Thanks everyone, for your e-mails about NextBillion.net.  No, we haven't stopped blogging - far from it, in fact.  Actually, we're in the very late stages of a site re-design process, and we're working out the final few kinks with our servers and whatnot.

We've decided to hold off posting new content until we launch the new site, because we can't keep migrating our entire database over and over.  This SHOULD happen by Friday of this week, hopefully earlier.

When the new site goes live, expect to see a completely new user interface, a design overhaul, a new brand/logo (sneak preview above!) and some great features like popularity rating, easier commenting, related articles and dynamic search.  We've also eliminated some unpopular sections and added new ones - like Research, Career Center and Take Action - that you've been asking for.

More as we know it.  But for now, don't give up on us!  We're still blogging - just waiting for the new platform on which to continue the conversation.

Thanks!
Rob, Francisco and the NextBillion.net Team

Position: Innovative Finance Role

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Organization: The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)'s mission is to reduce malnutrition through the use of food fortification and other strategies aimed at improving the health and nutrition of populations at risk. GAIN has set itself the target of reaching 1 billion people of whom 500 million are in target groups most vulnerable to malnutrition. GAIN builds alliances between public and private partners around common objectives, and provides financial support and technical expertise.

Description: The Innovative Finance position will be part of the Investment and Partnership Program team within GAIN based in Geneva, Switzerland. This key position will contribute to GAIN’s key business development initiatives by utilising understanding of the key drivers of international development finance from both public and private sector perspectives to generate innovative ideas applying the related international best practices.  Roles include:

• Assessing Investment Opportunities
• Transaction Execution
• Business Development/Fundraising
• Relationship Building & Stakeholder Management
• Management and Communications

See the attached job description for details, including required skills and instructions on how to apply.

Position: Business Development Manager - Marketing

Location: New York, NY

Organization: Acumen Fund is a global non-profit venture capital fund, focused on supporting the delivery of critical services – water, health, housing, energy – at affordable prices to the four billion people earning less than four dollars a day in India, Pakistan, and East Africa.  Acumen Fund seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor.  Acumen Fund has successfully impacted over 10 million lives so far, through over $30 million invested in South Asia and Africa. Its country offices in India, Pakistan and Kenya work closely with the New York team to identify and support local social enterprises.   Through our investments we address problems of poverty using market based approaches, demonstrating that there is a role for patient capital, intensive management assistance, and knowledge sharing at the base of the pyramid.  Since 2001, Acumen Fund has functioned under a philanthropic capital model, raising donations to fund investments in enterprises that deliver health, water, housing or energy to the poor.

Description: Acumen Fund’s Business Development team is responsible for raising philanthropic capital for Acumen Fund and for managing relationships across our extended community of Partners (donors), Advisors and supporters.

Acumen Fund is looking to create a step change in terms of awareness, excitement, and membership in our community of supporters and advocates – from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, and someday millions of people who believe that markets and entrepreneurship have a central role to play in the global fight on poverty.

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Editor's note: In December, Professor Aneel Karnani published an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled, "Romanticizing the Poor."  At the time, we posted about it here on NextBillion.net and suggested that our review of the article would be forthcoming; it has not, and for that, we apologize.

In the meantime, Staff Writer Moses Lee has provided his analysis of the article in his post, "Are the Poor Really Entrepreneurial?" 

What's more, Professor Karnani and Staff Writer Al Hammond have engaged in a lively e-mail debate about the article.  Both Karnani and Hammond have been kind enough to give permission to NextBillion.net to post the content of their debate here.  The first installment - a post by Al Hammond - is available here.  This is the second installment is Aneel Karnani's response to Hammond's post.

By Aneel Karnani

Al, I am sorry that you are not happy with my article on the BOP — that certainly was not my intention.   I do appreciate your sending me your critique in advance of publication.  Incidentally, I too had sent you my first working paper arguing against BOP way back in 2006, well in advance of publication.  I had send the same paper at the same time to CK Prahalad, and he did respond publicly on nextbillion.net.

I take scholarship seriously, and would appreciate it if you would substantiate the charge of “questionable scholarship.”  If I have misquoted you I will be happy to publish a retraction.  Please let me know specifically the misquotation.

(Editor's note: At this point, Hammond sent Karnani a marked-up version of the paper, which I will not reproduce in full here due to copyright restrictions.  What follows are Karnani's responses to Hammond's specific critiques.)

