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Houses for the Poor in Mexico?
This Stanford Social Innovation Review reports on SOFOLES --a Mexican microlending program (read more about it in a 2000 Harvard report) that has succeeded in making home ownership more affordable for low-income residents. It’s not the newest idea, but the report has interesting sidenotes;...
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Microfinance meets Match.com
Kiva is an organization that empowers individuals to make charitable, microfinance loans. Anyone can look at the profiles of businesses (all rural entrepreneurs, currently all in Uganda), make a loan of as little as $25 through PayPal, and stay in contact with their sponsored business for the...
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More Innovations at the Edge
Al Hammond recently finished posting his series on ?Technology Innovations at the Edge.? The full series is now available as a downloadable PDF file here. One of the premises of the report is that technologies created for developed countries may actually be more useful and...
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The Tipping Point in India
"With the private sector booming, industry and services have overtaken farming to account for 54 percent of rural income.” This amazing factoid comes from an article that Rob Katz just posted from the International Herald Tribune: Poor rural India? It’s a richer place by Anand...
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How to leapfrog? Look to the black market
Regular NextBillion readers won’t be shocked by a recent AP news article about cell phone use in Africa. It’s even been noted as a “worldchanging” leapfrog technology - and rightly so. However, this article sticks out from the rest when it analyzes why cell phones came from nowhere...
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Announcement: WBCSD online discussion on ’The business of development’ (13-31 October 2005)
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development is hosting a new online discussion on ’The business of development.’ The forum follows in the footsteps of this spring?s online discussion ?Business & Development - What is the right approach?? and will give stakeholders a...
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Technology at the Edge: Longer-term, more speculative examples
With little legacy infrastructure, inefficient markets, and a vast amount of unmet needs, the BOP represents an enormous opportunity for research and development firms looking to translate new technologies into financial returns. Some of the best prospects today are in the energy industry,...
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Technology at the Edge: Other hi-tech, near-term examples
Given the right business model, high-tech devices can also find appropriate uses in developing countries. Wireless AccessWhen a group of emerging market cellular operators put out a tender for low-cost basic GSM phones, nobody paid much attention until Motorola won the tender by...
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