Articles by John Paul
-
Saturday
April 1
2006A Note of Caution on Microfinance
With the Year of Microcredit behind us, and investments in the sector accelerating, rarely do you hear criticisms of the much lauded poverty alleviation tool. One notable exception is a recent piece by Thomas Dichter, long-time practitioner in the international development industry and author...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Wednesday
March 29
2006NextBillion Needs You!
You may have noticed a new look to Nextbillion this week. Our crack design team has updated the fonts and colors a bit to make our content more readable. We’ve also added a few new blog topics - water, housing, and marketing - making it easier for you to find the specific information you’re...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Friday
March 24
2006Water Wars
1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than 2 million children die from dirty water and unhygienic sanitation each year. This was the bleak picture painted this week in Mexico City during the 4th World Water Forum. But is privatization the answer? The...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Monday
March 20
2006Designing for the BOP
As readers of this page are now well familiar, companies worldwide are rapidly becoming aware of and pursuing markets at the base of the pyramid (BOP). I’m often dismayed, however, by how many of these efforts are essentially just scaled-down or lower-cost versions of existing products or...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Monday
March 20
2006The Impact of Low-cost Handsets
A number of articles appeared this week that trumpeted both the success and growth of mobile telephony in emerging economies. The first gives an update from the Emerging Market Handset Programme (EMHP), highlighting GSMA’s six month extension of its endorsement of Motorola as the program’s...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Friday
March 17
2006Reminder: BiD Challenge Deadline
Just a reminder, the deadline to submit your business plan for the BiD Challenge is this Monday, March 20th.The Bid Challenge is offering ?150.000 in start-up finance for plans thatcombine income generating business with poverty reduction in a feasible way. Both new ideas and plans to...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Tuesday
March 14
2006Interview with George C. Lodge, the man behind the World Development Corporation
In January, I wrote about the proposed creation of the World Development Corporation (WDC), a new institution which would harness the capabilities of MNCs to confront global poverty while at the same time reviving their legitimacy and maintaining shareholder value. The for-profit entity would...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Thursday
March 9
2006Microsoft Redeems Itself!
My post last Thursday criticized Microsoft’s potential release of a stripped down version of its forthcoming Windows Vista operating system for emerging markets. I thought this was the wrong approach; rather than strip features out, Microsoft should be figuring out which applications to add...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
