NextBillion brings together the community of business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academics who want to explore the connection between development and enterprise.
Our Staff Writers and Editors offer insights on the latest news, events, interviews and other happenings from the development through enterprise and base of the pyramid universes
July 8, 2009 — 09:47 am
In "Making Better Investments at the Base of the Pyramid," Ted London of the University of Michigan points out that even though most ventures serving the world's poor have feel-good stories and data on milestones, most of them lack a systematic way to assess how well they're reaching the people they set out to serve.
April 29, 2009 — 05:00 am
Oxford business professor Linda Scott is trying to verify something that many BoP business models are based on: the idea that becoming an Avon lady could help poor women in developing nations get out poverty. Her research in South Africa, which is not yet complete, indicates the Avon model might be what some need to get out of poverty...
March 16, 2009 — 07:30 am
The Rockefeller Foundation, UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation recently announced the formation of the mHealth Alliance to facilitate innovation and maximize impact in the field of mobile health (mHealth), which has drawn attention to this area. The Alliance will expand the mHealth initiatives of multiple organizations around the world.
February 27, 2009 — 07:00 pm
As I learn more about entrepreneurship and job creation efforts I am increasingly convinced that we need a broader range of tools than either microcredit or social venture funding typically offer. Recently Agora Partnerships caught my eye when they and their founder Ben Powell were awarded a Draper Richards Fellowship.
January 9, 2009 — 05:57 pm
Position: Project Manager Location: Ghana € Accra Time frame: Full Time, Starting January 25, 2009 Organization: Grameen Technology Center. The Grameen Technology Center, an initiative of the Grameen Foundation, focuses on technology that makes microfinance operations more efficient,...
January 8, 2009 — 02:00 pm
Energy poverty in the developing world is a complex and ongoing problem with serious impacts on health, economic growth, and the overall environment. The impact on the poor is particularly felt in their day to day needs for cooking fuel – much of it coming from either oil or gas - or from...
November 3, 2008 — 02:15 pm
"If people don't have a job, they don't have hope. And if you don't have hope, what do you really have?" (George Roberts of Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co., the founder of REDF) Recently Jocelyn Wyatt and I were fortunate to have Carla Javits, the President of REDF...
October 30, 2008 — 10:29 am
This fall, Jocelyn Wyatt and I taught a seven week course at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, which spanned the worlds of philanthropy, business and many of the way points in between. We were both Acumen Fund Fellows (class of 2007) and as part of our post-Fellowship goals each...
October 20, 2008 — 04:27 pm
The final day of last week's SoCap event was, for me, the best of the 3 days. It was the chance to meet with lots of other participants, hear their ideas, and get actively involved in the things that I really cared about and wanted to discuss. The "strategically...
September 17, 2008 — 06:01 pm
Every few weeks, members of the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network (SVMN) converge in the San Francisco Bay Area to learn about microfinance, microcredit, and related finance and economic topics. The last session, Fueling the Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES), was led and hosted by...
