development reception last week, officially marking the launch of ANDE in Washington, D.C.

ANDE is a network of social entrepreneurial leaders who provide management assistance to Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) in the developing world as well as foundations and investors who fund and support these efforts. ANDE organizations intend to pool their efforts to catalyze a movement that will unleash the resources needed to start, grow, and finance hundreds of thousands of small businesses in the developing world.

ANDE seeks to provide structure and encourage support for the SGB sector - the development community's answer to the issue of the "missing middle"; that is, assisting those businesses that are not served by local commercial financial institutions but are too large for microfinance programs and too small for traditional venture capital. Antony Bugg-Levine, from the Rockefeller Foundation, described this new movement afoot in the SGB sector of development that prompted the formation of ANDE.

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Guest blogger Virginia Barreiro is the Global Director of the New Ventures Project at the World Resources Institute. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California in San Diego and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from George Washington University.

By Virginia Barreiro

Last week a group of 42 people hiked together in Maroon Bells Colorado in the outskirts of Aspen, as part of a gathering that resulted in the formalization of ANDE - the Aspen network for Development Entrepreneurs. These individuals represent the most active organizations working on private sector solutions to poverty alleviation and sustainable development. We convened for two and a half days at the beautiful Aspen Institute to figure out how to do what we do... better.

Although varying in particular scope and approach, the organizations represented in the meeting all share a common thread: a strong conviction in the power of entrepreneurship as a way to tackle the world's most pressing challenges. ANDE members believe that through collective action, our organizations can drive greater resources in a more efficient manner to the entrepreneurs that will ultimately deliver social and environmental change.

Although many of these organizations have been working in this space for some time now, ANDE is the first formal platform for the sector. Comprised of investment funds, enterprise development organizations, intermediaries and donors, the network spent two whole days discussing key bottlenecks to scaling the growth of Small and Growing Businesses (i.e. SMEs) and, specifically, exploring some of the most pressing challenges faced by organizations in this space.

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Last night I attended a reception to launch Global Savings, Assets and Financial Inclusion, a new report issued by Citi Foundation drawing on the conclusions of last year's Global Symposium on Savings, Assets and Financial Inclusion organized, among others, by New America Foundation.

CGAP's Kate McKee, who collaborated in the report, offered some very interesting insights on the symposium and the report based on her experience designing asset building strategies. Especially interesting were her remarks on the fact that the microfinance movement and the BoP community in general must go beyond credit and transaction mechanisms --i.e. mobile banking, which have predominated in the debate about financial services for the poor so far-- and offer the poor real and practical alternatives to walk the "financial ladder" towards greater economical security through asset building mechanisms like savings and insurance.

I couldn't agree more. One of the things that used to impress me the most about my microfinance clients in Bogota was their creativity when it came to find ways to save, "stretch" their income and increase their liquidity. One of the mechanisms was what they called cadenas (Spanish for chains).

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I believe that the dialogue on philantrocapitalism featured in NextBillion is actually rooted in a question of semantics. As Edwards points out in his book, the whole conversation surrounding NextBillion.net has coined a number of terms (Social Enterprise/Entrepreneurship, patient/creative capital/capitalism, blended value, double/triple bottom line, B, M and ToP, inclusive business, and the list goes on...) that can create confusion and may pose a risk overheating for the sector. Even SMEs are now being called Small and Growing Businesses. Not that I disagree; we want them to grow and become the next microfinance, but agreeing on a nomenclature wouldn't hurt. By the way, stay tuned next week for a wrap-up of the ANDE conference.     

Anyway, I guess this is the case for any growing sector and challenges like Edwards' are necessary for the it to gain maturity and continue its consolidation. Skoll Foundation has previously tackled the question of definition, and two recent papers continue the conversation around key issues for the sector's maturity: the first, by CGAP, discusses the (some may argue) blurring line between the for- and non-profit models, analyzing ownership and governance challenges faced by MFIs as they leave the NGO model and transform into commercial institutions.  Also, Harvard Business School discusses the future of social enterprise, as part of its year-long 100^th birthday celebrations.

On another note, just a couple of links to remain current on the latest water debate: Scientific American offers a very informative piece on the coming water crisis, possible courses of action and how it will affect everyone at the base and elsewhere in the economic pyramid. This week's Economist also goes into water shortages focusing on the markets and pricing issues, as does Aguanomics' David Zetland in a recent Forbes article.  All pieces seem to agree at least on one point: sooner than later, prices will keep us from taking water for granted.

Guest blogger Karen Bennett is a Research Program Coordinator at the World Resources Institute. Her current work focuses on mainstreaming an ecosystem services approach to assure ecosystems' capacity to provide humans with needed goods and services. She also provides support to projects in the People and Ecosystems Program.

In Central America, the Maya Nut is making it clear that trees are worth more standing than cut down. Trees are critical to the well being of forest inhabitants in Central America. Ironically though, many forest dependent communities find it pays more to cut trees down than to keep them standing. That's because timber can be used for firewood, building material, or sold internationally, and cleared land can generate income from agricultural products. Unfortunately, deforestation eliminates other ecosystem services that forests provide, such as climate regulation, soil retention, and water regulation. As current deforestation rates attest, many of these forest benefits have received little recognition.

That is starting to change, however, as local communities discover the financial potential of the forest's often overlooked services. For the past few years, 56 women in Ixlu, Guatemala, which is located on the border of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, have operated a business to market the Maya Nut, also known as the Breadnut or Ramón. Dried and roasted, the Maya Nut can taste like chocolate or coffee and can be used to make cereal, cookies, cakes and other foods.

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This will be a very special week for us at WRI as the New Ventures Global team will be in together in Washington. Taking advantage of this opportunity, we would like to invite you to a panel discussion on the landscape for sustainable enterprise growth in emerging economies. Featuring our five New Ventures Country Directors from China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico, the panel will discuss the current state of investment and entrepreneurship that has the potential to drive sustainable growth in these five countries. Panelists will discuss specific examples from our enterprise portfolio and provide insights about on-the-ground challenges of achieving scale.

The panel will be held at the World Resources Institute on Wednesday, July 9^th at 4:00 PM. A reception will be offered following the panel. Please RSVP by July 7^th at fnoguera@wri.org. 

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Although I will miss my first 4th of July weekend living in the United States, I’m thrilled to be able to join my country’s own national celebration this weekend. I’m sitting right now at a gate at Dulles waiting for my flight to Bogota to start boarding, and I cannot wait to get over there and talk to my taxi driver to feel the optimism that must be ramping up all over the country because of yesterday’s extraordinary news. I wanted to share this feeling with you before leaving and invite you to follow the coverage through your network of preference -- CNN, BBC, Economist, Globovision or El Tiempo, just to name a few. Today a country is feeling that extraordinary things are achievable, which is something always worth sharing and celebrating.

So farewell until next Monday, when I’ll be back in Washington and rejoin the NextBillion conversation. Next week will be an exciting one for us at WRI and here at NextBillion. Our New Ventures Country Directors (from Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and our new partner in Colombia) will be in Washington for a week-long meeting to shape the program’s future and share experiences about the landscape for investment in sustainable SMEs in their countries.

Those of you in the east coast are welcome to join us next Wednesday in an open panel with our directors, so make sure to check for all the details here first thing Monday. In addition, NextBillion Staff Writers will feature a series commenting on Just Another Emperor?, Michael Edwards’ thought provoking book, and we will tackle the Compartamos debate featured in the latest Economist as well as the bank’s letter to its peers concerning its commercial strategy.

Well, last call for my flight, so off I go. Have a great weekend!