NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

UN Helps Expand Tanzania’s Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction Plans

Tanzania expects to receive some $777 million from the United Nations as support for the implementation of two of the country’s economic growth and poverty reduction strategies. The funds will finance the second phases of Tanzania’s national strategy for growth and poverty reduction, or MKUKUTA II, and the Zanzibar strategy for growth and poverty reduction or MKUZA II, the East African Business Week rep...

Source

Devex (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya: Survey of Female Farmers Uncovers Challenges

In Kenya, a gender-disaggregated agricultural survey targeting 2,500 households and 5,000 individuals in eight regions, seeks women’s input and data to inform agricultural policy. The survey shows that female farmers have limited access to finance, as few women own property they can use as collateral for loans. Another observation is that as agriculture becomes ’feminized’ and men abandon farms to work in cities. The survey was conducted by Egerton University’s Tegemeo I...

Source

Microfinance Focus (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Plan Farms for Climate Change: Minister

Adapting agriculture in Africa to accommodate drastic climate changes will reap benefits for future food security and the poor, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane says. "Food security is important to Africa’s economy as it impacts heavily on a country’s poverty alleviation and sustainable development plans," she said at an African ministerial meeting on climate change in Johannesburg. "It is critical that governments and nations should...

Source

Times Live (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

India?s ’Biggest Entrepreneurial Event’ Set to Take Off Sept 30

New Delhi: The power of entrepreneurship and innovation to transform India into one of the leading economies of the world will be visible in full measure at the TiEcon Delhi 2011. The entrepreneurial event, among the biggest in Asia, begins on September 30 at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi. The annual flagship event of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Delhi-NCR chapter, will see over 1500 attendees listen to the first CK Prahalad Memorial Lecture, set up in memory of the renowned Michigan Uni...

Source

Northern Voices Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Report Stresses Need to Identify the ’Poor’ in India

In India the poor are visible everywhere in villages, hamlets, in forestland or degraded lands, along coastal regions, in the mountains, in urban centres and in industrial areas. For all the visible signs of poverty, there is a huge chunk of these which are invisible. It comes back to the question of what makes the poor, poor. This is the question that should plague those who are at the forefront of polic...

Source

Medindia.net (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Microcredit and Lamia Karim’s ’Women in Debt in Bangladesh’

Taj Hashmi in the first part of his two-part review A report by the Government of Bengal in the 1930s revealed that a poor peasant from Mymensingh district in eastern Bengal (Bangladesh since 1971) had told a land revenue official in 1929: "My father, Sir, was born in debt, grew in debt and died in debt. I have inherited my father’s debt and my son will inherit mine." Following the introduction of microcredit, glorified as microfinance by its local and international promoters, ...

Source

The Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Citi Microfinance Supports Microfinance and Nonprofit Institutions

TORONTO, Sept. 12, 2011 /CNW/ - Toronto International Microfinance Summit announced today that Citi Microfinance is providing $25,000 to enable the attendance of select representatives of microfinance and nonprofit institutions at its 2011 conference, taking place at Toronto’s Allstream Centre this month. In its third year, the Summit is comprised of two events: a fundraising Gala on September 16, followed by the micro way Conference and a new MicroMarketplace on September 17. Th...

Source

CNW (link opens in a new window)

The Birth of a Virtuous New Asset Class

"BACKING someone to live," is how Leapfrog Investment’s first deal is described by Jim Roth, the co-founder of the "profit with purpose" private-equity firm. That was two years ago, a $6.7m stake in AllLife, a South African firm that provides life insurance to people with AIDS and infected with HIV, subject only to the condition that they submit to regular blood tests to prove they are taking their life-saving anti-retroviral drugs. "This provides cover to people whom other insurers...

Source

The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa