Safe tap water is a luxury that many people in the world do not enjoy. In many developing countries, it is not safe to drink or use the tap water. The Center for Disease Control website of the United States government has health information about every country in the world, and it’s interesting to see how many countries fall under the advice: "Drink only bottled or boiled water, or carbonated (bubbly) drinks in cans or bottles."

Bottled water is expensive, of course, and people living at the BoP often cannot afford it. World Resources Institute’s research in The Next 4 Billion: Market Size and Business Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid showed that low-income customers pay anywhere from eight to sixteen times more for bottled or trucked water than they would for a local, public utility (page 58). If this isn’t a BoP penalty, then I don’t know what is.

Access to clean drinking water is a concern world-wide – but it is not the sole responsibility of government to provide it. The Next 4 Billion report concluded that there is a clear willingness to pay for clean water in the BoP. However, even if there is a willingness to pay, access to such services is not widespread, especially in rural areas. What the world needs are effective and innovative ideas on how to get these services to the people in the BoP, and to deliver them. Ashoka’s Changemakers has partnered with The Global Water Challenge to launch a collaborative competition to discuss and discover new solutions:

"Global Water Challenge is dedicated to finding solutions to the water and sanitation crises. We believe that we have both the resources and the will to live in a world in which everyone can drink clean water, and use a safe toilet. It is our goal to find and encourage ideas and individuals, wherever they may be, so that every school, every clinic, every home, every community, without regard to geography and income, has access to these basic needs."

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

Echoing Green is an angel investor for entrepreneurs focused on social change. I wrote about a couple of their 2007 fellows earlier this summer. They provide seed funding and support to entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for social change.

As an angel investor in the social sector, Echoing Green identifies, funds, and supports emerging leaders around the world and the organizations that they launch. Echoing Green has a two-year fellowship program, in which they identify social entrepreneurs that develop new solutions to social problems. They are currently accepting applications for the 2008 fellowship, for which 20 social entrepreneurs will be selected. Fellows will receive up to $90,000 to fund sustainable solutions to social problems.

I'd like to encourage our readers to make a contribution on innovative social change by applying to the fellowship and contributing with their groundbreaking ideas. As Jeremy Schifeling from Echoing Green says

(Click "Read More" to continue reading this post)

I have been following discussions inside the microfinance field, specifically regarding the Compartamos IPO.

"Carlos Danel and Carlos Labarthe, the CEOs of Compartamos, a nonprofit-cum-commercial bank which charges an annual interest rate of nearly 100 percent, believe that only the lure of profits will motivate people to lend to the poor. Today Compartamos reaches 700,000 borrowers and 88 percent of its clients come back for more loans. In 2006, it was rated as Mexico's most profitable bank”

via PSD blog and iPienso. I also read the Microfinance Gateway reports from CGAP and Microcredit Enterprises. These reports caused me to reflect upon the debate, and I came to the following conclusion: while poor people are in need of credit and willing to pay high interest rates, that in and of itself doesn’t justify charging such rates and earning huge profits out of them.

Compartamos started in 1990 as a non-profit organization lending small amounts of money to indigenous Mexican women. Today, Compartamos has turned into a giant, for-profit bank with more than 600,000 clients. Compartamos' transition from NGO to for-profit bank sparks controversy – while many indigenous women in Mexico are grateful for the programs, now the bank is targeted by critics. Among these critics are Chuck Waterfield, Jonathan Lewis, and Mohammad Yunus - Nobel Prize winner and pioneer of microfinance.

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

Yesterday, I attended "Unlimited Potential: Connecting the Next Five Billion," a presentation organized by SID-Washington's Corporate Responsibility Workgroup, USAID's Global Development Alliance, DAI and Georgetown University's Mortara Center for International Studies. The presentation featured Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group and was hosted at the Academy for Educational Development (AED). In short, it was a brief on Microsoft's strategy for addressing the BoP and it was very insightful.

Michael Rawding, Vice President of MS's Unlimited Potential Group, delivered the speech. He explained in detail about Microsoft’s BoP strategy. I found interesting that the Unlimited Potential group is not part of the company's corporate social responsibility department, but rather a for profit division committed to delivering relevant, accessible and affordable software to the BoP. This is exactly what the BoP discourse is trying to do - get corporations to engage through their business units, not just CSR departments.

Rawding discussed how Unlimited Potential is finding avenues to foster social and economic opportunity while at the same time bringing innovative technologies such as the Classroom Computer to people living in developing countries. He acknowledged the challenges of addressing BoP markets, especially since Microsoft historically has produced software and technology for the billion people at the top of the economic pyramid.

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

How do we get more capital to the people who want to start their own SMEs? It is difficult to make a case for this "missing middle." NextBillion has identified this problem in the past, and it seems like now the issue is beginning to unfold in the development debate: the Clinton Global Initiative is now discussing this very issue.

SMEs are good for the economy - they create wealth, create jobs and usually need financing so they can grow to scale. The financing gap exists for a layer of potentially high-growth SMEs that occupy a space between large MNC projects and micro-entrepreneurs. The World Bank has found a connection between the number of SMEs in a country and a country's growth, and has posited that without SMEs, it’s difficult to sustain economic growth.

The following videocast is of a session entitled "Filling the Finance Gap" at the Clinton Global Initiative's Poverty Alleviation Working Group a couple weeks ago. The speakers: Alan Patricof, Sonal Shah and Hubertus van der Vaart, do an exceptional job of explaining the challenges of investing in entrepreneurs and SMEs in emerging markets; they debate about the financing gap, or the "mesofinance gap."

Watch the videocast here

I find what Patricof says about the companies in the United States very interesting. He mentions Staples as an example of a company that started small and then scaled up to become a big U.S. corporation, thanks to the existing capital structure in the United States. There are similar companies with great potential in a multitude of emerging economies, but most face a consistent challenge: lack of financing tools.

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

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development is recruiting for a Managing Director position based in Geneva, Switzerland.The role of this position is to contribute to the strategic direction of the WBCSD.

The successful candidate will be expected to:

Engage the company executives in the steering committee of the Development Focus Area to develop and gain approval of the strategy and overall work plans;

Engage broadly with the WBCSD member companies and regional network partners to raise awareness of development related issues and opportunities for business;

Work with representatives from WBCSD member companies – of many different industry sectors - to lead the implementation of the work program;

Advocate for improvements in the overall investment climate for doing business in emerging economies with government, intergovernmental and civil society organizations;

Explore collaborative opportunities with government, multi-laterals, development organizations and civil society organizations to partner with business to deliver real progress on the ground.

To submit an application for this position send a cover letter and resume to job@wbcsd.org. The deadline to receive applications is October 31, 2007. Click here for more details on the job listing.

This is the perfect opportunity to join the WBCSD team of professionals who share the motivation make a difference in the world and support sustainable development through business. NextBillion encourages our qualified readers to apply!

The Social Venture Network hosted the competition "Imagine What’s Next: Ideas that Will Change the Way the World Does Business" in June and announced the winners on Monday. This innovation award's objective is to find businesses and leaders that create positive social change in the business sector.

Out of the ten winners, I would like to highlight two because of their work within the BOP sphere:

Design that Matters, Timothy Prestero, CEO (Cambridge, MA): Design that Matters (DtM) was founded to help social enterprises in developing countries scale more quickly by providing them access to better products designed specifically for their needs. DtM’s design work and business analysis is performed by volunteers from academia and industry, using the infrastructure available at their host institutions. Academic contributors include MIT, Stanford and the Rhode Island School of Design, and corporate partners include IDEO and Fisher Price, SolidWorks and Optikos.

World of Good, Priya Haji, Co-founder and CEO
(Emeryville, CA): World of Good seeks to lift thousands of women in the developing world out of poverty. It creates opportunities for hundreds of artisan cooperatives around the world by serving as a bridge to the U.S. retail market and providing access to fair wages, safe working conditions and long-term economic sustainability. ProjectGood.com is the newest venture launched in partnership with eBay to create a people positive shopping experience designed to help millions of consumers connect with producers around the world.

The winners of the competition will be honored at the SVN Fall Conference in California later next week. Since 1987, SVN has been working to promote social enterprises and encourage socially responsible investing, sustainable and green enterprises. They identify businesses and entrepreneurs that value both social concerns and profitability.

Santa Clara University will be hosting a conference on November 8^th with Manuel Castells, the world's leading researcher in the field of communication technology and society; Al Hammond, World Resources Institute's Vice President of Special Projects and Innovation and also a writer here on NextBillion; Sally Osberg (invited) President and Chief Executive Officer of the Skoll Foundation; Regis McKenna (invited) - Chairman of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society; and other foremost Silicon Valley thinkers.

This will conference examine how "social entrepreneurs" are breaking down barriers, and remaking the rules of innovation, with careful consideration to how social entrepreneurs "reframe" problems -- from overcoming civil engineering deficits, capital access constraints, base of the pyramid skill shortages, to dealing with fragmented markets.

Learn, too, about programs at the Center to bridge the innovation gap such as its Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) and KnowledeX (sponsored by Applied Materials).

The conference will be very interesting – the innovators and thought leaders attending will offer insights on the ways technology and design influence the BOP and redefine parameters and market assumptions.

Admission is free, but advanced RSVP is required. To register, contact Sherrill Dale, sdale@scu.edu, (408) 551-6027. Click here for more information.

Last week, I attended the NESsT 10^th anniversary party at Pangea Artisan Market & Cafe in the International Finance Corporation (IFC) building (2121 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington DC). The store has an interactive education component, with computers that provide information about the store’s artisans and their designs. The place is great and it matches really well with the idea of NESsT – promoting social enterprises in the world.

NESsT is an organization that works in emerging market countries "by developing and supporting social enterprises that strengthen civil society organizations' financial sustainability and maximize their social impact."

NESsT combines the tools and strategies of business and entrepreneurship with the values of philanthropy. It supports the development of social enterprises in emerging democracies worldwide. Former NextBillion staff writer Lauren Abendschein blogged about NESsT a couple of months ago.

At the event last week, I met the co-founders and CEOs of NESsT, Nicole Etchart and Lee Davis, both wonderful and insightful people. Nicole is from Chile and she works at NESsT’s offices in Santiago. During the event, a NESsT board member gave a speech recalling the story of when Nicole and Lee started with their idea in Baltimore, and how difficult it was for them to convince people to support them and to believe in the ideas that NESsT embraces. Today, after ten years, NESsT is one of the most recognized social enterprise catalysts in the world. They work with four initiatives, including a venture fund, university support, consulting, and a marketplace.

In some ways NESsT is similar to New Ventures, because aside from providing one-on-one relationships with the companies in its portfolio, it also to strengthens the field of social enterprise through training, forums, workshops, and publishing. The entire team at NextBillion congratulates NESsT on its 10^th Anniversary and wishes them to continue the good work!

Technology Benefiting Humanity and the Tech Museum Awards winners were announced earlier this month. These awards recognize and support solutions that benefit humanity and address some of the most critical issues facing our planet and its people.

The Laureates are announced each year and they can be individuals, for-profit, public or non-profit organizations and they must demonstrate that with the use of technology, they can improve the human condition in one of the five areas:

 - Evidence that a serious problem or challenge with broad significance is addressed by this use of technology
- A noteworthy contribution that surpasses previous or current solutions.
- A novel application that represents a breakthrough or a creative adaptation of an existing technology.
- The potential for this use of technology to serve as an inspiration or model for others.

Among the 2007 laureates are P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program, Kiva and PATH all of which we have blogged about on NextBillion. To see the complete list of all Laureates click here.

Here on NextBillion, we have followed the Disruptive Innovations contest from Ashoka very closely, hoping that a new ‘disruptive innovation’ will provide a good idea or innovation for the BOP. The winners were announced earlier this month and truthfully, I am very disappointed. There were three winners – none of them are international, nor is there one that caters the BOP.

The competition’s objective was to find 'disruptive innovations' – as Professor Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School refers to innovations that dramatically reshape current trends. This specific competition aimed to find solutions for health and health care marketplace problems. The online competition, "Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care-Solutions People Want," was an initiative from Ashoka’s Changemakers. There were 10 finalists - I blogged about them last month - and three winners were chosen by online votes.

A disruptive innovation must be an innovative solution to a problem and it has offer a technology, process or business model that changes the way that products or services are currently available. This can be either by making it more affordable or simpler to use. The potential change caused by such innovations is so dramatic that eventually, the original model is replaced, or 'disrupted.'

The winners of the $5,000 USD grant for "Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care-Solutions People Want," competition are:

Project ECHO: Knowledge Networks for the Treatment of Complex Diseases in Remote, Rural, Underserved Communities (University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center). Using telemedicine and the Internet, specialists and primary care providers co-manage patient populations with chronic diseases in rural areas, as well as other underserved communities across New Mexico.

Family Coaching Clinics: A New Model of Preventive Mental Health Care (UCLA Semel Institute Global Center for Children and Families). Using the same principles as MinuteClinics and RediClinics, Family Coaching Clinics operate in accessible retail environments to make mental health services readily available to families before simple problems become more serious.

