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Targeting the Ultra Poor: When Microcredit Isn’t the First Step
The microfinance movement has had great success in reaching over 150 million poor and low-income households worldwide. Yet, for nearly 1 billion people living under $1/day, microcredit is not the best first step. Are these people bankable? If not, can we design interventions to get these people in to the cash economy?
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Moving On But Staying Close to Home
Over the past six months, I have had the privilege to work with Rob Katz and Francisco Noguera in managing NextBillion.net in my role at the William Davidson Institute. Starting today, however, I will have to step down as a managing editor as I am leaving the WDI to join the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan full time.
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India’s Unique ID Project – Implications for Micropayment
The Unique Identification Number (UID), which identifies individuals uniquely on the basis of demographic information and biometrics, will allow individuals to establish their identity with agencies across the country. It provides a renewed approach towards financial inclusion by integrating various reforms addressing the core issue.
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Energy for the BoP: Energy in Da House
Delivering energy to homes and businesses is not enough; the ways in which low-income customers are able to utilize this energy supply, as well as the ways in which people adapt household tools to be most efficient and affordable, is of equal importance. The following innovative organizations are creating appliances to do just this.
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Energy Generation: Supplying Low-Income Customers in BoP Markets
Energy customers at the BoP may be curious about the source of their energy, but the usable application of the energy is of much greater interest. There are a number of enterprises delivering energy to the BoP, each employing whichever form of alternative energy is most conducive and reliable in its region, but all working towards a shared goal.
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Energy Series: An Introduction
An unidentified Shell employee famously said, ?The Stone Age didn?t end because we ran out of stones,? illustrating the revolutionary implications of design and creativity. While he was hinting to oil?s fallibility with the advent of alternative energy sources, base of the pyramid (BoP) energy markets will also undergo a makeover.
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Climate Change Opportunities and Threats in Microfinance (Part 2 of 2)
By 2100, 145 to 220 million people may fall below the $2-a-day poverty line due to climate change. This will have a negative impact on microfinance institutions. In this second part of a two part series I elaborate on how these organizations can modify their products to encourage borrowers to adapt to the negative effects of climate change.
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Report from the Mobile Money Summit (Part 3) – Learning from Agent Networks
At the GSMA’s Mobile Money Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the end of May I got a snapshot of this fast-evolving industry. Both inspiring and relevant far beyond the mobile industry is the rapid creation of networks of thousands of network agents bringing these services to remote and marginalized communities.
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