NextBillion - A WDI Publication

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

Surfing the Radio Waves for Sustainable Agriculture

While the use of mobile phones is rapidly surging across Africa, access gaps persist between urban and rural users. But a new generation of social entrepreneurs is remedying this problem by combining new and old media to reach rural populations. Twenty-nine-year-old Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu is one of such entrepreneurs who sees the mobile telephony gap as a call to innovate. His organization connects rural farmers with the information they need through a combination of mobile telephony and ra...

Source

allAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Could Donkey Ambulances Save Lives in Poor Countries?

Professor Chris Lavy, an orthopaedic surgeon who spent years working in Africa, gives a vivid example of inappropriate medical technology for the developing world. One of the newest hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa, he points out, was built with infrared sensors to turn the taps on in the operating theatres. "Wonderful idea, but is it really appropriate in a country where there are no other infrared controlled taps and no engineer to fix them," he asks rhetorically. "Within a year most o...

Source

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

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Citi Gives New Funds to Microfinance Group

Citi has committed new funding for the Banking with the Poor Network (BWTP), the only pan-Asia microfinance network, as part of its continued commitment to promoting financial inclusion globally. Citi Foundation grants worth USD200,000 will enable the BWTP Network to provide secretariat services to the APEC Business Advisory Council’s Advisory Group on Financial Inclusion and also build its capacity to support BWTP members consisting of microfinance institutions, commercial banks, c...

Source

The Asset (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

Tags

supply chains

The Gates Foundation Uses Genetic Modification for Good

It’s easy to demonize genetically modified crops. After all, we don’t exactly know what their long-term health effects are, and they have the nasty habit of cross-pollinating with non-GMO crops. When new stories come out about advances in the field, many people react with anger and fear. But the Gates Foundation (and Bill Gates himself) has ...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Omidyar Network and IGNIA Lead $13.75 Million Series B Round in Finestrella

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Omidyar Network and IGNIA announced today they are leading a $13.75 million Series B round of financing in Finestrella, a provider of innovative mobile telephony services to low-income and unbanked populations in Mexico. Finestrella will use the funding to rapidly expand the availability of its current offerings while developing new products and services, including smart phones and data plans that address the needs of its customers. Th...

Source

PR Newswire (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Health Tests at Your Doorstep

KOCHI: At daybreak, around 40 women in the city set out on their rounds to do medical tests. They conduct routine tests for over 750 persons that are quite cost-effective. These women are part of the Saantwanam project, a poverty-alleviation as well as health-oriented programme organised jointly by the Health Action by People (Thiruvananthapuram), Kudumbashree, and State Bank of India. The women visit houses and take instant readings of blood glucose(...

Source

IBN Live (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Show Me Your Pricing Data: Transparency Helps Philippines Lead Global Microfinance

"The Philippines receives a perfect score...for the way it regulates the microcredit activities of established financial institutions." -- Economist Intelligence Unit,"Global Microscope on the Microfinance Business Environment" [1] The microfinance industry has taken a beating lately. In March, Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunnus was ousted from his position as managing director of the microcredit lender Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which he founded in 1983, by the ...

Source

Justmeans (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Uncategorized

Region

Asia Pacific

Tags

financial inclusion