NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Yunus Signs Clothing Deal with French Company

Yunus Centre and ID Group, a French company, yesterday signed a deal to produce functional clothing for children of 0-5 years under social business in Bangladesh. The business will also provide technical training to the rural poor and generate employment. It plans to start production by the year-end. They will also set up a day-care centre for children under another social business, Yunus Centre said in a statement. ID Group Chief Executive Officer Jean-Luc Soufflet and Nobe...

Source

The Daily Star (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Jamaicans May Bank on a Mobile Future

JAMAICA can choose a mobile phone-based financial services delivery system which targets those persons who currently do not have easy access to the established banking network. Carl Rosenquist, a Chartered Information Technology Professional with the British Computer Society, was one of several industry experts trumpeting the development during the Mobile Financial Services Conference at the Terra Nova All Suites Hotel in Kingston in December, which aimed to develo...

Source

Jamaica Observer (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Islamic Micro Lenders Set Up Global Network

LAHORE: Islamic Microfinance Network (IMFN) has been set up to assemble the international Islamic Microfinance organisations on one platform, a statement said. The IMFN head office is in Lahore and its regional offices will be in Ghana, Mauritius and Middle East. According to IMFN official the board members of IMFN are Farida Tariq, Chairperson, Amjad Saqib, Vice Chairman, and Muhammad Zubair Mughal, Chief Executive Officer. Kawako Yasuma, CEO, Ghana Islami...

Source

TheNews.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Business Schools With a Social Appeal

LONDON - Business schools can be cutthroat places. After struggling to gain admission to the top schools, students compete for grades and the best work placements. Meanwhile, the schools themselves jostle for position in the various global rankings, competing in order to attract the most able students. But in the never-ending battle for dominance, one London business school has decided to appeal not to potential students’ wallets, but to their consciences. Starting in September, the...

Source

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

Designing the Future of Housing for India’s Poorest

The words "affordable housing" don’t properly explain the work of Micro Home Solutions . The company, based in Delhi, India, does occupy that housing space, but its more of an interdisciplinary design services company for low-income urban dwellers, drawing upon the insights of sociologists, urban planners, architects, policy-makers, and engineers to help create a sustainable living ecosystem for some of the world’s poorest residents...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Tags

housing

Indian Scavengers Doing What Officials Can’t

In cities and in the countryside, in forests and on beaches, along roads and riverbeds, India is choking on garbage. India generates more than 100 million tons of municipal waste a year. On a per capita basis, this is far lower than most developed countries, but the amount of garbage generated is growing fast. More problematically, very little of India’s waste is properly treated. The ...

Source

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

Region

South Asia

Tracing families? escape from poverty

For all the detailed tools developed to study finance in past decades, relatively few scholars have brought those methods to bear on a pressing social question: How do poor people manage their finances? Now, a long-term study of the poor in small villages in Thailand is shedding light on the issue. Having a sound financial strategy, including a commitment to saving money, has a large impact on lifting families out of poverty, the research reveals. Moreover, advances in wealth...

Source

MIT News (link opens in a new window)

India proposes regulating microfinanciers

MUMBAI (AFP) - An Indian central bank panel has put forward proposals for nationwide regulation of the microfinance sector after the industry was buffeted by accusations of lending abuses. The panel urged that interest rates on microloans be capped at 24 percent a year and that loans to the poor total no more than 25,000 ...

Source

AFP (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia