Activity Description:

The Spark Group is an idea incubator working at the grassroots level in India. Using insights from academic research, the Spark Group develops promising ideas into commercially viable business ventures that deliver valuable services to poor communities. The Spark Group is funded, in part, by the IFMR Trust and is supported by The Boston Pledge.

Spark's founding team has over 50 years of experience in world-class organizations such as McKinsey, Microsoft, Deloitte, IBM, Procter & Gamble and the World Bank.

Funded by the Network Enterprises Fund, Spark's advisors hold positions of eminence in organizations like Harvard University, MIT, The Boston Pledge and ICICI Bank.

The projects include Spark Accreditation - in which for a fee, any school can receive a letter-grade evaluation of its quality. Another project is Spark Guru - a teacher assessment service where trained teachers would be sent to identified schools and enhance the learning capabilities of children. Also in the pipeline are initiatives in the space of technology solutions for microfinance and education investment.

Activity Description:

Activity Description:

In 1997, the NEF began working with 7 villages in Northern Morocco to promote female education and leadership by organizing local literacy initiatives and associating groups of rural women leaders.

The program has since expanded to 15 villages, and in collaboration with the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), NEF seeks to establish income-generating projects with one or more parent-teacher associations (PTAs) within these communities.

Activity Description: KENYA NATIONAL LIBRARY SERVICE (KNLS) operates mobile library trucks and two  Camel mobile libraries in Wajir and Garissa in North Eastern Kenya for primarily pastoralist people, who have no access to schools or static libraries.  In the Northeastern Province, the illiteracy rate is 85.3%, compared to 31% nationally.  

Better-suited than a car to the terrain, the camel transports books to the nomadic communities from Mondays to Thursdays. From Fridays to Sundays, the camels are released to go and feed, recuperate and vetted for any signs of disease and treatment.

Activity Description:

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) works in nearly 70 countries and territories to improve the conditions and prospects for young people where they live, learn, work, and play. Established in 1990 to bring worldwide resources to young people in need, IYF works with hundreds of companies, foundations, and civil society organizations to strengthen and "scale up" existing programs that are making a positive and lasting difference in young lives. Over the last 15 years, IYF and its global network of in-country partners have helped millions of young people gain access to the life skills, education, job training and opportunities critical to their success.

Activity Description: Registered in 1972, SEWA is a trade union that unites the labor movement, the cooperative movement and the women’s movement. It is an organisation of poor, self-employed women workers. The women members earn a living through their own labour or small businesses. They are unsalaried, unprotected, and constitute a large portion of India's labor force.

SEWA’s main goals are 1. to organise women workers for full work security, including income, health, food and social security 2. to promote individual and collective autonomy and self-reliance, both economically and in terms of decision-making ability 3. strengthen women’s bargaining power, build their capacities, and offer them new alternatives.

Activity Description: The Avina Foundation promotes environmentally and socially sustainable development by facilitating the creation of constructive and inclusive communities.

By funding organizations that improve community services and increase opportunities, AVina promotes responsible citizenship, enhances social capital, and contributes to the construction of more sustainable societies.

Some of the sustainable activities Avina has funded or created include: co-launching the Foundation for Economic and Social Development (FUNDES); catalyzing the adoption of CSR practices for all businesses that make up Brazil's "Industrial Federation of Rio de Janeiro"; empowering women in agriculture; and delivering skills training and job opportunities to at-risk youth in Peru.

Activity Description: NABUUR.COM is run by Stichting Nabuur, a Netherlands based not-for-profit foundation. In its current development phase, NABUUR.COM depends on donor funding. After 2006 NABUUR.COM will be self financing.

Communities in developing countries can present their issues on NABUUR.COM and ask for the assistance of online volunteers , or "Neighbours." NABUUR.COM provides the community with its own online Village, a group of online volunteers (Neighbours), and a volunteer Facilitator who coordinates the efforts of the Neighbours.

Activity Description: The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) is an independent, non-profit organization that assists developing countries to realise locally-owned, sustainable development, by harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). IICD works with its partner organisations in (currently nine) selected countries, helping local stakeholders to assess the potential uses of ICTs in development.

Activity Description: Bushproof is a humanitarian and for-profit business that develops and installs low-cost, durable water-filters and well-pumps to increase access to clean, low-cost water. In order to increase local wealth, Bushproof situates production of its pumps in low-income countries and re-investing a percentage of profits into pilot-programs and research.

Bushproof also offers training courses and consultancy services regarding water filtration, sanitation, and NGO management.

Activity Description: The Center for Development in the Tensift Region is an NGO that partners with local research and other groups to initiate and co-fund economically sustainable projects. These projects focus on the improvement of the environment, education and business skills.
Some of CDRT's projects in the past years include:
-educating potters to use gas-powered kilns around Marrakech rather than burn tires. CDRT helped co-finance 22 kilns, which both improved the quality of the pottery and reduced harmful CO2 emissions by 12,000 tons. (2002-3)

Activity Description: 30% of Pakistanis now live in urban slums due to a scarcity of affordable housing (a shortage of 4.5 million homes in 1998). Saiban is a market based solution that provides home ownership for urban squatters; the program builds housing developments on land it has secured and inspected, then sells the houses to the poor with reduced rates and an affordable down payment: total cost is 30% less than informal housing over 10 years.

Activity Description: Practical Action Sudan (formerly ITDG) conducts a building materials and shelter project that has assisted low-income brick producers in securing employment and improving their livelihoods in the village of Shambob by supporting the formation of a building materials producers' association.

Technical training included work on producing high quality bricks, which helped set new national standards and influenced brick makers and consumers across the Kassala region. The association sold more than 1.2 million bricks during 2001/ 2002.

Activity Description: Founded in January 2000, Mango Tree manufactures innovative educational tools for schools and health centers and provides training in how to use them effectively. Products include educational games and toys, pictorial charts, counseling tools for health care workers, and large format story charts used to ignite discussion on subjects such as gender, communication, and HIV/AIDS. Many of these educational tools are made from locally available materials like grain sacks, bottle tops, recycled slippers (flip-flops), bicycle spokes, gourds, and plastic jerry cans. This makes them easy to replicate by low income educators, and they impact low-income individuals (75% of clients are below the poverty line of $2/day) by improving the quality of educational services they receive.

Activity Description: Mission: To advance youth entrepreneurship and community service around the world, emphasizing ethical business practices, social responsibility, civic engagement and environmental awareness. In accomplishing this mission, a team of high school students from each participating high school completes real-world projects under the watchful eye of consultants from the nearby business community and university.. At the end of the year, teams compete in regional, national and international competitions to showcase their best projects and benchmark against other teams for future improvement. “Referees” are recruited from the local business, civic and education communities.