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NextBillion News vol.17 September 25, 2007
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Michigan BoP Conference and More!

[Contents]

1. Rob Katz: Why the BoP Conference Was Worth It

2. Featured blog posts: Lighting Africa: It's Time for the 'Dark Continent' to Begin to Shine by Ana Escalante and Reflections on "India's Rural Poor- Why Housing Isn't Enough to Create Sustainable Communities” by Abigail Keene-Babcock

3. Rising Ventures: Conserve HRP

4. Featured Activity Capsule: Africinvest

5. Jobs/Careers: Apply for the Acumen Fund Fellows Program

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1. Rob Katz: Why the BoP Conference Was Worth It

I'm back in DC after three very full days at the Business With Four Billion BoP conference in Michigan. First of all, let me assure you that I'll have session summaries written and posted as soon as possible - in the mean time, be sure to check out Nicole Goldin's live-blogging over at Changing the Pyramid. You can also check out some PowerPoints and archived video/audio of plenary speakers at the BoP2007 web site.

In the mean time, I want to tell a short story that I hope will illustrate why this conference was important for those of us who live and breathe BoP.

One of the reasons I enjoy traveling for work is down time in airports. Combine a little down time with the complimentary newspaper that most business hotels provide, and you've got a great way to spend a few hours. Yesterday was no exception: I picked up a copy of The New York Times at my hotel in the morning, and by 3:00, I was at my gate, leafing through the front section.

Soon after, I opened up the Science Times. The lead article was the second in a two-part series on palliative care in the developing world - a definite issue for those of us working on healthcare models for low-income consumers. I found myself thinking back to Al Hammond's plenary speech on Sunday night, when he showed data from The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid on health spending in Sierra Leone.

The data demonstrate that even the poorest segments of the BoP spend at least six percent of their household income on healthcare - up to $30 PPP per year for someone making $500 PPP annually. Ironically, I opened up the Times on Monday, and there's an article on Sierra Leone's total lack of access to morphine - no one is willing to sell morphine after child soldiers were doped up on opiates during the recent civil war - talk about a broken market. Lesson here: government policy remains crucial, especially in the health, water, and energy sectors.

Below and to the left, I found a feature on Amy Smith's International Development Design Summit entitled Low Technologies, High Aims. We've profiled Dr. Smith before - she's the MacArthur "genius" whose design for the BoP class is probably the hardest to gain entry to at MIT.

In any case, I devoured the article quickly, reading about how designers from all over the world came to MIT to collaborate with engineers and business school students to develop low-cost, appropriate technologies that can be produced, marketed, and sold in the BoP. Once I finished the article (kudos to Andrew Revkin for his excellent reportage), I looked up and immediately saw Jocelyn Wyatt approaching.

Read more

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2. Featured blog posts

Lighting Africa: It's Time for the 'Dark Continent' to Begin to Shine

"The sun has set in one of the world's poorest nations and as the floodlights come on at G'bessi International Airport, the parking lot begins filling with children." I read this in the news article "Kids in Guinea Study Under Airport Lamps" earlier this summer. I thought to myself that the lack of light in Guinea makes these students go to the airport to be able to study for their finals, and that sometimes they have to walk for about an hour to get to the airport. One word describes my thought process: wow.

In modern life, light plays a bigger role than we think. If we didn’t have light we would have to do everything we needed before the sun went down, thus cutting down productivity. This community in Guinea is one of many communities in sub-Saharan Africa that does not have access to electricity, and therefore they do not have light. People usually rely on inefficient and unsafe kerosene lamps to get by, or candles, or fires.

The World Bank launched an initiative this week to address this problem. The IFC (the Bank’s private sector arm) will run a program called "Lighting Africa." Its goal is to develop market conditions for the distribution and supply of safer, greener lighting products.

Read more

Reflections on "India's Rural Poor- Why Housing Isn't Enough to Create Sustainable Communities"

Knowledge @ Wharton published an article on the living conditions of India’s rural poor, and on the shortcomings of central and state-funded government housing programs. The author, Abraham George, maintains that the primary reason for failure is an exclusive focus on providing low-cost shelter, without consideration for interrelated factors that determine actual effectiveness.

However, it’s also important to realize that even a strategy that convinces government to build more “complete” housing may also fail. Ownership and active involvement in the building of a new community are some of the strongest mechanisms that exist to ensure the highest positive impact on quality of life.

More consideration should be given to sparking and supporting locally-based, private initiatives that work with market forces and are directed for and by the poor.

Read more

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3. Rising Ventures: Conserve HRP

Conserve HRP exemplifies new environmental trends in India’s private-sector by converting trash to treasure. Lower-income employees collect plastic rags from neighborhood streets and press the waste into a thicker, durable material, known as Handmade-Recycled Plastic, used for stylish handbags and accessories. The material can be compared to leather in quality, but produces a wider range of colors without any artificial dyes.

Read full profile

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4. Featured Activity Capsule: Africinvest

AfricInvest focuses on investments in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a turnover below € 15 million at investment stage, but not excluding companies of larger size with significant growth potential.

Africinvest's main targets are growth investments, buy-outs, privatization, seed and restructuring investments. The fund seeks to acquire significant minority stake in portfolio companies through equity and quasi-equity instruments which provide the appropriate degree of control or influence. AfricInvest also seeks to acquire majority positions or to have the ability to take controlling positions in portfolio companies, based on its ability to attract and retain strong and talented management teams.

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5. Jobs/Careers: Apply for the Acumen Fund Fellows Program

Each year, the Acumen Fund Fellows Program provides extraordinary young professionals with a unique opportunity to use their skills to effect real social change with our portfolio organizations in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, India and Pakistan, and to build lasting relationships with other like-minded individuals.

Joining us in September 2008, Fellows will spend one year working with our team and with local entrepreneurs, gaining intensive experience in price performance, logistics, distribution systems, scaling and innovative technology. Fellows will learn and apply these skills while enjoying an unusual level of responsibility both at Acumen Fund and within our portfolio

Applications accepted online from September 17 until noon on October 24, 2007.

Read more

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NextBillion News vol. 17 – September 26, 2007

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Thank you,

Development Through Enterprise Team
World Resources Institute

http://www.nextbillion.net
http://www.wri.org

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