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Development by the BOP for the BOP: Why Pro Mujer is Better Than FairTrade
Mr Vasquez has come with friends from his village in a remote part of Cajamarca, a department in Peru?s northern highlands, to pick coffee in the Moyobamba region on the edge of the jungle?He and his co-workers work from 6am to 4.30pm, for which they are paid 10 soles a day (about $3) ?...
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Rising Ventures: What to Do With Your Lights in Brazil
Wrapping up another work week, I?ll leave you with another excellent emerging economy SME that is creatively meeting new market needs while achieving environmentally beneficial outcomes.? One of our New Ventures folks, Kelly Desy, recently interviewed an entrepreneur who saw plenty of money...
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Learning From Failure: How to Make a Successful Business and a Sustainable Industry
"Some people think I’m crazy.” These were the words of Alexandre Wainberg as quoted by The Estado de Sao Paulo last Sunday (Article in Portuguese - Subscription required). In an excellent piece detailing the environmental damage and social issues surrounding the aquaculture...
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Rising Ventures: Lotus Qumicia – New Ways to Fight Water Shortages
Bloggin g to wrap up a lazy Sunday evening on a beautiful Labor Day weekend (post Ernesto that is).? Lotus Quimica- this week’s featured company is an interesting case- they also tackle the water issues I touched on earlier in the week, although at first I was a bit aprehensive about their...
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A Call to Journalists: Stop Writing about Microfinance
Everyone agrees that microfinance is the coolest thing since sliced bread.? That?s why in the last two months we?ve seen it covered by the Financial Times, Reuters, The Globalist, The New York Times, The Economist, The LA Times, Business Week, CNN, and The Times of London.? And in all...
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Village: Play the World of Social Enterprise
What do you get when you mix SimCity with social entrepreneurship? Village, a multiplayer strategy game that puts the BOP hypothesis to work. According to the game?s web site, Village?s mission is...to let players practice building sustainable villages for developing nations using...
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Selling to the Poor
Today, the Financial Times covers Casas Bahia, a BOP favorite from Brazil which has also been discussed in CK Prahalad?s book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.? Although the FT adds little to the debate about extending credit to low-income consumers, it still provides important...
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Minipreneurs: Do BOP Entrepreneurs Deserve the Hype?
The entrepreneurial bandwagon is starting to feel a little full. Everyone from development experts to market research firms seems to be falling over themselves to hail the resourceful small-scale entrepreneur as a savior of poor communities everywhere. Even the uber-hip Trendwatching web site...
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