NextBillion - A WDI Publication

India lays foundation for BOP market expansion

New Delhi, Dec. 16: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today mooted a ?specific financing window? for the ambitious Rs 1,74,000-crore Bharat Nirman programme. ?We are proposing a specific financing window for Bharat Nirman through Nabard for funding selected components, although most of the resources will come from the government?s development outlays,? Singh told a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The conference, which marks the formal launch...

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The Telegraph (link opens in a new window)

Insurance Scheme to Help Pregnant Migrant Workers

Some female migrant workers and their babies in Guangzhou have died unnecessarily in childbirth because they are treated in illegal hospitals. Migrant women are giving birth to more children than local women yet earn so little they cannot afford to pay regular hospital bills. Plans are afoot to deal with the problem by bringing in a childbirth insurance. It would be ...

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China Daily (link opens in a new window)

Why the Near East Foundation (NEF) Engages Women in Development

Countries that promote women’s rights and increase their access to resources and schooling have lower poverty rates, faster economic growth and less corruption than countries that do not. Countries with smaller gaps between women and men in areas like education, employment, and property rights not only have lower child malnutrition and mortality, they also have more transparent business and government and faster econo...

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alertnet (link opens in a new window)

Can Technology Eliminate Poverty?

Grameen Bank Founder Muhammad Yunus thinks so. And he explains why changing the world is a lot more fun than just making money. As a leading microfinance pioneer and advocate for the world’s poor, Muhammad Yunus has continued developing innovative approaches to alleviating poverty since granting his first loan in 1976. Since 1983, Grameen Bank, of which Yunus is founder and managing director, has lent $5.3 million to borrowers in Bangladesh, spawning replicated programs in more ...

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Business Week (link opens in a new window)

A project originally designed to bring Indian agricultural exporter ITC closer to its rural producti

So there’s little question farmers have gained from the programme, but like any good business, ITC’s motives weren’t entirely altruistic. The company has invested a significant sum in the eChoupal project, so far installing well over 5,000 kiosks that, including extras like solar panels and batteries as well as additions to the company’s back-end architecture, cost an estimated US$5,000 apiece. But a smoother logistics chain and the ability...

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MIS (link opens in a new window)

Robert David STEELE Vivas, CEO of OSS.Net, the international proponent for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), has today announced a new global campaign to deliver tailored open source information to the poor, as a means of helping them lift themselves from poverty. C.K. Prahalad is a genius, and his book, ’The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,’ is well-deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. His math is impeccable: 4 billion poor, with $1000 a year to spend on average, is...

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Yahoo Financial News (link opens in a new window)

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...

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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)