Bringing together the community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise.
Changemakers is one of the web's most dynamic and interesting destinations for those of us interested in ideas and their power to advance tangible change in the lives of the "next billion". Its recent re-design and the upcoming finals for one of their competitions (one very much in the vein of development through enterprise) are compelling...
Husk Power Systems, a company we profiled here on NextBillion back in October, was announced today as the winner of the Global Business Plan competition sponsored by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Cisco Systems. As the winning entrant, Husk Power walks away with $250,000 in seed funding, which they will use to build and operate more power plants...
Well, there won't be half a million of us, but as Bill Baue noted in a recent CSR Wire article, the Social Capital Markets conference (2009 vintage) is quickly shaping up to be an important event for our generation of changemakers, investors, intrapreneurs, policymakers and innovators.
Occasionally one encounters a novel application of a familiar technology. In this case, it's blogging. David Roodman, fellow at the Center for Global Development and architect of the Commitment to Development Index , is currently writing an open-book blog about microfinance. He writes a chapter then posts it for comment and critique.
Even though microfinance is estimated to have directly reached 100 million of the poor in 2008 there is still plenty of debate about whether it has a significant impact on their lives. A series of recent World Bank studies conclusively shows that microfinance has a positive economic and social impact on participants and non-participants.
Financial inclusion has long been a challenge in India, where bank transactions are mainly urban based and people living in rural areas rarely even have a bank account. Financial inclusion is the delivery of banking services at affordable costs to vast sections of disadvantaged and low-income groups.
With this long overdue post I want to direct your attention to an innovative, relevant and icreasingly active platform called Akvo.org. Its topic area is one of obvious relevance to the NextBillion audience: drinking water and sanitation in the developing world.
Intellecap launched Beyond Profit, a print and online magazine dedicated to the businesses, people and ideas within the social enterprise space, on April 28. The inaugural issue was released at Sankalp 2009, South Asia’s largest social enterprise business and investment forum.
In this vein, I am really excited to learn about a truly innovative "non-conference". Maker Faire Africa, which will be held in Ghana this August, is no-talk, all-action. The 3-day event will bring together roboticists, hobbyists, blacksmiths - MAKERS - to jam collectively on home-grown solutions to local problems.
Most of you are probably familiar with the story of Dr. Mo Ibrahim, the British-Sudanese entrepreneur who built Celtel (now Zain) into one of the most successful telcos on the African continent (and beyond). Then you can imagine my surprise when the following email landed in my inbox:
