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Will Low-Cost Laptops Help Kids in Developing Countries?
The nonprofit organization One Laptop Per Child is working to develop computers that could be built for just $100 each and distributed to children in developing countries. So far the organization has won the backing of some major technology companies as well as the United Nations. Intel Corp., which initially had its own low-cost PC design, decided to join the effort1 in July. The OLPC expects to begin mass producing its laptops, which are designed to be used outdoors and can be power...
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Micro-finance Gives Developing World a Chance to Ease Poverty
An email has just arrived in my inbox from an organisation called Kiva, telling me that a Cambodian woman I recently lent money to, Pork Saru, has made a repayment of $28 (?13.88, e20.54). Twelve other people from all over the world received the same email. In June, the 13 of us lent Saru a total of $500. She used the loan to buy a motorcycle to transport goods more easily to the grocery store she owns, and to improve her product range. None of the lenders knew each other, and none of...
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Can Rural Finance Take Root in China? About 750 Million People Hope So
The Agricultural Bank of China’s showcase microfinance project -- its only such project -- is based in a small but tidy office in a dry mountain region in the country’s far west. Founded in the early 1990s with Australian development money, the program -- which doles out small loans of less than $250 each -- is directed at three of the poorest counties in China. It has been a boon to local farmers who have used the money to buy chickens and seeds, and? even open small stores that sell...
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Brightening the Night in Africa
A World Bank Group initiative will help bring light to 250 million Sub-Saharan Africans who don?t have electricity. The Lighting Africa initiative includes the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, other development organizations, local lighting suppliers and service providers, and the international marketplace. September 5, 2007 ? A World Bank Group initiative will help bring light to 250 million Sub-Saharan Africans who don?t have electricity. The Lighting Africa initiati...
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India’s Rural Poor: Why Housing Isn’t Enough to Create Sustainable Communities
India’s desire to become the world’s next big economic power is as real as the enormous challenges it faces in raising the social and economic well being of its rural populations. According to Abraham George, founder of The George Foundation, an NGO focused on poverty alleviation in South India, The issue of adequate housing is integral to poverty reduction and social justice in India. In this opinion piece, George describes the living conditions of the rural poor and argues ...
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Chu, Rodriguez Form Social Enterprise VC Fund
Michael Chu , co-founder of Pegasus Capital , a South American private equity firm and Alv?ro Rodr?guez Arregu? , former CFO of restructured glass manufacturer Vitro have teamed up to launch Ignia. The venture capital firm is focused on investing in and developing commercial and socially inclusive enterprises for the lowest socio-economic sectors. Rodr?guez says the fund will concentrate its first phase of operations in Mexico, but hopes to expand ...
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The Wealth of Nations
A country’s competitive edge can spread industry to industry, like a disease The economies of poor and developing countries often depend almost exclusively on a single product?perhaps timber or coffee?or on a handful of products at most. That’s hardly a startling observation, but what’s puzzled economists over the years is why it’s been so difficult for these countries to start up new activities in the hope of spurring economic growth and lifting themselves out of poverty.
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In Turbulent Pakistan, Start-Ups Drive a Boom
Pakistan’s political scene is growing more clouded, but a clear demonstration of confidence in the country’s future is coming from an emerging economic force: entrepreneurs. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan’s political scene is growing more clouded, but a clear demonstration of confidence in the country’s future is coming from an emerging economic force: entrepreneurs. Scores of new businesses once unseen in Pakistan, from fitness studios to chic coffee shops to hair-tr...
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