Instant Birth Control (Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette). Using Web tools and multi-media outreach, this 24/7 online program increases women's access to reliable birth control, eliminating the need for in-person doctor visits for routine contraception and sexual health care.

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

The Omidyar® Network supports the conditions that enable individuals to tap their own potential to make life better for themselves and others. Since 2004, Omidyar Network has funded nonprofit and for-profit efforts in a number of areas, including microfinance, participatory media, open innovation, and transparency in government. They are recruiting a new Financial Analyst to join their team.

This position will be reporting to the director of investments, members of the investment team and, work closely with senior members of the team. The candidate will be involved in many aspects of the investment process. The primary focus of this role is conducting technical and business due diligence, market and competitive analysis, and monitoring of portfolio companies.

Click here for more information on this job listing.

Last week I attended to a conference at Chemonics International by John Owens on mobile banking (m-banking). Almost every writer on NextBillion has written blog posts about this new approach to banking. According to John Owens -chief of party for MABS from Chemonics International- m-banking is the future of micro-finance and rural banking, especially in remote areas - and many people agree. With the increase in cell phone sales in the past years, more people have cell phones and therefore banking services have a broader market base in which to operate.

The advantages of mobile banking are many. It provides a more secure way of making transactions instead of carrying cash; it facilitates transactions such as deposits and withdrawals; and it makes operations much simpler for micro-entrepreneurs.

According to Business Week, Filipinos are the text messaging kings. They send an estimation of 200 million text messages on a given day. Chemonics has been leading the program called Microenterprise Access to Banking Services funded by USAID in the Philippines and it has proven to be of great success.

The new mobile banking service that the conference was about is called G-Cash. In a nutshell: an approximately 10 dollar cell phone is turned into an "electronic wallet" that people can use to send and receive all different types of payments via text message. People in the Philippines are using G-Cash to pay bills such as utilities, school tuition, as well as to purchase goods and services and receive their salary via 'text-a-sweldo' or remittances from abroad via 'text-a-remittance.'

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

"In the face of this new reality, an increasing number of forward-looking nonprofits are beginning to appreciate the increased revenue, focus and effectiveness that can come from adopting "for profit" business approaches. Increasingly, they are reinventing themselves as social entrepreneurs, combining "the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination." From "The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship" by J. Gregory Dees.

Social entrepreneurs have the motivation of making the world a better place and have a passion for a social mission through entrepreneurial, earned-income strategies commonly known as triple bottom line.

David Bornstein is the author of "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas," a book about social entrepreneurship. Guy Kawasaki recently interviewed him because Bornstein just updated his book; if you haven’t read it, it's a good time to go to the store and get the new, updated version. The Stanford Social Innovation Review published an article in the summer 2007 issue trying to define what a social entrepreneur is. It seems that the term gets broader and broader every day; Ashoka defines it as "men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems."

A little self promotion: Rodrigo Villar, director of WRI's New Ventures project in Mexico, has been awarded the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship, which supports social entrepreneurs. As an Ashoka fellow, he will develop a directory of "Green Pages." This directory is a sustainable products and services guide (like the Yellow Pages) that will inform green consumers in Mexico.

In the interview with Guy Kawasaki, Bornstein emphasizes the role of social entrepreneurship in the world. He talks about how social entrepreneurship is starting to be a more mainstream idea, and how more and more people are becoming familiar with the term and the outcomes. The only caveat is, as I mentioned earlier, that there should be a more clear definition on who exactly is a social entrepreneur. At the moment, the term is considered very broad, according to the SSIR article quoted above.

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

Two faculty positions are open at Penn State - Delaware County University for Management Faculty.  The Assistant Professor candidates (one in Management, one in Marketing) will have the proper academic backgrounds, but Professor Raed Elaydi tells NextBillion that an interest in BoP research is a plus.

Applicants are encouraged to apply through the formal process. To apply, submit a letter of application and Curriculum Vitae. Applications must be submitted as a Microsoft Word or PDF file to ccsearch@psu.edu.

Finalists will be asked to provide a list of references. Candidates are also welcome to contact Dr. Paul deGategno at pjd15@psu.edu or (610) 892-1411.

To find more postings click here. Follow the "Faculty" link, select the Delaware County campus, and choose the two Assistant Professorships listed.