Outlook magazine recently profiled a new breed of social entrepreneurs in India (The article: The Spirit of Ants, can be read for free once an account is created at Outlookindia.com)

When I last wrote about a micro financier role in partnering for financial literacy, I did not know that Chetna Gala-Sinha was well ahead of us. A Yale World Fellow and true social entrepreneur, Sinha launched a ‘business school’ with a difference. For less than 3 cents a day, poor women at the school gain a better understanding of money and take their first steps towards financial independence and self-sufficiency. In an environment in which old solutions of subsidies and vocational training cannot sustain, the women are finally receiving education relevant to what they really need.

The Outlook article speaks of 60 year old P. Mukundan who found an investor in Vineet Rai (Aavishkaar) for his idea of an efficient stove-burner. The National Innovation Foundation has an outstanding database of grassroots innovators and their ongoing projects. When I had the chance to be part of a presentation by rural innovators identified by NIF, I noticed that innovators took pride in being selected for a government subsidy. Would they not be keen to be selected for an investment?

It is exciting to read of Solomon Jaiprakash of livelihood development initiative Maya Organic who says:

"The cause we serve is fine, but we don't want people to buy our products because we do that. We want them to buy them because of their exceptional quality. Our focus is on building a brand. Sympathy is unsustainable in the long run."

Gala-Sinha could have used the money she received from HSBC to fund an elaborate mini-MBA for women.
Vineet Rai could have donated to the stover-burner project.

Jaiprakash could have actively pursued grants.
For as long as these would last.

Many are excited by the renewed interest in social innovation. I am excited that experience is teaching us, even if slowly, the difference between solutions which merely sound good and those which sustain.

Every month in Bangalore, a team of volunteers – many from the IT industry - collaborate to prepare Sattva, a newsletter on social innovation. These are members of a non-profit consulting firm I Think I Have A Solution (ITIHAS)

The vision at Sattva is:
To be an effective platform for the sharing of news, views and appreciation of the social change process, thus raising awareness and encouraging individuals and organizations to meaningfully contribute to society.

Every issue of Sattva is based on a particular theme, with the last few issues covering themes such as Environment and Sustainable Transport. Editor-in-Chief Aarti Mohan writes:

We had a simple aim- there was a lot of good work happening in Bangalore and that's what we would tell people about. Slowly but surely, Sattva grew and we with it. From being an issue every month, we have bloomed into an organization with goals, plans, people management challenges – Sattva has indeed been a character building experience for all of us!

The latest issue celebrates their 1st anniversary and profiles young change makers in Bangalore. To subscribe to the SATTVA e-magazine, send an email to subscribe.sattva@gmail.com

Editor's note: This issue of SATTVA includes a profile of NextBillion.net's own Nitin Rao. Do be sure to check it out!

Who reads the thousands of sustainability reports that corporations release each year? And more importantly, what do they think of them? As of today, there is a better way to answer those important questions.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its partners—including the World Resources Institute and its New Ventures project—have unveiled the GRI Readers' Choice Awards. It's a pioneering attempt to capture and share readers' thoughts on the value of corporate sustainability reports, and get those that information to potential new readers. The GRI Readers' Choice Awards will highlight the reports that are most helpful to communities, investors, customers, journalists and non-governmental organizations.  (World Resources Institute powers NextBillion.net).

In addition to an Award for the report with the overall highest score, there will be Awards issued based on the perspectives of key information user communities such as investors, civil society, employees, corporate governance and management, and media; and special reports for non-corporate, smaller enterprises, and non-OECD companies. "Developing the methodology behind the scoring system was a unique challenge for us and the other partners involved" said Jose Luis Blasco, Director, Advisory, Global Sustainability Services, at KPMG. "We had to ensure the system would be a fair representation of report readers' perspectives, including GRI and non-GRI based reports."

