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A conference focused specifically on Haiti's reconstruction has been just announced by the organizers of the Miami Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference. The Haiti Conference will immediate follow the larger one and introduce a series of discussions around issues critical to set the country in a viable path of recovery. I was impressed by the range of topics that will be addressed at 25 panels and workshops, as well as the list of invitees and speakers. Hopefully we'll see partnerships and concrete initiatives coming out of such a diverse group.

There's one name I didn't see in the list of invitees, whose perspective I think would be valuable and relevant to this urgent task: Michael Fairbanks, founder of the OTF Group and the SEVEN Fund. Few like Mr. Fairbanks understand the role of markets and enterprise in the reconstruction of a failed state, thanks to the role he has played advising the administration of Paul Kagame in post-genocide Rwanda. The parallel between Haiti and Rwanda has been suggested extensively throughout the blogosphere these days, and rightfully so. The Haiti Conference is an ideal venue to have that discussion. Experiences like that of Mr. Fairbanks would make it a richer one. 

For a refresher on the Rwanda experience and the role of enterprise in it, I suggest you take a look at In the River They Swim, a book edited by Mr. Fairbanks that we commented in these pages as soon as it hit the shelves last year. The ideas presented in its pages would increase the odds that Haiti experiences its own miraculous rebirth. 

Editor's Note: The emergency relief effort in Haiti is still very much underway, but the conversation on the role of business in rebuilding has already begun.  World Bank President Robert Zoellick has urged donor nations to be ready for the long haul, which help rebuild basic infrastructure.  The Wall Street Journal has covered multinationals' efforts to locate employees and consider their future operations.  We re-post here Francisco Mejia's call to action for the private sector from the Majority Markets blog, urging business to go further. The conversation on the role for the private sector has already started at Business Fights Poverty, and fast-moving ventures like SamaSource and Crowdflower are already looking at re-orienting their work towards Haiti to create jobs.   The task will be even more complex than even nimble, smart ventures typically take on but the need is enormous.  We hope NextBillion can help spur this conversation forward - please post your ideas for how the private sector can organize and act be part of rebuilding in Haiti so that the future can be more prosperous and sustainable than before the earthquake.      

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In a recent opinion article in the Washington Post , Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs proposed creating a multi-billion dollar "Haiti Recovery Fund," using contributions from the international community, to support the reconstruction of Haiti.

Professor Sachs is correct that addressing the post-earthquake devastation in Haiti will be a multi-billion-dollar project, and that it needs a very sophisticated level of coordination.  Nevertheless, the reconstruction effort should be driven by a combination of international funding to subsidize basic needs, and market based solutions that address the daunting Haitian challenges ahead and reflect a high level of participation and commitment from the private sector.  In the long run, private sector investment will indispensable in reaching and sustaining the levels of development that have eluded Haiti and that its people deserve.

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Toward the end of my job search, I sought advice on my resume from a woman with a lot of recruiting experience.  She offered to help me refine my resume messaging.  At some point during the exchange I confessed that I didn't always understand why one resume was chosen over another in the recruiting process.  Her reply was brilliant in its clarity.  "Essentially, it's a matter of resonance," she said.  The recruiter will see something in the document that "clicks"----reminds her of herself and her experiences, meets the requirements of the position, and addresses the needs of the company. 

I was reminded of the "theory of resonance" while talking to Rahama Wright, social entrepreneur and founder of Shea Yeleen International, a nonprofit working to help African women secure sustainable livelihoods via shea butter production.  As you'll soon read, Shea Yeleen emerged out of a sense of kinship with the women with whom she'd worked in Burkina Faso as a Peace Corps volunteer.  We've talked about this dynamic force before; it's often what gets people to press their "go" buttons, which Rahama has clearly done.  So for those of you who've made New Year's resolutions to "press go", perhaps Rahama's story will offer some inspiration for 2010.  Let's get to know Shea Yeleen.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
What does Shea Yeleen do?  Who does it serve and where do you work?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
Our mission is to support economic development in rural West Africa, and we currently operate in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mali.  More specifically, we work with shea butter producers to gain access to US consumers.  We organize producer cooperatives, offer women business skills training, and create retail products that we can sell.  Shea Yeleen also works to educate US consumers about the market access issue, especially how to support the communities where we work.  With shea butter and other commodities of African origin, local communities often do not benefit from the trade of local goods.  Not surprisingly, market access for women producing shea is very limited, so we are trying to help bridge that gap.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
I hear that you're currently raising funds for a new factory, rather successfully I might add.  What's the story there?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
We're raising money for 120 women in Dio, Burkina Faso where I served in the Peace Corps.  The purpose of the fundraising is to build a central production and training facility for the cooperative we've established.  The community has donated land and labor and Shea Yeleen is raising four thousand dollars to help pay for the facility's construction. 

