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Locally Raised Solutions: Brazilian small farms cater to a budding organic market
By Lucy Conger S mall family farms are an endangered species in Brazil, as in many countries of the developing world. Saving farmers from the threat of extinction?or migration to cities where their skills cannot be used and they lose their connection to the land?is the mission of ARCO Contestado, a regional marketing agency based in Mafra, a city of about 50,000 residents and the center of a micro-region of a dozen smaller towns in the sta...
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Millions to Benefit From Intervet Project in India
Akzo Nobel’s animal healthcare business, Intervet, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to exclusively supply veterinary products for a special project in India which could benefit more than two million rural families. (CSRwire) Arnhem, the Netherlands ? Akzo Nobel’s animal healthcare business, Intervet, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to exclusively supply veterinary products for a special project in India which could benefit more than two million rural families...
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Tanzania Receives Assistance for Private Sector Competitiveness Project
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$95 million for a Private Sector Competitiveness Project which would support the implementation of Tanzania’s National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction which, among other things, aims to transform the country’s economy through private sector growth. The Private Sector Competitiveness Project will help generate sustainable conditions for enterprise cre...
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Thank You for Your Purchase – a Mobile Phone Turns Into a Credit Card Terminal
There have been a number of obstacles to increasing e-transactions in Africa, even in those countries visited by large numbers of tourists. Two of the most important have been the cost of the Point of Sale equipment and the other has been the high cost of dealing with relatively small numbers of transactions. South African company iVeri Payment Technology has come up with a solution that tackles both of these obstacles. Isabelle Gross reports on how it works. In South Africa, Namibia...
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Muhammad Yunus: Microcredit Missionary
As a young economics professor at Chittagong University in Bangladesh in 1976, Muhammad Yunus lent $27 out of his own pocket to a group of poor craftsmen in the nearby town of Jobra. To boost the impact of that small sum, Yunus volunteered to serve as guarantor on a larger loan from a traditional bank, kindling the idea for a village-based enterprise called the Grameen Project. It never occurred to the professor that his gesture would inspire a whole category of lending and propel him to the to...
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The Honey Bee Network taps grassroots innovations.
Three months ago, at a CII symposium on decoding rural markets where rural marketing gurus spoke of their approach to capturing the largely unaccrued volumes of rural consumption, one person turned the entire focus of the meet on its head. Anil Gupta, executive chairperson, National Innovation Foundation, later said: I was shocked at how little those marketers knew about rural India. All they could talk about was dumbing down their advertising, and redesigning products for thei...
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India lays foundation for BOP market expansion
New Delhi, Dec. 16: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today mooted a ?specific financing window? for the ambitious Rs 1,74,000-crore Bharat Nirman programme. ?We are proposing a specific financing window for Bharat Nirman through Nabard for funding selected components, although most of the resources will come from the government?s development outlays,? Singh told a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The conference, which marks the formal launch...
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Insurance Scheme to Help Pregnant Migrant Workers
Some female migrant workers and their babies in Guangzhou have died unnecessarily in childbirth because they are treated in illegal hospitals. Migrant women are giving birth to more children than local women yet earn so little they cannot afford to pay regular hospital bills. Plans are afoot to deal with the problem by bringing in a childbirth insurance. It would be ...
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