NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Gates Foundation scales back ’grand’ plan for global health

Seven years ago, the Gates Foundation launched an ambitious effort to enlist scientists in solving some of the developing world’s most vexing health problems. The brightest minds brainstormed priorities. More than 1,500 proposals poured in from researchers around the world - including several Nobel laureates. The 45 winning ideas were dizzying in their variety: From creating more nutritious bananas to developing vaccines that need no ...

Source

The Seattle Times (link opens in a new window)

IFC to Push Yemen Microfinance

DUBAI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The World Bank is increasingly focusing on microfinance and small business loans in Yemen as the spike in violence this year is making it hard to find viable projects for investment, a senior official told Reuters. International donors are finding it harder to locate investment projects in the impoverished Arab state, crippling its efforts to diversify its economy away from hydrocarnons, said Raymond Conway, who represents Yemen at the International Finance Corp...

Source

Reuters (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Friedman: Do Believe the Hype

The Hindustan Times carried a small news item the other day that, depending on your perspective, is good news or a sign of the apocalypse. It reported that a Nepali telecommunications firm had just started providing third-generation mobile network service, or 3G, at the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, to "allow thousands of climbers and trekkers who throng the region every year access to high-speed Internet and video calls using t...

Source

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

Region

South Asia

Time Asks: ’Is This Time For Africa?’

Sending your money to Nigeria - just not in response to a scam e-mail from a deposed ruler’s secret son - might actually be a smart move. A growing number of Wall Street pros have been talking up Africa as the next great investment. Goldman Sachs asset-management chief Jim O’Neill, known for spotting the opportunity in Brazil, Russia, India and China and coining the term BRIC, says Africa has interesting potential. Top value investor Chuck Royce has...

Source

Time (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Banks support India microfinance lenders

India’s banking industry has thrown its support behind microfinance lenders after weeks of upheaval and confusion. Major banks like the State Bank of India, Standard Chartered and Citi have all agreed to continue lending to microfinance firms. The multi-billion dollar industry was on the brink of a mass default. ...

Source

BBC (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Allianz: By 2020 Fifth of Customers Will Be ’Very Low Income’

By 2020 a fifth of the people insured by Allianz will come from a very low income. That is the view of Michael Anthony, head of microinsurance at Allianz SE, who asked his view of the market in five years time added: "Looking at the global map of Allianz and microinsurance we see extremely strong growth patterns, particularly in Asia, less so in Africa as of yet, and to a solid degree in Latin America where we have a market in Colombia. "...

Source

Post Online (link opens in a new window)

Bureaucrats Fight Back in Battle to Help the Poor

Some microlenders and analysts in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh say that the backlash against the microlending industry is being partly fueled by branches of government that have not been as successful as the private sector at helping the poor. Even N. Chandr...

Source

The Wall Street Journal - India RealTime (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Ignia Fund Invests $3.1 Million in BoP Phone Firm

Ignia Fund I has invested MXN 38.1 million (USD 3.1 million) in Mexican public telephony operator Servicios Caseteros S.A.P.I. de C.V. (Barafon) to low income populations in Mexico through a network of independently owned micro-businesses. With funding from Ignia, Barafon will expand its network of micro-businesses, while developing additional products and services that are economically and socially beneficial to the base of the socioeconomic pyramid. Barafon has over 600 phone booths in four...

Source

Kansas City Star (link opens in a new window)