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

Fair Trade program helps small farmers benefit from global markets.

Thousands of Africans can escape poverty without a penny being given to charity, industry experts were told yesterday. Surging demand for organic cotton is giving farmers in the developing world the chance to enter into fair trade arrangements with western companies. Farmers in Tanzania are supplying cotton for Abaca, an organic mattress and bed specialist based in T Croes, near Ammanford. The relationship will allow farmers who have previously battled poverty ...

Source

IC Wales (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Business & Economy: Gifts That Bridge a Gulf

The name EthioGift might not ring a bell with the majority of Ethiopians who live in this country but it sure does have some value and has a bit of popularity among those in the diaspora. It is valued by them because it is a means that enables them to connect with their family and friends back home here. What EthioGift does is to charge them online through their credit cards for the gifts that will be delivered to whomever they choose. Our gift list consists of flowers, sheep, ...

Source

The Reporter (Addis Ababa), Bethlehem Kiros (link opens in a new window)

Ghana: World Bank Supports Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises (msme) Development

The World Bank Board of Directors today approved a credit[1] of US$45 million to support the implementation of Ghana’s MSME Project which forms part of a broader poverty reduction and private sector development strategies of the country. Most businesses in Ghana fall within the category of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and with an employment capacity of close to 70% of the Ghanaian labor force. They range from farming activities, agri-businesses, light manufacturing, art a...

Source

World Bank (Washington, DC), Press Release (link opens in a new window)

USAID program focuses on local SME development.

TechnoServe on December 22 signed an agreement to run an ambitious business development programme financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The five-year Swaziland Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Programme (SWEEP) will be officially launched at an event in Mbabane next month. It will drive economic growth and job creation in the Kingdom of Swaziland by developing and supporting Swazi-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), thus creating emplo...

Source

Swazi Observer (link opens in a new window)

Low-cost lamps brighten the future of rural India

KHADAKWADI, INDIA ? Until just three months ago, life in this humble village without electricity would come to a grinding halt after sunset. Inside his mud-and-clay home, Ganpat Jadhav’s three children used to study in the dim, smoky glow of a kerosene lamp. And when their monthly fuel quota of four liters dried up in just a fortnight, they had to strain their eyes using the light from a cooking fire. That all changed with the installation of low-cost, energy-efficient lamps that...

Source

The Christian Science Monitor, Anuj Chopra (link opens in a new window)

Indian government backs banks in drive towards the base of the pyramid.

Several banks have launched ’no-frills’ accounts in the recent weeks in response to the Reserve Bank of India’s call of social and financial inclusion of customers at the bottom of the pyramid. The central bank believes that with a little innovation, banks can make sound business sense by providing basic banking services. Last year, the Reserve Bank of India had emphasised more than once on the significance of greater financial inclusion - delivery of banking ...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Deutsche Bank increases funding to microentrepreneurs

A $75m global consortium led by Deutsche Bank, and featuring Standard Life and the Cooperative Bank, is one of the strongest signals yet that, as the United Nation’s 2005 ’year of micro-credit’ ends, bottom-up funding for micro-businesses in the world’s poorest countries could be a new financial market. The consortium, working with the US International Development agency, is the first fund of its kind to tap a wide range of western institutional investors for tiny loans to e...

Source

The Herald (link opens in a new window)

BON REPOS, Haiti -- Every morning, Nicolas Jean rises before dawn to milk his cow on his scruffy sliver of land. Then he pours the milk into plastic jugs, saddles up his horse and trots 2 1/2 hours along bumpy back roads to deliver the precious white liquid to a project that inspires hope for Haiti’s shattered economy. Jean’s destination is a microplant for L?t Agogo (Haitian Creole for Milk Galore), a franchise that makes yogurt and milk drinks. Launch...

Source

Newsday.com (link opens in a new window)