Fortunately, we have nearly achieved our fundraising goal, which is very exciting.  We're working with the Peace Corps to offer continued organizational support to the cooperative and channel the funding.  Construction is scheduled to start in March. 

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
Why did you start Shea Yeleen?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
I am of Ghanaian descent-----my mother's family is from Ghana.  Although I grew up in Syracuse, I've always been interested in African issues.  Eventually I joined the Peace Corps and was placed in Burkina Faso where I volunteered at a women's health center. 

During my time there, I was really overcome by the challenges that the women faced within their communities.  Because of my background and family history, I saw my reflection in these women.  I could very easily have faced the same difficulties they were facing.  As a result, I felt a sense of responsibility to do something.  It didn't make sense to see those challenges and issues and not try to help. 

It became clear that the women I was working with could not pay for health services.  That's when we started thinking about income-generating activities for them.  Shea butter was a product that they were willing to organize around, so we started there.  With my experiences in the US and Africa, I thought I could figure out a way to get the shea butter to market.  So I began to work with a group of women to create a cooperative and formalize a business structure.  I formally launched Shea Yeleen in 2003 and the cooperative was formed in 2005.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
Why shea butter?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
Shea butter is a unique commodity in Africa because producing it is considered women's work, equivalent to cooking, taking care of household, etc.  As more products are made from shea butter, there's a unique opportunity for women to benefit if they're able to sell products.  When women are empowered economically it changes their lives, the lives of their children, and their communities. 

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
Do you have plans to scale your venture?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
Yes.  Right now we work with about 300 women through various partnerships in Mali, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.  We've done a very good job of organizing and training, and we have a small retail product line.  We want to expand our line, increase brand awareness, and explore new distribution channels so that we can get more products to market and give consumers greater access to them.  Ideally we'd like to grow the cooperative from a few hundred members to a network of cooperatives with a few thousand members in the next five years.  It's also very important for us to share stories of women we work with and demonstrate our impact on their income levels.

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
How easy is it to stimulate domestic demand (i.e. within Africa) for your products?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
It's possible, but we've noticed that Africans who can afford to buy these types of goods are buying imports from Italy and the US.  People tend to want a more refined, "foreign" product.  Shea butter is also considered less mainstream and has been stereotyped as belonging to poor people.  Unfortunately, due to lack of facilities, we can't produce retail products from our shea butter in Africa.  Shea Yeleen is forced to import shea from Africa, create the retail products in the US, and sell them to American customers.  If we could figure out how to manufacture our products and sell them in Africa, they would sell very well.   

Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net:
What are your toughest challenges as an entrepreneur?

Rahama Wright, Shea Yeleen Founder:
As with any start-up or social enterprise, funding is a huge hurdle.  Our sector specific challenge is trying to work effectively in communities without running water and electricity; gaining access is difficult.  On the business side it's sorting out market access and distribution-looking at distribution channels is a huge part of our mission. 

If you'd like to learn more about Shea Yeleen, check out their website:.  Also, Shea Yeleen has been featured in O Magazine and Rahama is a winner of the Women Rule! O-White House Leadership Contest.  Finally, to support the current fundraising drive, go here.

Note: I am an employee of TechnoServe and have used the release issued today to report on this exciting news.  I will work with NextBillion to report on the progress of this partnership in the coming months and years.

The Coca-Cola Company, nonprofit TechnoServe, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today launched a partnership to enable over 50,000 small fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to increase their productivity and double their incomes by 2014.

This four-year, $11.5 million partnership will enable mango and passion fruit farmers to participate in the Company's supply chain for the first time. With a $7.5 million grant provided by the Gates Foundation to TechnoServe, $3 million provided by The Coca-Cola Company, and $1 million by bottling partner Coca-Cola Sabco, the project aims to create new market opportunities for local farmers whose fruit will be used for Coca-Cola's locally-produced and sold fruit juices. As the implementing partner, Technoserve will train participating farmers in improving quality, increasing production, getting organized into farmer groups, and will facilitate access to credit.

"This partnership is a great example of sustainability. By partnering with tens of thousands of local farmers, we can help increase their incomes while meeting our needs for locally sourced fruit, benefiting both the community and our business," says Nathan Kalumbu, Coca Cola's East & Central Africa business unit president.