The World Resources Institute has partnered with the GRI Readers' Choice Awards to highlight the inaugural sustainability reports of 11 sustainable small and medium sized enterprises - many of which serve unmet needs in BoP communities. Participating companies have been identified by WRI's New Ventures project, and hail from Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, and China. New Ventures supports sustainable enterprises by accelerating the transfer of capital to outstanding companies that incorporate social and environmental benefits. Sustainability reporting - using the internationally-recognized GRI methodology - helps measure the direct benefits these firms' operations create.

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Last week, I attended the NESsT 10^th anniversary party at Pangea Artisan Market & Cafe in the International Finance Corporation (IFC) building (2121 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington DC). The store has an interactive education component, with computers that provide information about the store’s artisans and their designs. The place is great and it matches really well with the idea of NESsT – promoting social enterprises in the world.

NESsT is an organization that works in emerging market countries "by developing and supporting social enterprises that strengthen civil society organizations' financial sustainability and maximize their social impact."

NESsT combines the tools and strategies of business and entrepreneurship with the values of philanthropy. It supports the development of social enterprises in emerging democracies worldwide. Former NextBillion staff writer Lauren Abendschein blogged about NESsT a couple of months ago.

At the event last week, I met the co-founders and CEOs of NESsT, Nicole Etchart and Lee Davis, both wonderful and insightful people. Nicole is from Chile and she works at NESsT’s offices in Santiago. During the event, a NESsT board member gave a speech recalling the story of when Nicole and Lee started with their idea in Baltimore, and how difficult it was for them to convince people to support them and to believe in the ideas that NESsT embraces. Today, after ten years, NESsT is one of the most recognized social enterprise catalysts in the world. They work with four initiatives, including a venture fund, university support, consulting, and a marketplace.

In some ways NESsT is similar to New Ventures, because aside from providing one-on-one relationships with the companies in its portfolio, it also to strengthens the field of social enterprise through training, forums, workshops, and publishing. The entire team at NextBillion congratulates NESsT on its 10^th Anniversary and wishes them to continue the good work!

Santa Clara University will be hosting a conference on November 8^th with Manuel Castells, the world's leading researcher in the field of communication technology and society; Al Hammond, World Resources Institute's Vice President of Special Projects and Innovation and also a writer here on NextBillion; Sally Osberg (invited) President and Chief Executive Officer of the Skoll Foundation; Regis McKenna (invited) - Chairman of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society; and other foremost Silicon Valley thinkers.

This will conference examine how "social entrepreneurs" are breaking down barriers, and remaking the rules of innovation, with careful consideration to how social entrepreneurs "reframe" problems -- from overcoming civil engineering deficits, capital access constraints, base of the pyramid skill shortages, to dealing with fragmented markets.

Learn, too, about programs at the Center to bridge the innovation gap such as its Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) and KnowledeX (sponsored by Applied Materials).

The conference will be very interesting – the innovators and thought leaders attending will offer insights on the ways technology and design influence the BOP and redefine parameters and market assumptions.

Admission is free, but advanced RSVP is required. To register, contact Sherrill Dale, sdale@scu.edu, (408) 551-6027. Click here for more information.

The Social Venture Network hosted the competition "Imagine What’s Next: Ideas that Will Change the Way the World Does Business" in June and announced the winners on Monday. This innovation award's objective is to find businesses and leaders that create positive social change in the business sector.

Out of the ten winners, I would like to highlight two because of their work within the BOP sphere:

Design that Matters, Timothy Prestero, CEO (Cambridge, MA): Design that Matters (DtM) was founded to help social enterprises in developing countries scale more quickly by providing them access to better products designed specifically for their needs. DtM’s design work and business analysis is performed by volunteers from academia and industry, using the infrastructure available at their host institutions. Academic contributors include MIT, Stanford and the Rhode Island School of Design, and corporate partners include IDEO and Fisher Price, SolidWorks and Optikos.

World of Good, Priya Haji, Co-founder and CEO
(Emeryville, CA): World of Good seeks to lift thousands of women in the developing world out of poverty. It creates opportunities for hundreds of artisan cooperatives around the world by serving as a bridge to the U.S. retail market and providing access to fair wages, safe working conditions and long-term economic sustainability. ProjectGood.com is the newest venture launched in partnership with eBay to create a people positive shopping experience designed to help millions of consumers connect with producers around the world.

The winners of the competition will be honored at the SVN Fall Conference in California later next week. Since 1987, SVN has been working to promote social enterprises and encourage socially responsible investing, sustainable and green enterprises. They identify businesses and entrepreneurs that value both social concerns and profitability.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development is recruiting for a Managing Director position based in Geneva, Switzerland.The role of this position is to contribute to the strategic direction of the WBCSD.

The successful candidate will be expected to:

Engage the company executives in the steering committee of the Development Focus Area to develop and gain approval of the strategy and overall work plans;

Engage broadly with the WBCSD member companies and regional network partners to raise awareness of development related issues and opportunities for business;

Work with representatives from WBCSD member companies – of many different industry sectors - to lead the implementation of the work program;

Advocate for improvements in the overall investment climate for doing business in emerging economies with government, intergovernmental and civil society organizations;

Explore collaborative opportunities with government, multi-laterals, development organizations and civil society organizations to partner with business to deliver real progress on the ground.

To submit an application for this position send a cover letter and resume to job@wbcsd.org. The deadline to receive applications is October 31, 2007. Click here for more details on the job listing.

This is the perfect opportunity to join the WBCSD team of professionals who share the motivation make a difference in the world and support sustainable development through business. NextBillion encourages our qualified readers to apply!

The Social Responsibility Conclave, organised by the Net Impact Club at the Indian School of Business, is a congregation of thought leaders from various sections of the society- including NGOs, business schools, industry, academia, and politics. Through a rich exchange of perspectives among members of this diverse group, the Conclave aims at generating insights and a plausible plan of action on issues relevant for the society at large. This year's conclave is on October 20, 2007. You can register for the event here.

The focus of this year's conclave is on Education. Education has been a prime focus area and a constitutional directive for development in post-independence India. Yet, surprisingly, illiteracy remains endemic at different levels and education and awareness levels are low among people. The inherent complexity and magnitude of the issue due to the interplay of cultural and economic factors, makes it largely intractable and includes concerns about scale, accessibility, and quality of education. In India where a sizable part of the population lives below the poverty line, there is a need for increased adoption and much wider alliance for broadening the base of education.

The Conclave aims at the following objectives:

• Provide a platform for exchange of views: By bringing various stakeholders of the educational sector on a single platform, the Conclave aspires to provide opportunities for learning from each other.
• Influence business leaders of tomorrow: The Conclave aims at sensitising the business leaders of tomorrow – the students of participating business schools – to the issues concerning the spread of education and to bring about positive social development in India.
• Conceive models for action: By bringing together future leaders, this Conclave aims at generating feasible, actionable, self-sustaining plans to achieve well-defined targets to promote education at various levels in the country.

Paper Writing Competition (Deadline: October 9, 2007)

From perspectives to problems, the final phase of the Conclave focuses on the implementation of innovative and scalable solutions to champion the cause of Universal Education in India. Five short listed student teams from across the country will present their ideas to the panel of judges at the Conclave.

The paper presentation will provide management student’s perspectives to address these problems to improve the quality and reach of education in India.

Legatum, a private firm that invests in global capital markets and in initiatives that support social development, announced an investment of US $8.4 million in Intellecap Private Limited.

Intellecap is a pioneer and leader in providing business advisory services for investors and companies that seek both a financial and sustainable social return on investment. Intellecap provides a range of consulting, advisory and capacity building services to facilitate and enable innovations that create economic activity in India’s poorest communities.

Legatum has been in the news recently for its $25m investment in microfinance organization Share Microfin and for its $50m structured gift towards creating the Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT.

The investment seems to fit in well with Legatum’s strategy of investing in market solutions to longer term development problems.

Even as the scale of investment attracts attention, what is striking is that these investments are targeted at organizations which have gained credibility and become leaders in their space.

