Thirty Chinese NGOs recently won awards totaling $650,000 from the World Bank. The winning ideas included projects that supply environmentally sustainable bio-gas to single mothers, create support networks for waste collectors, and establish community service centers to teach deaf youngsters vocational skills.

Support for such projects may come as a surprise to those more familiar with hearing about the Bank's funding of mega-projects, such as the building of dams or power plants. The Chinese grassroots initiatives were funded through the Development Marketplace (DM), a competitive grant program of the World Bank that funds innovative, small-scale development projects. DM’s primary objective is to identify and support creative ideas that deliver results and have the potential to be expanded or replicated. Read: those that have a sustainable business model component.

The global business plan competition had humble enough roots. In 1998, the first event was held in the lobby of the World Bank building here in DC. A hundred or so projects set up booths and a handful were granted funding to further scale their activities. The competition proved so successful that it quickly outgrew its venue.