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.

Attention Indian engineering undergrads: the Engineers for Social Impact (E4SI) fellowship program has opened its annual recruitment process.  E4SI matches the most talented undergraduate students from fifteen elite Indian engineering schools with partner social enterprises that focus on development by means of sustainable for-profit entrepreneurship. 

I am a big fan of this program, which was co-founded by NextBillion staff writer alum Nitin Rao.  (Side note: Nitin developed the idea while a StartingBloc Fellow, another fantastic program that I can't recommend enough.)  The E4SI fellowships combine the best of consulting, technology, and social innovation.  Fellows get unprecedented access to the development sector as they work with leading social entrepreneurs, attend leadership workshops at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and pitch their ideas to thought leaders as they join an outstanding cohort of exceptional young leaders.

Partner social enterprises for the 2009 edition of the E4SI fellowship program are leaders in microfinance, multiple bottom-line investment advisory, education, energy, and healthcare. They include Ujjivan, one of the fastest growing microfinance institutions in India; Intellecap, a strategic advisory firm that mobilizes investments for socially-motivated businesses; iDiscoveri, an experiential education organization focused on self-discovery and meaningful learning in economically emerging societies; Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO India), a company that provides reliable, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy services to rural homes and businesses; D.light Design, an organization that believes everybody deserves modern light and provides innovative solutions for people living in a power constrained world; dhanaX, an award-winning online-offline person-to-person lending platform that draws inspiration from the entrepreneurial spirit of thousands of small farmers, underprivileged women, and small business owners across the globe; and Vaatsalya, a company that seeks to expand rural and semi-urban healthcare by building and managing hospitals where they are needed most.

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

I recently read an article titled Negroponte - missionary not manufacturer, in which the author makes the argument that, well, Nicholas Negroponte - founder and Chairman of the One Laptop Per Child project - is a missionary, not a manufacturer. I think this is a very interesting point and caused me to ponder the definition of success.

Negroponte has been pilloried in the press, blogosphere and by analysts around the world, and even to an extent by me. You can see this in a three part blog posting that I wrote that starts here.

While some of the criticism may be valid, if you actually change the perspective of how you view his role ... from someone that is trying to manufacture and sell millions of laptops, to someone that has a vision of a computer as a key tool for accelerating learning and technology adoption, then his cause would be seen in a different light. And that is exactly why the world embraced him in 2005 when he first introduced his OLPC project.

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

I have always been fascinated by citizen journalism and the power of media when put in the hands of the people. On this topic, I came across Channel 19 recently, a venue for the base of the pyramid in India to film and screen their own news stories, or in Jessica Mayberry's words, to create a "CNN for the base of the pyramid."

A huge applause is due to Jessica, the founder of Channel 19 and an Echoing Green Fellow, for taking initiative and starting the organization. Channel 19 consists of Community Video Units (CVUs) across India where individuals are trained in how to produce short news stories that reflect the issues that matter to them; the spots are then screened in their local communities. I am looking forward to seeing where Jessica takes this. 

Additional initiatives such as the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society's Global Voices and Rising Voices aim to expand and fortify an international online presence of marginalized voices through video, blogging, and other participatory media. NextBillion allies Ethan Zuckerman and David Sasaki help run the Voices projects and are strong advocates for citizen-empowered participatory media.

While having a "voice" is inherently valuable, how can we enable such media programs to lead to development and income-generating opportunities for the BOP and attract corporations to invest in BOP markets at the same time?

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

Outside, it is grey and rainy, but inside, the Camden library is warm and inviting.  Today's special session merited an early arrival to Pop!Tech: Scaling the Bottom of the Pyramid, a 2-hour talk by longtime BoP innovators Paul Polak and Bunker Roy.

Bill Gordon, a Pop!Tech board member, kicks things, describing Pop!Tech's active social change mission – realized through its Accelerator and Social Innovation Fellows Programs.  He then introduces today’s speakers as the "heavyweights of the social enterprise world."  I, for one, don't argue with that description.

Bunker Roy admits that he is the product of a "very expensive, elitist education" in India, which prepared him for a career as a doctor, engineer or diplomat. When he decided to work in a village instead however, his mother was appalled; but it marked the beginning of a remarkable career.

Roy founded the Barefoot College, a school only for the poor, in 1971. He asserts that rural India is full of professionals not recognized for their skills, such as water diviners and traditional midwives. His college is open only to people without a formal education and seeks to combine the knowledge of local people with modern technologies.

Roy's students create buildings that harvest rainwater and win architectural awards without a professional architect's involvement. They share knowledge and learn other skills, which they share back home.  In 38 years, the Barefoot College has served 3 million people who live on less than $1 per day.

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

The Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN) brings together a number of Latin America academic institutions interested in exploring the concept of social enterprise and market-based solutions to poverty. Last week the network convened for a research colloquium in Harvard Business School to share the major findings of their upcoming publication titled Inclusive Business in Iberoamerica: Challenges and Opportunities.

It was an interesting venue in which I had the opportunity to learn about thriving BoP business models in Latin America like Cruzsalud in Venezuela, which is bringing high-quality healthcare services to the poor of Caracas. It was also exciting to meet and talk to very interesting people like Nancy Barry and Michael Chu, surely two of the most influential characters of the microfinance revolution. Interestingly, both have moved on from microfinance to engage in the broader BoP/ Social Enterprise space. Stay tuned for upcoming posts in which I'll summarize my conversations with both of them and their current ventures.

I would like to use the rest of this post to present two simple ideas that I believe could be of use to SEKN, as it enters its new research cycle. In particular, I see great opportunities for the network to more effectively deliver its messages and findings while also turning their academic research into action, by further engaging with students and practitioners in the countries where the network is present. 

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