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
October 11, 2006 — 11:40 am
Q. What do young social innovators do for fun? A. Hang out at StartingBloc’s fall seminar, of course. About two months ago, while I was waiting for a phenomenally delayed plane at the Dulles Airport, I picked up a copy of the summer edition of Fast Company. Beyond the excellent article...
July 27, 2006 — 12:04 pm
In my relentless search to find reasons to move to the fair city of Cape Town (as if biodiversity-friendly winelands, Lion's Head & the 12 Apostles, and the World Cup semi-finals in 2010 weren't enough), I regularly read South Africa's Mail & Guardian. I am rarely...
June 26, 2006 — 05:14 pm
The second part of NextBillion’s interview with Kiva focuses two issues that drive the organization’s success: Kiva’s value proposition within the greater microfinance community and strong partnerships that connect Kiva to its entrepreneurs. As many of you have read, microfinance has a...
June 21, 2006 — 11:24 am
With my head spinning from the loftiness of an IDB infused week, I happily returned to reality in a conversation with Kiva, which--as many of you know--is leveraging micro-finance institutions (MFIs) to create virtual connections between investors and micro-entrepreneurs. This doesn't sound...
May 18, 2006 — 03:29 pm
Just a quick note for those of you who are interested in venture capital / private equity in emerging economies: IFC and EMPEA hosted the 8th Annual Global Private Equity Conference in Washington, DC last week. Three power points are available on EMPEA's website that have...
April 14, 2006 — 03:35 pm
Just a short posting for those of you interested on what is being done to scale up biodiversity friendly businesses. This was sent me to me by Mareike Hussels my colleague at WRI's New Ventures program, a business accellerator for sustainable business. She attended an event in Brazil on...
April 13, 2006 — 05:31 pm
Three members of the New Ventures team (Virginia Barreiro, Mareike Hussels, and Rodrigo Villar) attended the recent Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The conference featured more than 20 speakers from venture capital firms and development...
April 12, 2006 — 05:48 pm
In the last couple of weeks a number of issues near and dear to my heart have gone mainstream...or at least they are getting a little more of the limelight, which is fine by me. But, how did this happen? And what does it have to do with emerging market investments in sustainable...
November 22, 2005 — 12:13 pm
Today the South African Mail & Guardian featured an article on the launch of Soweto TV, a community television station that is designed to train and empower locals to produce news that reflects their reality. Much like, TV Rocinha that was featured at WRI's Base of the Economic Pyramid...
November 15, 2005 — 12:47 pm
This year’s Net Impact Conference, held at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business was by all accounts a huge success. Here are some quick stats: • Over 1,400 participants from schools across the U.S. and internationally • Over 200 speakers on approximately 75 panels • 6...
