-
From the Field: The Livestock Sector
Despite the clear value that livestock offers BoP farmers and producers offer, in Kenya it’s clear there many areas of the sector still could be enhanced. This includes moving toward decentralizing the animal health system, providing insurance to producers and educating livestock producers, all of which present opportunities for BoP ventures.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Guest Post: Why My Classroom is a Startup
I have always dreamt of starting my own chain of low cost affordable schools.That dream motivated me to join the Teach For India Fellowship. My small classroom was without the basic necessities. So my 27 students and I are learning the basics of sustainable business. For me, the students are not only the product, but also the customer.
- Categories
- Education
-
Beyond BASE: The Needs Are Here Now, So Are the Markets
The Inter-American Development Bank’s Opportunities for the Majority Initiative recently held its first international event on Business at the Base of the Pyramid. BoP "thought" history was made as business leaders from across Latin America mixed with NGOs, think tanks, consulting firms and other players. Here just a few themes that emerged.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Applying Behavioral Economics to the Developing World
Complex design requirements, non-existent supply chain routes, extreme poverty - these are all unique issues that entrepreneurs have to combat when developing or producing products/services for the BoP. But what happens when the your client base acts irrationally or doesn’t follow the ’model’ you’ve based your business on?
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
-
Escaping the Survival Trap
The ’survival trap’ is a tendency for individuals, businesses and nations to focus on short-term crises at the expense of developing long-term strategies for prosperity. This vicious cycle keeps individuals poor, businesses struggling, and nations under-developed. The right skills and mindset are needed in order to escape the survival trap.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Making the Global Ad Market Work for the BoP, One Bike At a Time
Global advertising spending is forecast to surpass $500 billion in 2011. When Coca Cola paints a roadside kiosk in Kikuyu, they’re paying someone. Why doesn’t that someone include you? That’s the question social entrepreneur Magali Bongrand asked in founding INSTINCT - a social enterprise leveraging corporate ad money to finance social ventures.
- Categories
- Environment
-
The BoP Project: Focusing on Quality, Not Quantity, in Rwanda Coffee
Over the past ten years, a unique program has been brewing in the Rwandan coffee industry, relying on the international demand for high-quality, specialty coffee (not always "fair trade" certified), and helping increase the income of small coffee farmers in this rapidly growing country.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Walking in the Customers’ Shoes: Next Generation of BoP Marketing
eyond traditional research, ethnography implores us to get our hands dirty with first-hand observation and daily participation in the lives of our consumers. And while often thought to be the terrain of anthropologists studying far-off cultures, ethnography is increasingly taking center stage in seemingly unlikely places.
- Categories
- Education