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

Calling an end to poverty

All eyes are on what governments can do to end poverty, with aid, debt relief and trade top of the agenda at this week’s G8 summit. But what about the role that business can play?and, in particular, technology firms? It is increasingly clear that, when it comes to bridging the ?digital divide? between rich and poor, the mobile phone, not the personal computer, has the most potential. ?Emerging markets will be wireless-centric, not PC-centric,? says C. K. Prahalad, a management scholar and au...

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The Economist

Study Challenges Assumptions About Money Being Remitted to Mexico

Sending money home to Mexico is a ritual in the migrant experience in the United States. The modest wire transfers of cash pay for food, school supplies, even a new home for family members left behind in Mexico. But a new study has cast doubt on the amount of transfers - $16.6 billion last year - that actually goes to families. The study, by an official in the Social Development Ministry and two professors at the College of the Northern Border, a research institute outside Tijua...

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The New York Times

Limpopo Farmers Sell Fresh Produce By Cellphone, by Lesley Stones

The hand-embroidered skirts and bead-encrusted shawls of Makuleke village in Limpopo have been joined by an another equally decorative accessory -- the cellphone. Farmers in the rural community have become the first in SA to test a project giving them instant access to produce prices over their cellphones. The farmers on the edge of the Kruger National Park have struggled to make decent money from their crops, not realising the tomatoes and onions they resell for a few cen...

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Business Day

US Business Leaders See Pockets of Opportunity in Africa, by Serena Parker

American business leaders say they welcome the increased attention, but are quick to point out that while much of Africa remains mired in poverty and disease, there are pockets of opportunity. Joseph Grandmaison, who sits on the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, says American companies shouldn’t be scared off by a conflict in one part of Africa. I tease friends by saying ’we’re not very good at geography.’ The fact is ...

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VOA News

Shot To The Heart

Marketers are using every P in their arsenal... Whether it?s product innovation, pricing, placement strategy or promotion, the target is the same: Penetration, the biggest P of them all. There are millions of Indian consumers who?ve never tasted a Coke or a Pepsi, visited a mall or flashed a credit card in their entire lives. They live, eat, and shop in a world that most brands we know of aren?t a part of ? they?re the much-hailed market, once famously described as the ma...

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The Economic Times

Seaweed Farming Helps Women in Tanzania

When 21-year-old Mwajuma Hamisi finished high school a few years ago, the only future she could envision was finding a husband as quickly as possible, to spare her family the burden of taking care of her. Instead, Hamisi found seaweed. Used by companies in the West as an additive in processed meat, toothpaste, mascara, beer and other products, seaweed is helping villagers in this Indian Ocean archipelago find their way out of poverty -- and has improved the lives of women in ways they...

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Associated Press

The private sector is convinced that it can contribute to one of the G8 summit?s key aims by playing to its strengths. As the G8 leaders? summit opens at Gleneagles in Scotland in early July, world poverty is expected to be high on the agenda. The decision to cancel all debt for 18 developing countries this month has set the ball rolling. British prime minister Tony Blair, who heads the G8 group this year, has repeatedly said since the World Economic Forum in January that Africa ...

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Ethical Corporation

Profits, A Penny At a Time

At the Group of Eight summit this week in Gleneagles, Scotland, the leaders of rich countries will be talking about how they can aid poor countries. That’s a noble mission, but a remarkable new book argues that it misses the point. Treating the poor as wards of the global economy ignores the fact that they are a vast market -- and that companies can profit right now by serving their needs. If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burde...

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The Washington Post