The article text appears in boldface; Hammond and Karnani's responses are indicated by parentheses.

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Editor's note: In December, Professor Aneel Karnani published an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled, "Romanticizing the Poor."  At the time, we posted about it here on NextBillion.net and suggested that our review of the article would be forthcoming; it has not, and for that, we apologize.

In the meantime, Staff Writer Moses Lee has provided his analysis of the article in his post, "Are the Poor Really Entrepreneurial?" 

What's more, Professor Karnani and Staff Writer Al Hammond have engaged in a lively e-mail debate about the article.  Both Karnani and Hammond have been kind enough to give permission to NextBillion.net to post the content of their debate here.  The first installment - a post by Al Hammond - follows.

By Al Hammond

I'm writing this in India, having just spent the day in a rural part of Punjab seeing how a market-based strategy is bringing clean drinking water to villages that have had none. The point of the trip is to plan in detail how we leverage this successful BOP business to bring modern healthcare, as well as clean water, to low-income rural communities.

From this perspective, most of what Mr. Karnani says seems just silly—armchair theorizing. His numbers are wrong—as we have already explained in detail elsewhere, although he does not acknowledge the criticism.  And he misquotes me and attributes words to me that I’ve never spoken, thus underscoring his questionable scholarship and the sloppy editorial work of the journal that published him. But it is his larger critique that is more troubling.

The poor make bad choices?

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Position: Pakistan Portfolio Manager

Location: Karachi, Pakistan

Organization: Acumen Fund is a global non-profit venture capital fund, focused on supporting the delivery of critical services – water, health, housing, energy – at affordable prices to the four billion people earning less than four dollars a day in India, Pakistan, and East Africa.  Acumen Fund seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor.  Acumen Fund has successfully impacted over 10 million lives so far, through over $30 million invested in South Asia and Africa. Its country offices in India, Pakistan and Kenya work closely with the New York team to identify and support local social enterprises.   Through our investments we address problems of poverty using market based approaches, demonstrating that there is a role for patient capital, intensive management assistance, and knowledge sharing at the base of the pyramid.  Since 2001, Acumen Fund has functioned under a philanthropic capital model, raising donations to fund investments in enterprises that deliver health, water, housing or energy to the poor.  In 2008, we launched an invested capital fund that will operate side by side with our philanthropic fund, making investments in enterprises that support the poor.

Description: The Pakistan Portfolio Manager will play a senior role within Acumen Fund Pakistan office, working closely with the Pakistan Country Director to develop and manage Acumen Fund’s investment portfolio in Pakistan.

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Position: Search and Selection Associate

Location: New York

Organization: Founded in 1997, Endeavor works with High-Impact Entrepreneurs in Latin America, the Middle East, South Africa, and India. High-Impact Entrepreneurs are operating for-profit businesses with enormous growth potential. Endeavor supports these entrepreneurs by providing access to mentors, strategic advice, management talent, capital, and inspiration. In turn, these entrepreneurs create jobs and wealth in their countries. To date, Endeavor has selected 406 High-Impact Entrepreneurs running 266 companies. These entrepreneurs have created over 86,000 jobs and, in 2007, $2.51BB in revenues.

Description: As a Search & Selection Associate, this person will be involved in a core part of Endeavor's model for identifying high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Together with the Search & Selection Director and a small (2 person) S&S team, he/she will oversee and coordinate Endeavor’s globally-managed, locally-run Search & Selection process to screen and select new Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Based in Endeavor's New York Headquarters, the individual will be working with staff and entrepreneurs throughout Latin America, South Africa, the MENA region, and India.

For more information, including how to apply, please see the attached job description.

Position: Summer Associates (varied roles)

Locations: Multiple

• New York, NY
• Karachi, Pakistan
• Hyderabad, India
• Nairobi, Kenya
  

Organization: Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches.

Description: Acumen Fund seeks Summer Associates for roles in the New York, Karachi, Hyderabad and Nairobi offices.  There are openings in the following offices/roles for 2009:

• Portfolio Associates - New York (2)
• Portfolio Associates - Pakistan (3-4)
• Portfolio Associates - India (2-3)
• Portfolio Associates - East Africa (3)
  
• Knowledge & Communications Associate - New York (1)
• Business Development and Communications Associate - Pakistan (1)

Full information, including position descriptions and instructions on how to apply, can be found on the Work with Acumen page of the Acumen Fund web site.

