NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Social Entrepreneurs Seek New Investments to Reach a ’Tipping Point’

On Oxford University’s 900-year-old campus, the new field of social entrepreneurship - which blends business techniques and social goals - this week grappled with its need for more money to finance growth. Nonprofit leaders, scholars, business people, and policy makers from 40 countries gathered at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the Said Business School here. There’s still a shortage of funds, and the funds that are there are still ver...

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy (link opens in a new window)

Development Thrills Of Microfinance

Microfinance is often considered as one of the most effective and flexible strategies in the fight against global poverty. It is sustainable and can be implemented on a massive scale necessary to respond to the urgent needs of those living on less than N120 ($1) a day, i.e, the world’s poorest. If we close our eyes to the cities for a while and go back to the villages and rural areas, the effect of poverty and the developmental roles of microfinance can be felt in its fullest ...

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The Guardian (link opens in a new window)

Designing New Technologies for a Better Life

By Lauren Wi lcox World Ark Contributor In 1985, a young mechanical engineer named Martin Fisher traveled to Kenya on a Fulbright scholarship. Fisher planned to stay for a few months, putting his degree to meaningful use working on projects for the rural poor, but he soon found himself absorbed in the world of international development. Months turned into years as Fisher worked on rural water projects with communal wells, helped wo...

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World Ark Online (link opens in a new window)

Procter & Gamble’s Partnership with Non-profit organisations is Proof that Local Markets can be Won

Procter & Gamble’s partnership with non-profit organisations is proof that local markets can be won over to new products. In 2003, a $20 million R&D and marketing project at Procter & Gamble (P&G) had reached a financial impasse after eight years of work. A decade earlier, the company had spotted an opportunity to supply a water-purifying product to the developing world, which, it was hoped, would increase the company’s share of the mas...

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World Business (link opens in a new window)

Interview with Gelber Prize Winner Paul Collier

LONDON - I think that economists have a responsibility to write in such a way to be read by ordinary people and by political leaders, the bearded and bespectacled Oxford professor says, in a quiet and careful tone, from his home in France. So I wrote a book that’s very readable. That may not sound like a humble claim, but then Paul Collier has very clearly been read by a lot of people lately. His book, The Bottom Billion, argues plainly and often ru...

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Globe and Mail (link opens in a new window)

The In-betweeners

A lot is expected of the middle class in emerging economies. But they just want a quiet life. Two jars of chickpeas, 20 bars of soap, three packs of cigarettes and six sachets of shampoo-all these items and more are in stock at a village store five hours away from the Indian city of Hyderabad. It is the leanest of inventories, and yet it supports great hopes. Combined with a scrap-metal business, the store is just enough to lift its owners into the ranks of India’...

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The Economist (link opens in a new window)

4 Lessons to Learn from Tata’s Nano

The announcement in January by Tata Motors of its newest car, the Nano, was revealing on many levels. The announcement generated extensive coverage and commentary, but just about everyone missed the Nano’s real significance, which goes far beyond the car itself. But, OK, let’s start with the car itself - particularly the price. At about $2,500 retail, the Nano is the most inexpensive car in the world. Its closest competitor, the Maruti 800, made in India by Maruti Udyog, sells...

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Business Week Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

A Tightening Jobs Market is a Hugely Powerful Engine for Poverty Reduction

D. Murali and G. Padmanaban Chennai: Much has been talked about ?fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’. But do we find big corporates discovering the ?fortune’? Does it make good economics for the companies? At the very bottom of the pyramid there are no fortunes to be made because purchasing power is so low, says Mr Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University .

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The Hindu (link opens in a new window)