NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Transdniestria Law Boosts Private Homeownership, Gives Legal Title to the Poor

A new law by parliament in Transdniestria (Pridnestrovie) streamlines property ownership for the poor. It makes registration of rural homes possible even when no papers or title exist. The reforms are based on a wealth-creation roadmap by Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist. TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Coherent legal and property rights systems provide the difference in whether nations are economically successful. - The role of government is to protect economi...

Source

Tiraspol Times (link opens in a new window)

Creating Value at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Acumen has been spotting entrepreneurs keen to invest money in low-income markets in the areas of health, energy, housing and water. Can markets work for the poor? Acumen Fund, a non-profit venture fund, believes so. In Mumbai, the fund has tied up with the pharmacy chain Medicine Shop, which has 140 shops in high-end locations like Gurgaon bordering Delhi. The tie-up has given Medicine Shop, a new identity. It has opened new branches in the slums of Mumbai. The shops hav...

Source

Business Standard (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Third World Way

The UN Global Compact may be the best way to draw corporations into the development process. Is its optimism justified? A CERTAIN zeal pervades meetings of the United Nations Global Compact. Not surprising, as its cause is lofty: to harness the power of business to make the world a richer, fairer and cleaner place. The idea is catching on. In early July, the compact?s annual summit drew over a thousand delegates to Geneva?s lakeside, from government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs...

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The Economist (link opens in a new window)

Procter & Gamble To Benefit In All But Name From Water Purifier

It is common for a company to donate some of its best-selling products to poor countries or poor neighborhoods to display good corporate citizenship. But how often does a company develop a product expressly for philanthropy, and then discover there is a market for it at home? That is what Procter & Gamble has been doing with sachets of its Pur water purifying powder, which it has distributed at cost in water-challenged countries for more than a decade. The program was n...

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International Herald Tribune (link opens in a new window)

The YouTube Effect Is a Wake-up Call

Niche products rather than the mass market: Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine and best-selling author explains the business of the future. Steven Soranno : Innovation is commonly believed to involve a high degree of creativity and thinking outside the box. In that sense, it can be thought of as more of an art than a science. What does innovation mean to you? Chris Anderson: Innovation is advancing the ball. It is evolving or creating...

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Credit-Suisse e-magazine (link opens in a new window)

Think Small- Brand Equity

They are everywhere ? in the industrial belts of Okhla and Badarpur around Delhi, the twisting lanes and bylanes of Bhiwandi and Aurangabad in Maharashtra; the teeming outskirts of Kanpur; the agricultural flats surrounding Ludhiana; in the shadows of Lucknow?s many masjids and maqbaras, and along the palm-fringed backwaters of Kerala. They are the innumerable small and medium-sized Indian enterprises that are busy advertising and building brands at one level or another ? without any help from I...

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Economic Times (India) (link opens in a new window)

P&G’s Global Target: Shelves of Tiny Stores

Every day, Martina P?rez D?az spends about five hours sewing 70 pairs of black loafers by hand for a wage of 120 pesos, or about $11. When she wants to wash her hair, she walks to her local tiendita, or small store, to buy a 0.34 ounce, single-use packet of Procter & Gamble Co.’s Head & Shoulders shampoo. The price: two pesos, or about 19 cents. That I usually can afford, she says. [Martina Perez Diaz] Shoppers like Ms. D?az factor heavily i...

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Wall Street Journal (link opens in a new window)

Region

Latin America

Trick Lies in Treating the Poor as if They Are Rich

THE idea that money can be made from the poor has attracted much interest in the past couple of years, fuelled by books such as The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid and Banker to the Poor. Brazil is one market with plenty of potential. Millions of people live near the poverty line. Income distribution is among the most unequal in the world. More than half of all jobs are in the informal sector. More than half of the economically active population have no bank account.

Source

Business Day (link opens in a new window)