NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Foreign Aid and Bad Government: Helping Entrepreneurs is the Right Approach

By IQBAL Z. QUADIR Barack Obama has talked a lot about changing the way America relates to the world, and few areas are as ripe for reform as our policies on foreign aid. They have contributed to economic stagnation in poor countries and deprived America of large export markets. Entrepreneurship, not aid, is essential to rejuvenate markets in the developing world and, in turn, help America prosper. During the Cold War, the U.S. instituted a policy of sending money ...

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Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Base of the Pyramid Innovations Offer Growth Opportunities for Business and Communities

Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 30 January 2009 Despite the economic downturn, companies can find growth opportunities among the 3.7 billion people at the base of the pyramid (BOP) by adopting innovative strategies that benefit local communities, according to two reports released today by the World Economic Forum. The companion reports, entitled The Next Billions, present examples of successful BOP business ventures based on a year-long survey - drawn fro...

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World Economic Forum Press Release (link opens in a new window)

Capital Flows to Developing World at Risk of Collapse

Capital flows to emerging markets are in danger of collapsing this year as the financial crisis in advanced economies risks choking off the supply of credit to the developing world, an association of large banks warned on Tuesday. The Institute for International Finance forecasts net private sector capital flows to emerging markets will be no more than $165bn (?125bn, ?116bn) this year, less than half the $466bn inflow in 2008 and only one fifth of the amount sent in the peak year of ...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Better Stoves for the Poor

IF USER demand were the sole driver of innovation, the biomass cooking stove would be one of the most sophisticated devices in the world. Depending on which development agency you ask, between two-and-a-half and three billion people?nearly half the world?s population?use a stove every day, in conjunction with solid fuel such as wood, dung or coal. Yet in many parts of the world the stove has barely progressed beyond the Stone Age. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that tox...

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The Economist (link opens in a new window)

India: The Fastest Growing Telecom Market

India has emerged as the fastest growing telecom market in the world, attracting not just global service providers like Britian-based Vodafone but also big handset manufacturers like Finland’s Nokia that not too long ago was reluctant to make an entry because of low volumes. For a country that stood at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of telecom penetration a decade ago, 2008 was a watershed when India’s subscriber base topped 350 million users to make its network the second largest in...

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Trading Markets (link opens in a new window)

Sunil Jain: Top of the pyramid

Management guru CK Prahalad popularised the concept of the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), and among others, the country’s top mobile phone players seem to be taking this quite seriously given how they?re wooing BOP customers. It is, however, not quite clear how this strategy will pay off. According to a study by consulting firm BDA with chamber of commerce Ficci, the top 9 per cent of mobile phone users in India contribute 29 per cent to industry?s revenues and 45 per...

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Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

How Access to Information Can Tackle Poverty and Pollution

By Andy Posner What I realized, then, is that the poor need access to information far more urgently than they need handouts and subsidies. Still, that’s a risky statement to make, as many will argue that given a choice between, say, a cell phone and a meal, the vast majority of poor people will choose the meal. However, a fascinating NY Times article from last year titled ’Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?,’ argues that, given precisely that choice, most ...

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Huffington Post (link opens in a new window)

Female Empowerment and the Promise of Microfinance

By Roshaneh Zafar Recently, I came across a quote from Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish statesman of the eighteenth century, ?the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing? (parentheses and emphasis, mine). The emphasis on ?women? is obviously my attempt to remind us that we need to review Pakistan?s situation through a gender lens. Looking at the recent events in Pakistan, I feel, at times, that a malaise ? a malaise of indifference -...

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The News - Pakistan (link opens in a new window)