NextBillion brings together the community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise.
As announced in January, The William Davidson Institute (WDI) has joined the World Resources Institute and Acumen Fund as co-Managing Partners of the NextBillion.net site. This post is intended to introduce WDI to the NextBillion community and to invite you to explore ways to engage with the Institute.
Over the last two decades, models for livelihoods for the poor have come of age and many organizations have focused their efforts on reducing the vulnerability of marginalized communities. Though these models have been successful in creating employment, they haven't scaled to realize their true potential.
A recurring theme in romantic novels and movies is that you travel all over the world to finally find what you were searching for, right where you began. Could it be that the answer to malnutrition and self sustaining communities be a plant which has been growing in their back yard for all this time?
We often talk about sustainability in development or compose programs that aspire to that end, but far less often do we address or share instances of setback. In a recent trip to Swaziland I visited TechnoServe's cotton program and was struck by the setback incurred when a prominent aid agency interrupted the efforts of this program.
I'm a big believer in student-formed social ventures. Students are arguably in the best position to start a social venture. They have incredible support, access to unbelievable resources, and can take on risk that others can't.
How does one convert "credit" extended to low-income households into tradable "commodities?" Is there a way to use the best know-how of financial markets to transform an industry that makes small loans to low-income households? Securitization promises to be an answer to all these questions.
In the fall last year I had a chance to meet the Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows in person, while attending the conference in beautiful Camden. Nominations for the 2010 Class of Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows are now open. So roll up your sleeves and nominate that someone you know has potential to effect meaningful change in the world.
There's huge potential for the knowledge of informal sectors to be leveraged and introduced into the formal economy. Once entrepreneurs and investors start realizing this and giving it due recognition, I'm confident that we'll see India's villages achieve growth at a much faster rates.
To date, the track record of strategic, sustainable and successful engagement in BoP markets from corporations is extremely weak. In 2010, NextBillion readers will be looking for more companies with product development and R&D budgets, marketing skills and pools of enterprise-savvy talent to lead social and economic development at the BoP.
One of my roles as Editor is to scan the news for articles of interest to our readership. But my job is getting harder - because "base of the pyramid" is becoming the general phrase used not only in the context of market-oriented development strategies, but as a figure of speech to refer to this segment broadly.
