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

Social innovation: Good for you, good for me

Big firms are joining the queue to follow in Muhammad Yunus’s footsteps by developing businesses designed to fix social ills. Muhammad Yunus has for more than 30 years challenged business leaders to find radical ways of creating new markets in poor countries. The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s latest book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, is no less ambitious. It explores how big companies can invest in external partners ...

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Ethical Corporation (link opens in a new window)

Microfinance: Climate change connections

In 2001, the IPCC concluded that the impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately upon developing countries and the poor persons within all countries. The poor are least able to cope on their own with the threats to their homes, communities, livelihoods and health. What role might microfinance-the delivery of financial services, including credit, savings, and insurance to the poor-play in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and helping vulnerable low-income populations...

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Development Outreach (link opens in a new window)

How Africa’s top entrepreneurs can find the path to global markets

Swaziland alone has 70 000 such micro enterprises. Why is this the case? Money? That’s usually what an SME owner will say. Indeed, SMEs needs capital to start up and expand. In developed economies, most start-ups are self-financed with help from the four Fs: founders, family, friends and foolhardy strangers. In Africa this strategy is possible only for a lucky few. For unproven entrepreneurs, or those lacking adequate collateral, capital can be very hard to come by...

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Business Report (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Alianza WBCSD-SNV Present? su Trabajo en Negocios Inclusivos en el Marco de la Reuni?n Anual del B

Publicado por WBCSD-SNV Alliance Ministros de finanzas, empresarios, banqueros, dirigentes de la sociedad civil, acad?micos, periodistas y destacados artistas latinoamericanos y caribe?os participaron en la reuni?n anual del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), que en esta ocasi?n se celebr? en Miami del 4 al 8 de abril. La Reuni?n Anual en Miami ofreci? una ...

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Inclusivebusiness.org (link opens in a new window)

The Crushing Burden of Microcredit

By FRANCE 24 Microcredit changed Shobi Rani’s life. An impoverished yoghurt seller, Rani travels across her region in northern Bangladesh on a cycle rickshaw, selling her dairy produce. She is a beneficiary of microcredit, the much touted development scheme to help eradicate poverty. Three months ago, Rani received a loan for 500 euros from the Grameen Bank to start her little dairy enterprise. Every week, a bank official carefully chec...

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France 24 (link opens in a new window)

Your $25 can Start a Business, Change a Life

By Jen Haley Lovisa Asinde is a Ugandan widow who supports herself and her five children selling food. She started the small business eight years ago, and planned to open a larger restaurant in the center of her town. But when one of her children fell ill she was unable to work, and she lacked the $500 needed to buy saucepans, plates and food staples. So, strange as it may seem, Asinde went looking for international investors. She found s...

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CNN Features Kiva and Microplace (link opens in a new window)

Design for the Next Billion Customers

Niti Bhan and Dave Tait, having just returned from exploratory research in Africa to understand the mindset and consumer behavior at the bottom of the pyramid, share their insights for designers hoping to serve this population. This research was part of a larger study conducted by Experientia, an Italy-based international experience design consultancy. Design has a social function and its true purpose is to improve people’s lives. --Nokia Design Manifesto

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Core77 (link opens in a new window)

Microfinance?s Success Sets Off a Debate in Mexico

By Elizabeth Malkin VILLA DE V?ZQUEZ, Mexico - Carlos Danel and Carlos Labarthe turned a nonprofit that lent money to Mexico’s poor into one of the country’s most profitable banks. But not all of their colleagues in the world of microlending - so named for the tiny loans it grants - are heaping praise on the co-executives of Compartamos. Some are vilifying them as pawnbrokers and money lenders. They are the ce...

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The New York Times (link opens in a new window)