NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Emerging markets will be key to growth

Emerging economies will become a bigger slice of Procter & Gamble’s business in the next decade as it looks to ameliorate the effects of the US slowdown by tapping into the fast-growing markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Bob McDonald, chief operating officer of P&G, said that the consumer goods company had built strong positions in Russia and China but was finding India, a stronghold of UK-based rival Unilever, a tougher nut to crack. India is imp...

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Financial Times (link opens in a new window)

Exploring New Models to Serve the Majority

In Latin America, the majority of the population, approximately 360 million people, remains outside of the integrated economy, living on extremely low incomes and lacking access to basic goods and services such as energy, healthcare, and housing. This majority group shares other challenges such as high dependence on informal livelihoods and the poverty penalty, in effect a fine-a tax for being poor-in forms such as higher costs to obtain potable water and hours wasted ...

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MicroEnterprise Americas (link opens in a new window)

Pay For It

Many of the world’s poor don’t get good water because they don’t live near a piped water connection. Or if they have a connection, it is often bad and irregular, with backflow putting dangerous and dirty substances into the drinking water. The underlying problem is that many governments artificially hold down the price of water, or they won’t let water companies cut off nonpaying customers. The result is that water companies don’t want to serve these poor customers in the ...

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Forbes (link opens in a new window)

Free medical tool tackles disease

Our mission is to build a health records system in support of direct patient care, on the ground for the very poorest of the poor, Dr Paul Biondich, a paediatrician at the Regenstrief Institute in the US and one of the co-founders of OpenMRS told the BBC World Service’s Digital Planet. OpenMRS was formed in 2004 and is a free application that has already been rolled out in many African countries, including, Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda. The system has been des...

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BBC News (link opens in a new window)

Investors boost the ’missing middle’

William Foote had gained a place at Harvard Business School and was ready to go when he had what he calls an existential crisis. He had already spent some time working at Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) as an analyst in the Latin American corporate finance group. Then followed two years in Mexico on a journalism fellowship, reporting on socio-economic development. But neither his work on multimillion-dollar deals, such as securitisations of Mexican toll-road reve...

Businesses Making an Impact

While in medical school, John Sargent and fellow med student Ernest Darkoh, who had both spent a great deal of time overseas, found themselves pondering the question: Why is it that you can get a Coca Cola in remote areas of the world, but you can’t get aspirin? That’s when Sargent realized that the health-care community could learn a thing or two from for-profit businesses. And upon graduation, rather than practicing medicine, he and Darkoh sought out a heavy ...

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SmallBiz (link opens in a new window)

Poor markets make good cents ? phones, finance and innovation at the base of the pyramid

David Lehr is Senior Advisor, Social Innovations for Mercy Corps and has over fifteen years of experience in international business development focused on software, telecommunications and other technologies. He was a Fellow at Stanford University, holds a Masters from the University of California, San Diego, and a BA from the State University of New York at Albany. Lehr has lived and worked in several countries in Asia and currently consults for a number of non-profits, including Acumen Fund,...

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Receiver Magazine (link opens in a new window)

Poor Markets Make Good Cents ? Phones, Finance and Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid

By David Lehr and Daniel Greenstadt David Lehr is Senior Advisor, Social Innovations for Mercy Corps and has over fifteen years of experience in international business development focused on software, telecommunications and other technologies. He was a Fellow at Stanford University, holds a Masters from the University of California, San Diego, and a BA from the State University of New York at Albany. Lehr has lived and worked in several countries in Asia and cu...

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Vodafone Receiver (link opens in a new window)