NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Local entrepreneurs drive a major West African water program.

A set of water and sanitation projects implemented by a well-funded water and sanitation program in Ghana, Mali and Niger has gone far beyond boreholes and pit latrines to improve public health. The efforts of 12 entities that have formed the West African Water Initiative broadened their community health goals with a variety of projects. Farmers are selling cat-sized rodents that are popular fare in big-city restaurants; women in fashionable boubous stand guard over standpipes along the roadsid...

Source

WorldView Magazine (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

“It is not a fringe business, it is half of the business.”

Squeezed between tenements and a grinding dual carriageway, Unilever is building the future of its global business in the the biggest slum in Sao Paolo. The building is a splash of powder blue in a drab world of corrugated iron and grime. The Omo Community Laundry is a temple of cleanliness in the middle of Heliopolis, a notorious favela, or slum, that is home to 150,000 Brazilians. You could dismiss it as public relations, free washes for the unwashed. But it’s a lot ...

Source

The Times (link opens in a new window)

Mobile Phone: A Tool For Modern Fishermen In Ghana

by Mawutodzi K. Abissath It is prudent to be guided by some of the thought-provoking African proverbs like this simple one: ?A child who has never traveled before tends to think that only his mother knows how to cook delicious soup.? --------- Long, long ago; and long before the Pyramids of Egypt were built and before Amenhotep IV a.k.a Akhenaton who was the first human being to proclaim monotheism or the concept of One God, passed through transition in 1350 B.C., traditional fi...

Source

mobile africa (link opens in a new window)

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

Piramal set for intl R&D deals

Andrew Jack And Khozem Merchant / Mumbai One of India’s leading pharmaceutical groups is set to sign a series of pioneering research and development agreements with large western groups, say executives. Swati Piramal, director of strategic alliances at Mumbai-based Nicholas Piramal, said senior delegations from leading multinational drugs companies had visited India in the past half-year, and some were set to announce collaborations with the company in a range of the...

Source

Business Standard (India) (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia

Quanta to build the $100 laptop

Taiwan’s Quanta, the biggest manufacturer of notebooks in the world, has signed on to the $100 laptop project. The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, which hopes to bring a $100 laptop championed by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte, has selected Quanta to serve as its original design manufacturer, or ODM. ODMs typically manufacture products, but also participate substantially in the final design. Although not many U.S. consumers know the name, many own Quant...

Source

CNET News.com, Michael Kanellos (link opens in a new window)

Taxation Policies Widening the Digital Divide

Governments must recognise that they have an important role in creating the right environment for telecommunications to grow. This study is the first of its kind covering emerging markets and focusing on developing public and private partnerships between the mobile industry and governments to eradicate the digital divide. East Africa has the highest tax burden on the mobile telephone industry in Africa. Uganda, with about 1.3 million mobile handsets, is r...

Source

The East African (Nairobi), Kezio David Musoke (link opens in a new window)

A Fine Mesh

Michael Freedman Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen’s textiles make a good profit by doing good. But suppose the funding dries up? For the moment, at least, Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen’s company is in the limelight, on the sixth floor of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Frandsen’s textiles are on display alongside creations from avant-garde sculptors and industrial designers. An odd forum to show off mosquito nets, the leading product of Vestergaard Frandsen S.A. of Laus...

Source

Forbes Magazine (link opens in a new window)

The Best in Class

Jeremy Caplan Business-school rankings often address how much graduates earn. But two nonprofits, the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute, assess M.B.A. programs by their commitment to social responsibility instead. Here are some of the progressive schools that ranked highest this year. See beyondgreypinstripes.org for the full list. ?STANFORD UNIVERSITY The survey’s top-rated school offers 30 elective courses on topics like environmental sustainability and...

Source

Time Bonus Section January 2006: Inside Business (link opens in a new window)