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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...
A Firm FoundationNews
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...
Businesses Cash in on WaterBlog Post
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...
Summer Reading Series: A Swing Through AmazonBlog Post
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...
Will Bureaucrats Ruin Microfinance?Blog Post
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...
More Developments: Fostering a Sustainable Business Climate in AsiaNews
By Charo Quesada The poor in Latin America and the Caribbean tend to live on the margins of the financial mainstream. Unfamiliar with and distrustful of commercial banks, they rely entirely on cash transactions and informal financial services such as those provided by loan sharks. Improving the situation of millions of families who cannot save money, obtain loans, increase their assets, mitigate risks or transfer resources securely is one of the central objectives of the I...
The roots of financial democracyNews
Excerpt: OVER the last dozen years, the view from Gemima Mukashyaka?s small coffee garden in the lush emerald-green hills of southwestern Rwanda has changed. In 1994, after the genocide that killed 800,000 people, it was a site of devastation, chaos and abandonment. Five years ago, when worldwide coffee prices spiraled downward, her neighbors in the densely populated region near Butare were uprooting their coffee trees and planting quick-growing food crops to survive. But today, there...
Coffee, and Hope, Grow in RwandaNews
Excerpt from Interview: Futhi Mtoba, Chairman of Deloitte Southern Africa, provides a look at where the corporate responsibility movement stands in South Africa, particularly as it relates to poverty alleviation. According to Mtoba, there is general understanding, and even genuine desire on the part of business to do something, but for various reasons implementation is lacking. One solution for increasing momentum, says Mtoba, is to develop better methods of...
More Action Needed By Business in South Africa On Poverty
