Below are the various topics that NextBillion's news, commentary, analysis and resources are categorized under. The topics are intentionally broad, and some content may appear in more than one topic field.

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Topics

Agriculture: While developed economies have largely industrialized and are becoming more reliant on the service sector, many developing countries still count on the agricultural sector for more than half of their annual GDP. Agriculture discusses how innovations can help farmers and traders increase their incomes and whether markets can adequately serve the agricultural sector's needs.

Business Development: There is an enormous amount of entrepreneurial talent in developing countries that often lies dormant because the information and resources required to nurture such talent is not readily available. Business Development discusses efforts to provide support to entrepreneurs and small- and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets.

Consumer Products: Consumers in low-income communities often pay a premium as high as 50-fold for basic products and services such as clean water. Consumer Products discusses how underserved consumers might benefit from or be hurt by companies' entrance into low-income consumer products markets.

Education: Human capital is widely considered the key to prosperity in the 21st century. Yet advanced economies have tightened access to knowledge, making it harder for developing economies to catch up. Poor education infrastructure, brain drain, and limited access to critical new knowledge all add up to a serious challenge in public education. Education discusses whether and how the private sector play a role in finding solutions.

Energy: Development requires energy, but the presence of energy in a developing country is not enough - low-income communities need access to energy, and in most cases, distribution networks do not currently exist. Energy discusses sustainable approaches to widespread access to energy.

Financial Services help the poor maintain and improve their livelihoods, not only by giving them access to credit to start or run a business, but also by offering them savings and remittance services. We've organized Financial Services into three categories:

General Banking: The poor frequenty do not have access to any formalized banking services. Beyond microloans and insurance, even access to a basic savings account can benefit a person’s financial future. General Banking discusses attempts being made to bank the unbanked.

Microfinance: The practice of loaning small sums to low-income borrowers has grown into a widely-discussed transformation of the financial services sector in developing countries, generally referred to as microfinance. Microfinance discusses its role in the formal and informal financial sectors in developing countries, as well as how businesses and NGOs have entered into the sector.

Remittances: Cash transfers remitted from those living in the developed world to friends and relatives in developing countries accounts for more money, by volume, than overseas development assistance. Remittances discusses their effects on low-income communities and diaspora communities alike.

Health: At a time when there are more and better drugs made than ever before, tens of millions of people die annually from basic, easily-preventable diseases. Health discusses how innovations in preventive and rudimentary health care in low-income communities can save millions of lives and produce healthier, more productive societies.

Housing: In developing countries, housing for the poor is often both substandard and expensive. Housing discusses innovative efforts to make quality housing more affordable in both urban and rural areas.

Insurance: Hedging risk is, today, a luxury of the rich. And yet, when the rains fail, or a tsunami wipes out communities and livelihoods, the cost to the rich nations may be many times what it would cost to insure against natural disasters for millions of people. New tools and techniques are being developed, both locally and globally, specifically for low-income communities. Insurance explores the innovations that could transform the economies of the BOP.

Marketing: The untapped markets at the base of the pyramid are huge, but reaching them will require different approaches than are currently used for top-tier markets. Marketing looks at strategies for marketing to the BOP.

The Policy Agenda: Alleviating the poverty of the world's poorest demands policy attention, both in the advanced economies, and the developing nations. Trade regimes, agricultural subsidy reform, customs regulations, trade capacity-building, reducing corruption, and increasing accountability and transparency - all these form a web of inter-related issues, and they must be addressed at the national, regional, and global levels. The Policy Agenda provides an opportunity for contributors to explore and analyze these linkages and their impacts.

Strategy: Markets at the base of the pyramid are different from their top-tier cousins. Businesses and other organizations are finding out that there are right ways and wrong ways to enable development through enterprise. Strategies discusses the approaches now being taken to profitably meet the needs of the world’s poor.

Successful Models: Several attempts are aleady being made to provide goods and services to low-income populations. Successful Models discusses examples of enterprises that are succeeding at the base of the pyramid.

Telecommunications and IT: Access to information is critical to empowerment and higher productivity, for the poor as well as for others. The spread of cellular phones, of broadband wireless networks, and of low-cost IT devices may play a significant role in finding jobs, getting crop prices, raising incomes, and alleviating poverty. Telecommunications & IT discusses these opportunities and challenges and the role of the private sector in making them happen.

Water: Of all the environmental concerns that developing countries face, the lack of adequate water of good quality for drinking or agriculture is probably the most serious. Water examines strategies that allow poor people to maximize the value of the water that is available to them.

Miscellaneous: For content that does not fit under any of the above catgories. We will be monitoring these topics and deciding which can be added in the future.