The NextBillion.net team is growing - and fast!  Yesterday, I introduced Grace and Moses as new staff writers; today, I am pleased to welcome Ryan Baebler to the team.  Ryan will be interning here at the World Resources Institute through May, and one of his responsibilities will be writing on NextBillion.net.

Ryan is an undergraduate student intern with WRI's Markets and Enterprise Program. He hails from St. Louis, Missouri originally, but is pursuing a B.A. in Ecosystem Science and Policy and International Studies from the University of Miami (FL). He is in D.C. until May via The Washington Semester’s International Environment and Development Program at American University.

His experience includes a stint working for a plaintiff firm in St. Louis where he performed environmental toxicology and medical research. He also investigated the hydrocarbon plume that sits under Hartford in Madison County, IL. His interest in the BoP stems partly from compassion and partly from long term practicality.

Welcome, Ryan!

Yesterday, I attended a panel discussion entitled "Creative Capitalism: Can It Meet the Needs of the World's Poor?" The panel of experienced practitioners and academics was convened to respond to Bill Gates' recent speech at Davos where he encouraged "an approach where governments, business, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities." A big thanks to The Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal at the Hudson Institute for bringing together the panelists and hosting this timely discussion.

With an interesting assortment of panelists, and a variety of interpretations of Gates' speech, the discussion included a little bit of everything - from economic theory and political ideology to technological developments and field results. The central contention that seemed to emerge was whether or not market-based solutions are a viable method of poverty reduction, given that existing markets are not already targeting to poor, and have, in fact, exacerbated inequalities in many instances.

William Easterly, distinguished scholar in the development field and well-known for his book The White Man's Burden: How the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much Ill and So Little Good, was the first to take on ‘creative capitalism.'

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