As global and local demand for fruit juice grows, there is a critical need to increase production. Small farmers can benefit from this increased demand by supplying fruit that meets the needs of local buyers such as Coca-Cola. Through this partnership, farmers who were previously unable to access this market opportunity will be provided with the tools to do so. This partnership will also serve as a model for Coca-Cola as it grows its juice business in other markets and has been designed to be easily replicated.

"This partnership is the type of innovative approach needed to foster economic empowerment across the globe and we are proud to be a part of this effort in East Africa," says Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. "We and our partners the Gates Foundation and Technoserve believe that investing in farmers is a proven strategy to reduce poverty and build sustainable communities."

"Empowering small farmers to increase productivity, improve crop quality and access reliable markets is critical to addressing global hunger and poverty," says Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation has committed more than $1.4 billion, focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, to strengthen the entire agricultural value chain-from seeds and soil to farm management and market access-so that progress against hunger and poverty is sustainable over the long term. "Partnerships like this provide farmers with the tools and resources that can help revitalize African agriculture and increase opportunities for small farmers so they build better lives for themselves and their families."

TechnoServe's implementation of this partnership will build on a track record of similar partnerships underway across Africa including banana, cashews, cocoa and coffee. They will ensure that sustainable environmental and social standards are embedded into the program at the farm level.

"We are honored to be a part of this innovative collaboration, as it represents a significant step forward for private sector development in Africa," says TechnoServe President and CEO Bruce McNamer. "This investment will drive momentum toward reducing poverty across Africa by helping entrepreneurial farmers connect to markets and get the support they need."

This project will be implemented in close collaboration with the governments of Kenya and Uganda, given its significance in the context of their poverty reduction strategies.  It is intended to produce lasting benefits for participating farm communities, enabling them to benefit from improved livelihoods for many years to come.

If you are based in or around New York - or have plans to travel there in the coming months - you may be interested in two upcoming events that feature base of the pyramid subjects and experts.

The first is tomorrow night, 20 January, at the Demos Institute.  The event, "Can Market-Based Models Save the World?" is a debate between two heavyweight authors.  Taking the "yes" position will be Matthew Bishop, US Editor of The Economist and co-author of Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World.  The "no" position will be argued by Michael Edwards, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos and author of the newly published Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World.

There have been few public debates on the subject of market-based approaches to poverty, and these two thoughtful authors will each undoubtedly bring a data-driven, thoughtful perspective.  I will be attending, and hope to see some NextBillion readers there.  If you are unable to attend, I plan to write about the event after the fact.

The second must-see event is a book talk featuring BoP education expert James Tooley on Feburary 11.  Sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, the reception and book talk will center on Tooley's 2009 book, The Beautiful Tree.  While researching private schools in India for the World Bank, and worried that he was doing little to help the poor, Tooley wandered into the slums of Hyderabad's Old City. Shocked to find it overflowing with tiny, parent-funded schools filled with energized students, he set out to discover if schools like these could help achieve universal education.

Tooley will be joined by The Atlantic's Clive Crook, whose research and writing I have come to count on for mainstream coverage of BoP and development related topics.

These events are among many others posted on the Take Action page of NextBillion - I encourage you to take a look and see if events are happening in your area soon.  And if you are planning an event that should be listed, please let us know via e-mail or comment below.

This post introduces a series focused on new business models for sustainable trading relationships.  This series will discuss emerging enterprise solutions for small farmer inclusion, the corresponding impact on livelihoods of the rural poor, and the expanding market for sustainable business development for the public and private sectors.

Following the money often leads to interesting insights. If you work in international development, you've likely noticed a good deal of money being channeled to the hands of social entrepreneurs.   Backed by social impact banks and foundations, social investors are  zeroing in on enterprises committed to both financial returns and impact,  addressing everything from rural water access , eye care services and surgery,  affordable housing and sustainable sourcing, some of the most pressing issues of the world today.

Social Investment and Rural Enterprise Development

At CIAT's Linking Farmers to Market Program an explosion of new partnerships and learning alliances are occurring across the public/private aisle. Learning from the business models we've seen in the last few decades, we've joined up with a network of organizations (New Business Modes for Sustainable Trading Relationships) committed to capitalizing on a budding framework for enterprise-based inclusion of small growers in the developing world.

This international consortium of organizations is housed at the International Institute for Economic Development (IIED) in partnership with Catholic Relief Services,  Rainforest Alliance, CIAT, Sustainable Food Lab, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Principles of New Business Models

From examining the literature on value chains, following discussions with the private sector and drawing on our own experience through pilot projects, we have identified as set of principles that can serve as a framework for diagnosing and improving trading relationship when moving to a scalable business model.  This framework continues to evolve as global advances are made and smallholders are creatively engaged in dynamic markets.  We have seen consistent evidence that supply chains are most robust for smallholders where there is a structure in the value chain for:

1. Chain-wide collaboration on shared goals and identified champions for these goals;
2. New market linkages;
3. Fair and transparent chain governance;
4. Equitable access to services;
5. Inclusive innovations in the chain; and
6. Measurement of outcomes throughout the chain, with those measures shared between chain actors and used for continual commercial and social improvement.

