NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Behind the Seams: The Disadvantaged Women Creating Hong Kong Fashion

The founders of Dialog Worldbutik, Malaysian Dong Shing Chiu and New Generation Award winner Cassandra Postema, started their social business after the 2004 tsunami. They sold " Hope Tee " T-shirts for tsunami relief fundraising and expanded into women’s handbags and accessories using recycled materials by 2007. "Eco-friendly and fair trade is our trademark and the stories behind our designs are important. But the design...

Source

CNN Go (link opens in a new window)

Region

Asia Pacific

Fancy Solar Cooker a Possible Solution For Off-Grid Communities

Images via Yanko Design Solar cookers f...

Source

Treehugger.com (link opens in a new window)

In A Shift, Cubans Savor Working for Themselves

BAUTA, Cuba - Marisela Álvarez spends much of the day bent over a single electric burner in her small outdoor kitchen. Her knees are killing her. Her red hair smells of cooking oil. "I feel useful; I’m independent," said Ms. Álvarez, who opened a small cafe in November at her home in this scruffy town 25 miles from the capital, Havana. "When you sit down at the end of the day and look at how much you have made, you feel satisfied." Eagerly, warily, Cubans are tak...

Source

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

Region

Latin America

Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill

By Bill Taylor In a recent issue of The New Yorker , Atul Gawande, the gifted writer and accomplished doctor, published yet another of his must-read accounts of the health-care crisis and the innovators trying to change things for the better. One of the organizations he highl...

Source

Harvard Business Review (link opens in a new window)

CASE at Duke University Coordinating Research for B Lab and GIIRS

DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 02 /CSRwire/ - With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business is leading an effort to create priorities for future research for the national and global data being collected by B Lab and the Global Impact Investing Rating System. The Rockefeller Foundation is also providing support for B Lab and GIIRS. "B Lab and GIIRS are collecting a unique pool of data, ...

Source

CSRwire (link opens in a new window)

Social Entrepreneurs Cross Between ’Richard Branson and Mother Teresa’

In the developed and developing worlds, governments and business have failed to solve many endemic social problems. In response to that failure, social entrepreneurs are using innovative solutions to bring about measurable change. Such social enterprise has arrived in a big way. Bill Clinton advocates it. Billionaires such as Bill Gates and Jeff Skoll fund it. With a growing track record of successful not-for-loss enterprises, social entrepreneurship is an idea wh...

Source

news.com.au (link opens in a new window)

Nigeria: New Bakassi Chairman Talks Tough

Calabar - THE newly sworn-in Chairman of the New Bakassi Local Government Area, Dr. Ekpo Bassey has pledged his administration’s commitment to fighting poverty to a stand-still by building capacity of the youths and providing micro-credit to them to boost their businesses. Bassey who announced his plans in Calabar Monday after being sworn-in as chairman of the New Bakassi Local Government Area by the Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke his administration would collaborat...

Source

allAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Shoe Company Hopes to Kick-start Manufacturing in Africa

Made in Africa is not something you hear about very often. But Tal Dehtiar is trying to change that with his business, Oliberte, which he says is the first international company to market casual shoes made entirely in Africa. A Native-born Canadian, Dehtiar is one of a growing number of social entrepreneurs who want to do good while doing well. He launched his company two years ago, with an aim to make -- and sell -- shoes for the fashionista with a conscience. "For that man...

Source

CNN (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa