On behalf of the NextBillion.net team, I am pleased to announce the addition of two new Staff Writers to our team: Grace Augustine and Moses Lee. Both Grace and Moses are employees of the William Davidson Institute, where their day jobs involve research and writing about base of the pyramid (BoP) topics.

Grace Augustine is a Research Associate with the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at the University of Michigan. At WDI, Grace writes cases in international business, and has a particular interest in exploring market-based solutions to poverty alleviation, social entrepreneurship, and clean technology at the base of the pyramid (BoP). For more, continue reading her Staff Writer profile.

Moses Lee is an Associate at the William Davidson Institute, where he researches, writes case studies, and consults enterprises in transitioning global economies. He has a particular interest in base of the pyramid (BoP) strategies, believing that this is one approach towards effectively alleviating poverty. Continue reading about Moses' background on his Staff Writer profile.

Moses' first post will appear later today; Grace's first post, Scents & Sensibility Reveals USAID's BoP Blind Spots, has already appeared.

Please join me in welcoming Grace and Moses!

Last summer, while writing case studies for the William Davidson Institute on base of the pyramid (BoP) related organizations, I had the opportunity to meet and interview a number of practitioners to discuss their approaches towards using market-based solutions to address poverty.

The conversations were highly stimulating and insightful, giving me much to mull over. After taking time to reflect on all that was said, I observed this reoccurring theme: outside of financial resources, one of the greatest needs in the BoP sector, at both the intermediary and venture level, is talent.

A great challenge for BoP intermediaries and the ventures that they support is making themselves a place of choice for professionals from the developed world. From interviews and my own personal experiences, I believe that the greatest barrier to accomplishing this goal is career development. For many professionals who are considering a career in the BoP sector, it is not compensation that deters them, but the lack of training and development.

Currently, there are very few BoP organizations that are heavily investing in training programs for their personnel; this primarily because of limited time and financial resources. As a result, in many cases, once a professional joins a BoP organization, there is limited to no career path. If BoP organizations can find ways to work together to develop professional training and career paths for their personnel, this will significantly help in attracting and retaining professionals to the field and making it a place of choice for the best and the brightest.

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)