-
USAID’s Microfinance Conference
In the last several days we have talked a lot about our mapping project for the Inter-American Development Bank?s upcoming conference, ?Building Opportunity for the Majority.? But as important as this conference is for the BOP, it should not overshadow other equally important events that...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
BOP and The New Face of Consumerism
In an article published last month in the New York Times Magazine, Rob Walker explains how a group of hipsters are challenging consumerism by actually participating in it. As Walker reports, those who find a corporation?s business practices morally odious have turned to socially responsible...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Social Innovation Podcasts
Looking to load your iPod with interesting content before the weekend? Check out the Social Innovation Conversation series, a project of Stanford?s Center for Social Innovation. These podcasts feature social entrepreneurs ? everyone from Jed Emerson discussing blended value to Ethan...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Last call: Oxford MBA for social entrepreneurs
If you?re a social entrepreneur interested in an MBA education at Oxford, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship has issued a last call for applications for a full scholarship to attend Oxford University?s full-time, one-year MBA program. The Scholarship covers fees and offers a...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
The Paradox of Market Solutions: How Individual Consumerism Could Shatter the Future of the BOP
I know it’s considered rude to discuss political issues over meals, but I recently saw An Inconvenient Truth, and I’ve been on an environmental kick ever since. And so it was that last night in my apartment over a dinner of wine chicken marsala a heated discussion ensued that resulted...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Food for Thought: Urban Agriculture in the Developing World
In the next two decades mass human migrations from rural to urban areas are expected to radically transform the world?s demographic landscape. Much of this migration will take place in the developing world, where rural inhabitants now subsist on small scale farming. As these farmers migrate...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Mapping the Majority
At a press conference in DC yesterday, the IDB unveiled a cool new interactive tool called ?Mapping the Majority.? It?s an interactive Flash mapping tool ? low-bandwidth readers, consider yourselves warned before clicking through. But for those of us with fast enough connections, I...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Attitudinal Barrier to Microfinance
I just read a news story describing how microfinance schemes in Ghana (and the banks providing them) are being undermined by a refusal to repay loans. According to the article, “The microfinance programme, which is the bedrock of rural banks, is being thwarted due to the attitude of some...
- Categories
- Uncategorized