This series will focus on our research around these issues, discussing the tenets of what our consortium has denoted as hallmarks of sustainable trading partnerships, recognizing that pro-poor development is in the interest of both the public and the private sector.

It's impossible to write a summary of news from this week, even for a blog that concerns itself with the everyday struggles of people in often desperate poverty, without the situation in Port-au-Prince making new research reports and blog posts seem at some level trivial.  

First and foremost, I expect NextBillion readers are a resourceful group and so I urge looking at the list on TED's blog of the non-monetary needs of Partners in Health in case you can contribute something that's otherwise difficult to procure with speed.   Beyond that, if a monetary contribution is what you can make, I trust PIH to continue now the good work they've been doing for so long in Haiti.    

What is there to say about the Haiti earthquake and its aftermath?  While oriented towards people living in deeply marginalized situations, the approaches covered by NextBillion are generally ones that require a basic level of socioeconomic stability - a reasonable business climate - in order to be relevant.  But I don't think it's presumptuous to say that the the sooner relief efforts in Haiti can become development and empowerment efforts, the better, and this is not simply a matter of seeing things only through an enterprise lens.  

At the point when Port-au-Prince's physical infrastructure has been utterly demolished, the social infrastructure that exists and can be built in the course of relief and stabilization is really all that is left, and becomes that much more important.  Where social infrastructure is emphasized, indigenous strength can overcome tragedy, but when the organizations leading relief or peacekeeping efforts remain the only thing holding society together, there is no recovery.  In this space innovative community organizations and social businesses would be critical.  

It goes without saying that investment in these kinds of efforts is what Haiti has long needed, and that the earthquake was much more deadly because of vulnerability created by poverty.  We will have done little more than assuage our own empathy towards Haiti today if aid efforts are simply intended to stabilize the situation where it was before the earthquake.

Nathaniel Whittemore says it well in reference to Rwanda: "One of the most remarkable stories of the last twenty years is Rwanda's post genocide rebirth… Should there be any hope that Haiti can do the same, we must recognize it deserves far more than just relief."  One can hope that attention will not dry up when emergency funds do, that any need for stabilization by the military forces being sent to Haiti won't interrupt efforts to nurture a stable democracy, and that what gets built in Port-au-Prince is not only earthquake-resistant buildings but opportunities for the people there to rebuild their own lives.  

If relief efforts give way to the social efforts necessary for this to happen, if aid gives way to a whole range of social investment from the same kinds of organizations that have been investing in Rwanda, Haitians can make Haiti in the Western Hemisphere and this decade what Rwanda was to Africa in the last. 

With that said, the news of the week from outside Haiti:

Please note that we've just posted two events on the Take Action page coming up in a few weeks - Market, Poverty, and Inclusive Business in Latin America on February 2 in Barcelona, and Alleviating Poverty Through Enterprise summit at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio on February 5.  

If I had to pick one trend that we will hear a lot more about this year, in the Next Billion newsroom and elsewhere, it would be mobile banking and mobile payments at the base of the pyramid.  Last week I had the chance to sit down with Ben Lyon of FrontlineSMS Credit, who was gracious enough to give me a tutorial on what mobile payments and banking really look like - I hope to have the chance to say more about FrontlineSMS Credit soon.  For now, CGAP, McKinsey, and the GSM Association are working together to actually measure the extent of the unbanked population and potential mobile money market globally.  It's estimated to be almost 4 billon, including a billion who have a mobile phone but no bank account.  Their first country study, of the mobile money potential in the Philippines, is just out.  

More research: a detailed analysis of the introduction on a commercial basis of solar LED lanterns in Malawi came out this week from the Millennium Villages Project.  The writeup documents a sharp decrease in household spending on kerosene - the savings from which is what the commercial proposition of solar lanterns hinges on. Better lighting for children to study by is an appealing image for solar electrification - in this case people appreciated the lighting even more for cooking and eating.  Overall, it's a very detailed snapshot of the introduction of a product that is being introduced across Africa and the world increasingly broadly and with the intention to take hold commercially.  

