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
September 1, 2006 — 12:12 pm
Everyone agrees that microfinance is the coolest thing since sliced bread. That’s why in the last two months we’ve seen it covered by the Financial Times, Reuters, The Globalist, The New York Times, The Economist, The LA Times, Business Week, CNN, and The Times of London. And in all...
August 30, 2006 — 10:44 am
El Universal, a Mexican newspaper, reported yesterday that by next October Mexicans will be using their mobile phones to buy everything from fast food to newspapers. The program is called Pago-Movil—or Mobile Payment in English—and will be available from six of Mexico’s largest banks and...
August 29, 2006 — 03:48 pm
Today, the Financial Times covers Casas Bahia, a BOP favorite from Brazil which has also been discussed in CK Prahalad’s book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Although the FT adds little to the debate about extending credit to low-income consumers, it still provides important...
August 28, 2006 — 02:23 pm
Today, the Asia Times published an interesting piece on Nazmi Ilicali, a farmer in Eastern Turkey who has made organic agriculture the centerpiece in the fight against rural poverty. Mr. Ilicali’s efforts have gained him international attention and just last year he was honored by the...
August 25, 2006 — 03:14 pm
If I’m not scouring obscure newspapers for BOP related stories, staring aimlessly off into space, clipping my toe nails, or thinking about integrating a word like phallogocentrism into a blog about microfinance, then chances are I’m adding new activities to Nextbillion’s activity...
August 24, 2006 — 04:26 pm
Earlier this week the Los Angeles Times reported that over 100,000 cooperatives have been formed in Venezuela in the last year, forming “the centerpiece of President Hugo Chavez's new socialist model to create jobs and redistribute this oil-rich country's wealth.” By providing tax...
August 23, 2006 — 03:48 pm
Next year microfinance celebrates its 30th birthday (Of course, that depends on who you ask). Beginning when Dr. Muhammad Yunus, an American trained economist from Bangladesh, experimented by lending money to 42 women so that they could buy bamboo for making and selling stools, microfinance...
August 22, 2006 — 11:49 am
Over a month ago, we covered a New York Times article on Billiton and its six year effort fighting malaria in Mozambique. Now it has come to my attention that The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Harvard’s School of Public Health, has released a paper, Business and Malaria: A...
August 21, 2006 — 04:26 pm
"The fact that you can combine a business — a profitable business — with a useful service and a charitable good is a win, win, win," Mike Newman told the USA Today. You see, Mr. Newman is Vice President of Recellular, a triple bottom line company that collects used cell phones,...
August 21, 2006 — 10:14 am
Two weeks ago on these pages, Rob Katz blogged about an opinion piece in the New York Times, which discussed India’s brewing controversy over microcredit. Last week, The Economist followed suit, writing its own opinion of the controversy, which, I must confess, is a lot rosier. Here are...
