NextBillion - A WDI Publication

The Millennium Villages Project is Working Well

The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is a systematic approach to achieving the millennium development goals in rural Africa. The model is community-led development with simultaneous, integrated, science-based interventions in five main areas: agriculture, education, health, infrastructure (roads, ...

Source

Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)

Elumelu Sees Impact Through Large-Scale Entrepreneurship

Tony Elumelu, who made a meteoric rise as a banking executive before retiring last year, knows what he’d like to accomplish with his new initiatives. "One of my greatest joys would be to look back and say I’ve helped to create ten or a hundred very successful African entrepreneurs," the 48-year-old Nigerian said during an interview in late August at the end of an event-packed visit to East Africa. ...

Source

allAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Seattle Microfinance Nonprofit Looks Beyond Loans to Education

Global Partnerships , a Seattle-based nonprofit that provides microfinance to the developing world, has shifted its strategy in recent years to expand its focus beyond the traditional microloans that it started with 17 years ago. ...

Source

Puget Sound Business Journal (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Afghanistan’s Vast Mineral Deposits Could Lift it Out of Poverty

For all the column inches and hours of negotiations spent discussing Afghanistan ’s recent past, present and future, one of the most pressing parts of the puzzle remains largely overlooked and poorly understood. The country sits on top of vast mineral deposits, which, if properly managed, offer the best chance of lifting a generation out of poverty and weaning the country off internati...

Source

Guardian.co.uk (link opens in a new window)

Region

Europe & Eurasia

Peru Has Best Environment for Microfinance in Global Ranking

Lima, Oct. 11 (ANDINA). Peru has finished atop the Global Microscope on the Microfinance Business Environment 2011 for a third straight year, buoyed by an excellent legal framework, sophisticated regulators and a government commitment to use microfinance to expand financial access to the poor. This annual study, prepared by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), ranks the business environment for microfinance in 55 countries and provides a perspective on both country-sp...

Source

Andina (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

California Creates New Corporation Types That Reward Doing Good (FAQ)

Even as Wall Street is being occupied and corporations are reviled, there is a revolution quietly raging across the country that empowers corporations to be a strong force for good. This week, California joined that revolution when Governor Jerry Brown created two new classes of corporations for businesses that seek to pursue both profit and purpose: Benefit Corporations and Flexible Purpose Corporations . These new legal structures are revolutionary in ...

Source

Venture Beat (link opens in a new window)

Millennium Villages Project: does the ’big bang’ approach work?

By Madeleine Bunting Jeffrey Sachs is Marmite. Some love him, while others grumble about his high-handedness. But what no one can deny is his extraordinary energy and drive and how he makes things happen. He announced this week at the UN a second and final stage of the Millennium Villages...

Source

The Guardian (link opens in a new window)

World Can Have Power, Cleaner Stoves for $48 Billion Annually, IEA Says

The world’s entire population can have electricity and cleaner stoves by 2030 if $48 billion is invested each year, the International Energy Agency said in its first estimate of the cost to end energy poverty. The sum is about the same as the combined annual capital spend of Europe ’s two biggest oil companies, ...

Source

Bloomberg (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Energy

Tags

clean cooking, climate health