The New York Times ran an interesting but rather incomplete article yesterday, discussing the split over anti-malaria bednet distribution strategies in Africa and the apparent demise of “social marketing” as a legitimate approach to reducing illness on a large scale. The article focuses on an ongoing debate in the aid community over whether or not insecticide-treated bednets, produced by Danish and Japanese makers and purchased by aid agencies, should always be given way in mass quantities for free.

Evidence provided in the article points to the failure of “social marketing” techniques (advertising, branding, and selling of essential goods with social value through local distributors, sometimes at heavily subsidized prices) to reduce local, short-term rates of malaria infection as fast as the massive free hand-outs of nets by aid agencies. Senator Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma was quoted as going so far as to say that, “We knew social marketing doesn’t work."

But let’s take a step back. First, who, in this case, is conducting the “social marketing”? It's the aid industry. What is the aid industry designed to do? Raise, collect, and then deliver charity to those in need.

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In a recent interview with New Ventures staff, CBPAK founder Claudio Bastos discusses how his company is bringing a unique solution to Brazil's massive packaging industry.

PDF version available here

Claudio Bastos had plenty of reasons to found his sustainable packaging company, CBPAK, in 2002. He had a strong academic background as an engineer, decades of executive-level experience managing business turnarounds, a unique product and, he adds, a drive to create a business that would leave a better future for his children. “The world is changing,” Claudio explains, “I needed to be involved in a business that takes care of the planet.” He decided to create a company that would meet these criteria while helping to satisfy a vast market demand for biodegradable packaging materials.

This material is the primary CBPAK product, a polymer made from cassava starch that, when mixed with a special adhesive, is compressed in CBPAK’s patented machines to be thermo-molded into virtually any shape.

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Neal Peirce wrote an article following the Bellagio summit in August expressing great enthusiasm for the potential that grassroots collective action and micro financing tools have for producing changes in urban slums.

The thing that struck me most about Peirce’s article was his emphasis on the importance of community action and how much it resonates with my own observations from time spent in a housing project in El Salvador a few years ago - and how the only sort of "community action" inside the project was around the MaraSalvatrucha gang.

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Scojo Foundation requires an individual to manage the tremendous global growth opportunities within its Franchise Partner Channel.

The Franchise Partner Manager will be responsible for developing, managing, and ensuring successful relationships with potential and existing international Franchise Partners.

Location: NY, New York (with frequent travel, 30-50%)

How do we get more capital to the people who want to start their own SMEs? It is difficult to make a case for this "missing middle." NextBillion has identified this problem in the past, and it seems like now the issue is beginning to unfold in the development debate: the Clinton Global Initiative is now discussing this very issue.

SMEs are good for the economy - they create wealth, create jobs and usually need financing so they can grow to scale. The financing gap exists for a layer of potentially high-growth SMEs that occupy a space between large MNC projects and micro-entrepreneurs. The World Bank has found a connection between the number of SMEs in a country and a country's growth, and has posited that without SMEs, it’s difficult to sustain economic growth.

The following videocast is of a session entitled "Filling the Finance Gap" at the Clinton Global Initiative's Poverty Alleviation Working Group a couple weeks ago. The speakers: Alan Patricof, Sonal Shah and Hubertus van der Vaart, do an exceptional job of explaining the challenges of investing in entrepreneurs and SMEs in emerging markets; they debate about the financing gap, or the "mesofinance gap."

Watch the videocast here

I find what Patricof says about the companies in the United States very interesting. He mentions Staples as an example of a company that started small and then scaled up to become a big U.S. corporation, thanks to the existing capital structure in the United States. There are similar companies with great potential in a multitude of emerging economies, but most face a consistent challenge: lack of financing tools.

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Triple Jump currently is hiring for two positions: Investment Officer and Senior Investment Officer. Both positions are based in Amsterdam, and are initially for one year.

Triple Jump is a fund management company specializing in managing funds that invest in financial institutions offering financial services to micro- and small entrepreneurs (MFIs).

Please see the two position postings on their site for detailed job descriptions, qualifications, and application information.