-
Friday Roundup 6/24/11: Pivot25 and East Africa’s “Venturesome” Consumers
I’m in Kenya at the moment, a place where you’ll find plenty of "venturesome consumers". M-PESA is to Kenyans what Dropbox is to Americans. Last week saw the first Pivot25, an app developer conference and competition that showcased solutions for many of the challenges faced by Kenyans and East Africans.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
NexThought Monday: Cola Life’s Journey to Social Business
Simon and Jane Berry, founders of Cola Life, formed an "unlikely alliance," with Coca-Cola, brewing and bottling giant SABMiller, UNICEF and the Ministry of Health in Zambia. Together, they will try to tap into Coca Cola’s distribution chain in Zambia to deliver affordable treatments for childhood diseases to rural communities.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Friday Roundup – 6/17/11: Building the BoP House
How big is the market for BoP housing? Well, HansonWade puts the figure at $381 billion a year by 4 billion low-income customers. Unlocking and serving that market by creating business models to scale up affordable housing finance, is the goal behind BOP Housing Finance conference.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
OpenIDEO’s Latest Challenge Aims For Practical Results in Colombia
OpenIDEO’s most recent challenge asks the design community an important question: "How might we use social business to improve health in low-income communities?" It’s not an idle query. The question applies directly to Caldas, Colombia where the poverty rate is near 60 percent, with 26 percent extreme poverty and infant mortality at 12.5 percent.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Vouchers Are Putting Kenyan Women in Charge of Care
A collaboration of the Kenyan government, German development bank KfW, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers aims to reduce pregnancy-related deaths through incentives. The program offers vouchers to stimulate demand from low-income consumers to seek care for pregnancies and to reimburse high-quality healthcare suppliers for providing the contracted services.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
NexThought Monday: The Role of Social Businesses in Creating Employment
For a social business, the starting point is not the business itself. Its priority is to provide opportunities to and improve the quality of life of marginalized populations or individuals deprived of freedom and other groups who do not have access to the job market. All of these factors help to determine the type of employment that they create.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Friday Roundup ? 6/10/11: Balancing Idealism Vs. Pragmatism
This week felt like a bit like a tennis match between pragmatism and idealism. That’s always the balancing act we try to strike on NextBillion, to mix a metaphor. But whether it was one-for-one models, the effectiveness of microcredit or the promise of $300 homes, the volleys this week seemed to move a bit more fast and furious than usual.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
ViewChange Video of the Week: Coconut Oil is Helping to Power Papua, New Guinea
It’s cheap, in plentiful supply, contributes less greenhouse gases that diesel, and smells great. The people of Bougainville have found their own solution to the energy crisis: the humble coconut tree. German emigrant Matthias Horn who established a "coconut refinery" several years ago, and now produces an oil that can replace diesel.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
Subscribe to Our Weekly Newsletter, "NextBillion Notes"
Published each Wednesday, our e-newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with a selection of news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage — and regular conference ticket giveaways.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.