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    Tiny grants, big hope in AIDS fight

    In the Mashuru area of Kenya, a single woman with HIV who had no source of income now runs a small general store, is self-sufficient and, most importantly, is eating properly, thanks to a $140 grant from World Vision. In the same region, a group of 15 women have used a $1,400 grant from the humanitarian organization to expand a small business of rearing goats for sale at market, using the added profit to care for HIV orphans and vulnerable children in their villag...
  • Blog Post
    Microcredit in India: Will It Last?

    Two weeks ago on these pages, Rob Katz blogged about an opinion piece in the New York Times, which discussed India?s brewing controversy over microcredit.? Last week, The Economist followed suit, writing its own opinion of the controversy, which, I must confess, is a lot rosier.? Here are...
  • Blog Post
    The Latest News on the $100 Laptop

    This fall more than 500 children in Thailand will be part of a pilot program for ?quality testing and debugging? of the $100 laptop.? The One Laptop Per Child program, which is supplying the computers, is the brainchild of tech guru Nicholas Negroponte, who has spent the last several years...
  • News
    A Firm Foundation

    Excerpt: We can?t all be Warren Buffett: The 75-year-old billionaire recently announced that he would donate $37 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which works to alleviate disease and poverty in developing countries. But that doesn?t mean that we turn a blind eye to the world?s problems: Sometimes, the most seemingly mundane of objects can spark great opportunities for change. For Laila Iskandar, founder and managing director of the Community and Institutional Developm...
  • News
    Businesses Cash in on Water

    Excerpt: Everyone knows there is a lot of money to be made in oil. But a fresh group of big businesses is discovering there may be even greater profit in a more prosaic liquid: water. ?You?ve got exploding urban populations, increased pollution and a need to address those things in a meaningful way,?? said Ian Barbour, general manager of Dow Chemical?s Water Solutions unit. ?Of course, we?re investing significantly in the water business.? Most analysts expect the water mar...
  • Blog Post
    Summer Reading Series: A Swing Through Amazon

    Yesterday, I recommended a back issue of IDBAmerica; today, I?m piggybacking on conventional wisdom to determine my book recommendations. I am an infrequent Amazon.com user, but I am sold on their community-driven recommendation feature. You know what I?m talking about ? if you click on a...
  • Blog Post
    Will Bureaucrats Ruin Microfinance?

    A column in today?s New York Times suggests Indian microfinance institutions might soon be subject to regulations, such as interest rate caps, that would force them to dramatically reduce or even halt operations. Why must governments see the private sector only as a threat, and never as a...
  • Blog Post
    More Developments: Fostering a Sustainable Business Climate in Asia

    Since covering the lighter side of sustainable enterprise in China last week, I thought it would be helpful to discuss a more practical effort underway to make social and environmental impacts a mainstream consideration among businesses in the quickly developing East Asian region. ASrIA has...
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