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Acumen Fund’s Big Ambition
By Joel Dreyfuss The Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture fund with a mission, celebrated its seventh anniversary this week. A relative newcomer to the world of philanthropy, Acumen has drawn a lot of attention for its entrepreneurial approach to doing good: investing in new companies in developing countries that use technology to make a difference in the lives the people at the bottom of the pyramid. Acumen?s web site (www.acumenfund.org) bluntly decla...
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Reuters Ploughs into Indian Farming
PUNE, India, is one of the world’s most techie cities. Wireless internet pumps out across the city, students from its top-ranked universities jam the streets on motorbikes and on graduation vie for jobs at many of the West’s biggest high-tech companies. The city is a model of the tech-led renaissance of the subconti-nent’s economy - and is also, as chance would have it, home to Tata Motors, the new owner of Jaguar and Land Rover, two of Britain’s most famous car comp...
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Nokia Reaps Benefits of Emerging Markets
By Andrew Parker Nokia said on Wednesday it had seen no evidence that the global economic downturn was affecting demand for mobile phones in emerging markets, as it outlined plans for new handsets for developing countries. Alex Lambeek, a Nokia vice-president responsible for the Finnish company’s strategy in emerging markets, said 2008 should be the first year in which the number of handsets sold in developing countries to customers replacing their ex...
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A Costly Thirst
By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent Slum-dwellers in Dar es Salaam pay the equivalent of ?4 ($8, ?5) for 1,000 litres of water, bought over time and by the canister. In the same Tanzanian city, wealthier households connected to the municipal supply receive that amount for just 17p. In the UK, the same volume of tap water costs 81p and in the US it is as low as 34p. Figures from other countries confirm the evidence: it is generally the poorest who pa...
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Productizing Remittances
Can remittances be more than simply cash-to-cash funds transfers? Indeed, the ?productizing of remittances? is an approach that looks at the value chain of money ?ows to identify situations where the desired ?nal output is not cash but the acquisition of tangible products or services. It is a product development and delivery process in which remittances are directly turned into the value for which the money is intended. The bene?t of this approach is its greater economic impact com...
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Muhammad Yunus on Tech, Profit and the Poor
The Bangladeshi Nobel laureate wins yet another award - this time for contributions to technology. He talks to Fortune about where tech might take the poor. NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Technology is making more changes in our way of life than ever in human history, says Muhammad Yunus. The way the Internet and the mobile phone are spreading, you cannot compare with any technology of the past. Yunus is known for his visionary leadership in microfinance and he...
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Partnership Workshops Confirm New Opportunities for Social Entrepreneurs & Business
Businesses and social enterprises are increasingly realising the mutual benefits and new opportunities from working together, IBLF has concluded after co-hosting workshops at last week’s World Skoll Forum. IBLF, UK consultancy SustainAbility and design company IDEO hosted two workshops on Strategic Partnerships Between Multinational Corporations and Social Entrepreneurs ...
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The Clean Energy Scam
By Michael Grunwald From his Cessna a mile above the southern Amazon, John Carter looks down on the destruction of the world’s greatest ecological jewel. He watches men converting rain forest into cattle pastures and soybean fields with bulldozers and chains. He sees fires wiping out such gigantic swaths of jungle that scientists now debate the savannization of the Amazon. Brazil just announced that deforestation is on track to double this year; Carter, a T...
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