NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Healthcare focus tackles the heart of the matter

I have been in Nairobi for 10 weeks, but in terms of knowledge and experience accumulated it feels like aeons. I am working as an intern with Acumen Fund, a global social venture fund. It provides equity and debt financing to enterprises that use market-based approaches to supply goods and services to the base of the pyramid - people earning under $4 (€2.79, £2.42) a day. My focus is on healthcare systems in East Africa, in particular mapping out the ecosystem for health...

Source

Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Doing Business in the Developing World’s Toughest Markets

The developing world is home to some of the most challenging markets for any business: Urban slums. Rural backwaters. Lawless regions and battle zones. But hundreds of millions of potential customers live in these places, and a few pioneering companies are thriving there. Their success offers lessons on how to tap these complex environments for profits and growth. All of these markets share certain challenges. They often lack functioning legal systems, so contracts are r...

Source

Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

A Global Surge in Tiny Loans Spurs Credit Bubble in a Slum

RAMANAGARAM, India -- A credit crisis is brewing in "microfinance," the business of making the tiniest loans in the world. Microlending fights poverty by helping poor people finance small businesses -- snack stalls, fruit trees, milk-producing buffaloes -- in slums and other places where it’s tough to get a normal loan. But what began as a social experiment to aid the world’s poorest has also shown it can turn a profit. That has attracted private-equity funds and other for...

Source

Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Financial exclusion has to end

The inclusive story is still a distant dream. Despite the government drive to reduce the unbankable population, the status is far from rosy. With less than 50% of India’s population operating a bank account

Source

Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

Business for the people, by the people, of the people

Mahatma Gandhi gave independent India’s leaders a test for their policies. Consider how they will benefit the poorest man, he said. India’s Constitution gave political freedom to all Indians. All, rich and poor, men and women, were given the right to vote: before the US and several European countries had given such rights to their citizens. In the 1990s, new policies brought economic freedoms to Indians that they had been denied earlier: the freedom to start and...

Source

Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

New Corporate Structure Could Give Social Entrepreneurs New Funding Stream

By Ann Meyer After nearly four decades of running a staffing agency on a shoestring budget, John Plunkett hopes the next business he starts will be a moneymaker thanks to a new law that recognizes for-profit businesses with a strong social bent. The law, After nearly four decades of running a staffing agency on a shoestring budget, John Plunkett hopes the next business he starts will be a moneymaker thanks to a new law that recognizes for-profit businesses with a strong soci...

Source

Chicago Tribune (link opens in a new window)

Collegiate altruists to converge on UNC

CHAPEL HILL -- Building sustainable gardens in Argentina, constructing chicken coops in Tanzania and building an irrigation system in Bolivia are examples of projects performed by Nourish International, an organization that is hosting its second annual Summer Institute that will take place on the UNC campus from Thursday to Aug. 10. College students from 30 campuses across the country will be traveling to Chapel Hill to attend the Summer Institute, a five-day training conference t...

Source

The Herald-Sun (link opens in a new window)

Social Entrepreneurs from around the World Come to Santa Clara

Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society will soon kick off a two-week program as part of its Global Social Benefit Incubator, in which venture capitalists and technology executives trade ideas with social entrepreneurs from around the world. These innovators and entrepreneurs will descend on Silicon Valley August 16-28 for an intensive, two-week residential "boot camp" intended to boost their socially conscious business ventures into the realm of sustain...

Source

Business Wire (link opens in a new window)