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

Acumen Investment Gives Fund Stake in Growing Technology Platform Transforming Rural India

Acumen Fund, a leading catalyst for sustainable, scalable solutions addressing poverty in South Asia and Africa, announced today that it has invested $1.6 million (%7ERs.72 million) in Drishtee Dot Com, a rural Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platform operating more than 1000 kiosks in India that provide computer and English education, e-governance and digital photography services. Acumen Fund?s investment of $1 million (%7ERs.45 million) gives it an equity stake in Drishtee and ...

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Acumen Fund Press Release (link opens in a new window)

TIAA-CREF Creates $100 Million Global Microfinance Investment Program

TIAA-CREF, the leading provider of retirement savings products and services in the academic, medical and cultural fields, today announced the creation of a $100 million Global Microfinance Investment Program (GMIP) to invest in selected Microfinance Institutions (MFI’s) worldwide. Concurrently, TIAA-CREF also announced GMIP’s first investment -- a $43 million private equity stake in ProCredit Holding AG, one of the world’s leading microfinance companies. NEW YORK, Sept. 19 /PRNewswir...

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Yahoo! Finance (link opens in a new window)

An Interview with Inveneo

Inveneo.org is a nonprofit that connects the most cut-off people in the world--they provide communication technology to people in developing regions or disaster zones which lack the infrastructure for normal telephone and internet connections. Their connections have helped rural villages spawn business, hurricane victims get aid, even helped the sick cure themselves by talking with doctors. We’ve mentioned them ...

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WorldChanging (link opens in a new window)

India-China Emerge Strong Business Partners Of Africa: Study

Chinese and Indian firms are increasingly doing business in sub-Saharan Africa, and their interest in the continent extends well beyond a hunt for natural resources, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Sunday quoting the study titled Africa’s Silk Road: China and India’s new Economic Frontier as saying. These two emerging economic giants of Asia are at the centre of the explosion of African-Asian trade and investment, a striking hallmark of the new trend in...

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Bernama.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Low-cost schools in poor nations seek investors

My recent research has shown that private schools for the poor are superior to government schools ? teachers were much more likely to be teaching when we called unannounced in their classrooms. Private schools were, in general, better equipped with drinking water and toilets. Testing about 24,000 children we found academic achievement was much higher in private than government schools. All of this was accomplished for a fraction of the per-pupil teacher cost. William Easterly dedicates his recen...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

IDB calls for tripling microcredit in LatAm – Regional

Microfinance institutions in Latin America currently only serve about 8% of estimated demand, IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno said at the 9th Microenterprise Forum in Quito, Ecuador. We all know we still have a long way to go to democratize financial services, he said, according to an IDB statement. In reality, most people [in the region] do not have access to formal financial services. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has called on the region’...

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Business News Americas (link opens in a new window)

Wolfowitz links corruption to poverty

We feel very strongly that when there is systemic corruption in a country, to great levels, then the resources do not reach the poor, said Huguette Labelle, president of Transparency International, a private corruption watchdog. There are so many countries that should be very rich today because of their natural resources, but they’re not, Labelle told delegates attending the World Bank meetings. Governments, companies and financial institutions must unite...

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Yahoo! News (link opens in a new window)

World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation

The report will focus on?crucial capabilities and transitions in a young person’s life: learning for life and work, staying healthy, working, forming families, and exercising citizenship. For each, there are opportunities and risks; for all, policies and institutions matter.? More ab...

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The World Bank (link opens in a new window)