Across the globe but on the same subject of community energy, Mathias Craig of blueEnergy writes periodic but thoughtful updates on the work and growth of his company on the ground in Nicaragua.  In December he took at stab at articulating the divisions in the global economy that updates the worn-out First World/Third World taxonomy.  This week in another thoughtful post he discusses blueEnergy's trials interacting as a community-oriented business with development banks, European development agencies, government bureaucracy, and staying "adaptive" as the company navigates a long-term vision, uncertain project funding, and dedication to a local community. 

The Gates Foundation is at it again.  Yesterday it announced $38 million dollars in funding to support programming that will give the poor safe, effective ways to house their savings. 

Six grants will go to 18 MFIs that offer microcredit but will "make savings accounts available to an initial 11 million poor people across 12 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America over five years."  Potentially game-changing model?  Check.  Learn by doing?  Check.  Strategic geographic reach?  Double-check.  The grantees, which include ACCION, FINCA, the Grameen Foundation, ShoreBank, Women's World Banking, and World Vision, represent leaders in the field of microfinance.  Notably, the grant to Women's World Banking is the largest it has ever received.

Clearly, this effort focuses attention on an element of access to finance that has been less emphasized.  One of the arguments that Portfolios of the Poor makes is that the poor lack robust, flexible, and effective financial tools.  Perhaps not surprisingly, this lack of resources spurs creative money management among poor households.  Some utilize products in ways that defy their original design.  For example, several borrow money through microcredit as a way to save it for future use.

Interestingly, savings are a key component of the Community Economic Development approach of Nuru International, a relatively new NGO that has applied design and systems thinking to the problems of the rural poor in Kenya.  Granted, Nuru applies microcredit's "group borrower" model to savings.  But their approach definitely prioritizes savings as a tool for community-based economic sustainability.  Perhaps this is just a footnote, but it will be interesting to note whether the Gates funding and the emerging emphasis on savings will result in an inflection point in microfinance.

Additionally, it might be worth observing whether m-banking and savings accounts dovetail at some point.  After all, m-banking emerged from a need to circumvent the hefty fixed costs associated with "banking via brick and mortar branch."  Finally, given the diversity of grantee initiatives-from ShoreBank's distribution innovation (staff members with handhelds and motorobikes) to Women World's Banking focus on financial literacy via social soap opera-we'll all want to know which methods prove most effective and why.

It's now official.  The William Davidson Institute, my employer, is now officially a Managing-Partner of NextBillion. For me, this is a very exciting partnership with unlimited possibilities.

For the past couples of years, the WDI has been a big supporter of the NextBillion community.  Grace Augustine (formerly at WDI) and I have contributed to the community as Staff Writers, sharing insights from our work writing cases and research notes on BoP ventures and topics.  Ted London's work on impact assessment has been featured and discussed heavily here. Many Ross School of Business students have highlighted their internships or school projects. 

And most recently, the WDI has sponsored The Next: 2010 Case Writing Competition.  I have already received a number of entries, from schools in New York to Toronto to New Delhi. Rob, Francisco, and I are thrilled at the response so far and can't wait to read the final cases. And as a reminder, if you want to enter the competition, the intention to compete forms are due this Friday, January 15^th.

In the coming weeks, you will read more about our work at WDI from our Executive Director, Bob Kennedy, and the Director of the BoP Initiative, Ted London.  There will also be a more active voice from the students at the Ross School of Business and at the University of Michigan as a whole.  I will also include more on the social venture creation course that I am running here at the University of Michigan at the Center for Entrepreneurship. In the meantime, you can check out what we're doing in class, the student projects, and our partners on this blog.

In addition, we are looking to hire someone to help us co-manage the NextBillion website.  The job description is on the WDI web site and NextBillion. We look forward to continue building the BoP movement and sharing with you our insights, lessons learned, and our network.  We believe greatly that market-based solutions can help alleviate poverty, and are convinced that NextBillion is a powerful catalyst to making this happen. 

Following the announcement of the William Davidson Institute joining as Managing Partner of NextBillion, we're pleased to introduce the site's new Advisory Board. Comprised of leading Base of the Pyramid academics and practitioners, the Advisory Board will work with the site's management team to make sure that it stays at the forefront of the trends that shape this industry, and that it remains a relevant and innovative resource as the industry of patient capital and impact investing conntinues to take shape.

The Advisory Council is yet another proof that NextBillion has grown to become a common good for the sector, rather than a project of a only a couple of organizations. I would like to thank the Advisors for accepting our invitation to join the NextBillion team; Rob, myself and the entire NextBillion team look forward to working with them and embracing ideas to make sure that 2010 marks another turning point for the site, offering more and better resources to the community it serves.

You can read the profiles of NextBillion's Advisors in the Staff sidebar. I also encourage you to leave your comments and also contact us if you have any ideas to keep improving NextBillion.