Application deadline is February 20, 2009.

It was a high profile news day for the development-through-enterprise community today.  First, a report was published at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland entitled The Next Billions: Unleashing Business Potential in Untapped Markets.  The report was produced by the Boston Consulting Group; Francisco and I were able to see an early version - we encourage everyone to check it out.

Is there much new here?  Yes and no.  There's not much in the way of new data, nor is there much as far as new analysis (if you've been following NextBillion.net at all, most of the points in here are old hat.)  Still, for a report to come out at the World Economic Forum about the BoP and specifically, the "next billions" is huge.  Important people go to Davos.  They listen.  Then they go back home and, in theory, they act.  So this is a huge day for the development through enterprise world.  I got an e-mail from one colleague calling it a "stop the presses" moment.  As we have no actual presses here at NextBillion, perhaps not literally, but you get the idea.

The other big news story of the day was a great op-ed written by Iqbal Quadir in the Wall Street Journal.  Entitled "Foreign Aid, Bad Governments: Helping entrepreneurs is the right approach," Quadir argues that the Cold War model of direct aid is broken and, instead, we should focus on lowering trade barriers and funding transformative small and medium enterprises.

Couldn't agree more.

Francisco and I will chew on these over the weekend and hope to have something more substantive by way of analysis for Monday.  In the meantime, happy reading.

Sankalp (English translation: Pledge or Determination) is a South Asia Social Enterprise and Investment Forum with the primary goal of bringing together various stakeholders sharing a common conviction that capital should be invested to create multiple bottom-line returns (financial, social and environmental) and not exclusively financial (profit-maximizing) or social (philanthropic) returns.

Sankalp 2009 is an effort to discover, connect and support the most investible social MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium enterprises) operating in agriculture, energy, education, healthcare and "scalable models".  Organized by the India Development Gateway and sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, Rural Innovations Network, NABARD and Aavishkaar, this promises to be a high-profile forum for the latest generation of base of the pyramid companies in South Asia.

If you have a company that should be considered for the Sankalp Award, or know of one, the deadline for nominations is February 15, 2009.  More information on the awards, process, program, events and sponsors is available on the web site.  We'll be keeping an eye on Sankalp and will look to post updates as we hear them from our friends at the India Development Gateway.

Are there really enough profits to make telcos want to focus on the bottom of the pyramid?  A new report, released last Monday by the technology market research firm BDA, suggests the answer is no.

Before we consider the case closed, let's take a closer look.  After all, telecommunications companies have been some of the more successful firms when it comes to focusing on the base of the pyramid.  Again and again, we read about big players like Vodafone, Motorola, Hutchinson-Essar, Bharti, MTN, Celtel, Telmex, etc. and their down-market profit strategies.  Smaller domestic companies, like Smart and Globe in the Philippines or Grameen Telecom in Bangladesh, also owe much (if not all) of their growth to bottom of the pyramid strategies.

BDA's report, 3G and BWA: The Next Frontier, however, argues that low-income customers account for a fraction of telcos' revenue share and profit margin when compared with high-income clients.  This chart provides excellent illustration:


According to these data, the poor account for 71% of customers but only 15% of profits.  Meanwhile, those high-end customers - 1 out of every 10 total clients - account for 45% of profits.  Focus on the high-end, argues BDA - and with numbers like that, it's hard to argue!

But look closer, and you'll see there are shades of grey in this yellow chart.  Here are 3 reasons why telcos should heed BDA's advice with a grain of salt and not abandon their (profitable) bottom of the pyramid strategies just yet:

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Position: Capital Markets Manager

Location: New York

Organization: Acumen Fund is a global non-profit venture capital fund, focused on supporting the delivery of critical services – water, health, housing, energy – at affordable prices to the four billion people earning less than four dollars a day in India, Pakistan, and East Africa.  Acumen Fund seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor.  Acumen Fund has successfully impacted over 10 million lives so far, through over $30 million invested in South Asia and Africa. Its country offices in India, Pakistan and Kenya work closely with the New York team to identify and support local social enterprises.   Through our investments we address problems of poverty using market based approaches, demonstrating that there is a role for patient capital, intensive management assistance, and knowledge sharing at the base of the pyramid.  Since 2001, Acumen Fund has functioned under a philanthropic capital model, raising donations to fund investments in enterprises that deliver health, water, housing or energy to the poor.  In 2008, we launched an invested capital fund that will operate side by side with our philanthropic fund, making investments in enterprises that support the poor.

