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Bra Straps Bootstrap Fair-Trade Business
The operation began last summer, when Styles asked her sister-in-law in Cali, Colombia, to help fix a fashion flub - bra straps that show under tank tops and other shoulder-baring shirts. A master of beadwork, the woman took a half-hour to make two, adjustable beaded straps that could be attached to a strapless bra with built-in tabs. The straps are meant to be shown. Styles had been haunted by Colombia’s poverty for years. In Cali, a city of 1.6 milli...
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Unitus Equity Fund L.P. Invests $1,000,000 in Credex
We’re delighted to be the Unitus Equity Fund’s first investment in Mexico, said Credex Founder and CEO Eduardo Gallardo. Since we started in 2002 Credex has achieved tremendous growth. With the Fund’s investment, we’re in a position to finalize the implementation of our new microfinance methodology and provide financial services to even more of Mexico’s working poor and underserved population. That we can attract international financing such as the Unitus Eq...
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Microfinance: What Role for Commercial Banks?
In a new report, Microfinance: What Role for Commercial Banks?, Celent analyzes the microfinance industry and provides detailed information on microfinance stakeholders. Better know-how, technology, greater access to funds, and enhanced capacity make commercial banks the most qualified to meet the untapped demand of microentrepreneurs. Profitability, diversification of products and services, and outreach can be done more quickly using new information and com...
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Bangladeshi who founded bank for poor wins peace prize
Yunus, dubbed Banker to the Poor, began fighting poverty during a 1974 famine in Bangladesh. He set up a small bank, Grameen Bank, to give them access to credit. Yunus is the developer and founder of the concept of microcredit for entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. The Bangladeshi who established a bank for the poor has been named winner of the eighth Seoul Peace Prize. The biennial prize of 200,000 dollars, awarded to M...
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Nigeria: Govt, Not Business, Can Deliver Services – Oxfam
Only governments can effectively deliver services like health and education to the poorest, development group Oxfam said in a report yesterday critical of groups like the World Bank for hindering poverty programs by pushing private-sector solutions. The report comes a year after industrial nations pledged to double aid to poor countries by 2010, and donors and development groups look closer at how aid can be made more effective in fighting poverty. Only government...
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HLL, ITC draw up two-pronged strategies to woo customers
India?s two major FMCG players in rural markets are now extending their reach to woo new consumers. Project Shakti will be operational across all states in India. The company also plans to cover 500,000 villages with 100,000 Shakti Ammas (women entrepreneurs) in the next two years. Competitor ITC Ltd is also planning to set up 50 Choupal Sagars (rural super stores) by the end of this fiscal year. India?s largest FMCG company Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL)is gearing up to launch its rural...
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US jeans major, Arvind Mills in JV
The $7-billion VF Corporation of US is setting up a joint venture with Arvind Mills to design, market and distribute VF’s branded lifestyle apparel in India. Many will recognize Arvind as the company behind Ruf-n-Tuf jeans, a BOP innovation documented by C.K. Prahalad and Stuart Hart in their article, Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid in 2002.?
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China to bring clean, safe water to all rural residents by 2015
According to Wang, the central government will increase investment in rural water supply projects and encourage more private investment in rural infrastructure construction. One hundred and sixty million people in China’s rural areas will get clean and safe drinking water in the next five years and by 2015 all Chinese rural residents will be provided with safe potable water, Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng told Xinhua on Monday. Wang said currently 312 million Chinese ...
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