Description: The Capital Markets Manager will report to the Director of Capital Markets and will hold primary responsibility for the major functioning aspects of our new fund, Acumen Capital Markets, including assessing investment opportunities, disciplined fund management, transaction execution, portfolio construction/financial modeling and controls/budgeting.  Strong candidates will have an interest in both private for-profit and not-for-profit opportunities.

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Position: Senior Portfolio Fellow

Location: New York

Organization: Acumen Fund is a global non-profit venture capital fund, focused on supporting the delivery of critical services – water, health, housing, energy – at affordable prices to the four billion people earning less than four dollars a day in India, Pakistan, and East Africa.  Acumen Fund seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor.  Acumen Fund has successfully impacted over 10 million lives so far, through over $30 million invested in South Asia and Africa. Its country offices in India, Pakistan and Kenya work closely with the New York team to identify and support local social enterprises.   Through our investments we address problems of poverty using market based approaches, demonstrating that there is a role for patient capital, intensive management assistance, and knowledge sharing at the base of the pyramid.  Since 2001, Acumen Fund has functioned under a philanthropic capital model, raising donations to fund investments in enterprises that deliver health, water, housing or energy to the poor.  In 2008, we launched an invested capital fund that will operate side by side with our philanthropic fund, making investments in enterprises that support the poor.

Description: The Senior Portfolio Fellow will report to the Chief Investment Officer and will focus his or her attention assessing investment opportunities, transaction execution, management assistance/investment management and coaching/mentoring.

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Position: Community Manager

Location: Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA

Organization: Inveneo is a non-profit social enterprise whose mission is to get the tools of ICT into the hands of organizations and people who need them most: those in remote and rural communities in the developing world. To do this, Inveneo creates and sells highly affordable and sustainable ICTs that are specifically designed for organizations -- governments, NGOs, private enterprises -- that serve these rural communities with vital services that include education, healthcare, economic development, relief and telecenters.  More information on Inveneo can be found on their website.

Description: Inveneo has developed a robust network of 38 local partners in 13 countries across Africa, and will be adding 25+ partners in Africa and Asia in 2009.  These local partners are small and medium sized ICT businesses that are trained and certified on Inveneo's methodologies to sell, deploy, and maintain appropriate solutions for rural and underserved communities.

To amplify local partner capacity to identify, deploy, and sustain ICT solutions, the Community Manager will supervise the implementation of an online community to increase inter-ICIP communication, expand the ICT expert community they can rely on, and increase the profile of the local partners and Inveneo in both international and local country technology and practitioner communities.

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Position: Vice President of Business Development and External Affairs

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts with travel up to 35 percent of the time

Organization: Root Capital is a nonprofit social investment fund that provides credit and financial education to grassroots organizations—such as farmer and artisan associations as well as private businesses—in developing countries that have socially and environmentally responsible practices.  Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Root Capital currently has field offices in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Kenya.  By offering loans and financial training to small and growing businesses in rural areas of the developing world, Root Capital aims to fill the "missing middle" of finance—serving organizations caught in the gap between microfinance and traditional banking.  Root Capital’s support enables borrowers to take advantage of good business opportunities and rising demand for their products by providing loans and technical assistance needed to grow operations, invest in infrastructure, or manage cashless periods before harvest time.

Description: Reporting directly to the Founder/CEO, the Vice President will lead the business development and external affairs functions both strategically and operationally.  The Vice President’s specific responsibilities will include fundraising, representing Root Capital externally, developing internal management and information systems to help make Root Capital’s fundraising more effective, broadening its donor and investor base, and increasing revenues.  S/he will manage an eight-member team that includes individual and institutional fundraisers, marketing and communications professionals, and impact assessment staff.  The ideal candidate will be creative and resourceful, with an established reputation in impact investing, social enterprise, international economic development, financial services, and/or corporate social responsibility.

See the attached job description for more details, including information on how to apply.  More information on working with Root Capital can be found on their web site.