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What do you get when you mix SimCity with social entrepreneurship? Village, a multiplayer strategy game that puts the BOP hypothesis to work. According to the game’s web site, Village’s mission is

...to let players practice building sustainable villages for developing nations using real-world technologies and real-world business models.

The game is still under development – as far as I can tell, there’s a decent proposal and some ideas for game play and design, but no money or people to put the idea into practice. Despite the obvious hurdles Village must yet overcome, I am really excited to see the idea out there. It’s putting proven BOP products and models – like Kickstart treadle pumps, XAccess bikes, and Village Phones – to the test in a simulation anyone can try. Prospective BOP entrepreneurs might even use the finished game to scope out new business ideas; venture capitalists might identify promising investments by seeing which players are having the most success.

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Aneel Karnani posted his paper, "Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid," to NextBillion.net ten days ago, setting off a bit of a firestorm among commenters on-site. In an effort to hear both sides of the argument, the editors contacted C.K. Prahalad and invited him to submit a response to Professor Karnani. (Full disclosure: Prahalad on the Board of the World Resources Institute, NextBillion.net's parent organization). We received the following reply:

Professor Karnani’s piece, Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid, deserves a rebuttal. I provided that in private before Professor Karnani posted his paper on the web. I decided to post my response to him as well, given the likelihood that readers may not get a balanced view of the core arguments about the BOP opportunity – to “do good and do well.”

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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 cell phone providers. The aim of the project is to convert the 50 million cell phones currently used in Mexico into electronic wallets that can perform all the same functions as a conventional billfold. If the project is successful, it could integrate many of Mexico’s unbanked citizens into the formal banking sector.

Thanks Rob [Via GlobalVoices from Chilanga Banda]

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We've talked a lot on NextBillion about the selling and re-selling of mobile phone minutes, whether its the phone ladies of Grameen Telecom or the sari-sari street merchants of Smart Communications. Now Kevin Kelly (of Wired Magazine and Whole Earth Catalog fame) points us to a cool phenomenon in China - small stores letting customers use their land-lines for a fee. Check out the picture, nabbed from Flickr via Kevin's blog.

(Via Smart Mobs)

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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 exposure to businesses that are engaging the poor.  Below, I have highlighted some of the more interesting points raised in the article and added some of my own commentary.

Could selling to the poor be more than just turning a profit?

Michael Klein, managing director, says one reason for the company’s success lies in something understood by his father, a Polish immigrant, when he began selling table and bed linen from a handcart more than 50 years ago: “He understood that the poor want to be treated with respect. They want to be treated as if they were rich.”

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First of all, a big pat on the back for Ecocreto gaining recognition for its work on NPR recently. Secondly, a disclaimer: As I write this posting about water conservation issues in Mexico City, I realize that not too long ago, I also discussed the City's air quality problem. I feel bad picking on Mexico, home to one of the greatest places on Earth, but this warrants some attention - besides, the story of Ecocreto is an optimistic note in all of this.

I was reading Joel Makower's recent post on how water issues could become the next big enviro-development crisis. Though the blog was devoted to how "rich" countries are plagued by unclean water, it reminded me of how someone from Mexico City had commented on my DryWash piece, asking if this waterless carwash service would be available in his area, where people are worried about an impending water shortage and sanitation crisis. Apparently he is not the only one to notice this; one person interviewed in this BBC story laments that "the city was built above a lake, and yet we have no water!"

Clearly, the government needs to begin looking at a number of solutions, but one promising fix that has popped up is the use of permeable concrete, invented by the founders of Ecocreto (I told you there was a happy ending). I was delighted to find that this New Ventures Mexico partner was featured recently on NPR's "Living on Earth" program. The report details how in the midst of worries about Mexico City's aquifers draining by 1 meter per year, chemist Jaime Grau inadvertently devised a type of concrete that was strong enough to hold heavy traffic loads, yet could allow four inches of water per minute to pass through.

As Mexico City grows and develops, creating new roads and repaving others, Ecocreto offers a revolutionary new way to allow rain water to reenter the ground, allowing the reservoirs to be refilled and stopping the urban infrastructure from slowly sinking. A massive overhaul would be costly for the city, but so would having more roads crack and buildings lean as the water is sucked out from under them. I especially enjoyed learning about the Ecocreto segment not just to get our outstanding NV enterpreneurs some well-deserved exposure, but because it shows that small businesses have a great capacity to solve major problems through the innovative tendencies and flexibility inherent in them. Be sure to check out the full NPR piece here, or visit the company's website. It makes me wonder- with Ecocreto tackling water problems and Vehizero fighting Mexico City's infamous air pollution, when do we get services like that operating in DC?

 

The entrepreneurial bandwagon is starting to feel a little full. Everyone from development experts to market research firms seems to be falling over themselves to hail the resourceful small-scale entrepreneur as a savior of poor communities everywhere. Even the uber-hip Trendwatching web site has gotten in on the act, calling minipreneurs an emerging consumer trend in a recent article. How much of this is hype, and how much has real potential?

First of all, minipreneurs aren’t new, so all the talk does feel a bit hyped-up. Microfinance organizations have been funding small-scale business ideas for 30-plus years, and it’s generally acknowledged that entrepreneurs can be a pretty good investment. They deliver development outcomes, too, by providing lower-cost goods and services while building local human and social capital. What are new are the tools and strategies available to help businesses get started and continue growing – and that’s where the real potential lies.

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This post was written by Vincent Ricasio, a retired investment banker currently working on microfranchising and other community development strategies at New York University. Contact Vincent using the comment field below to discuss his Community Based Enterprise Development concept.

Is it really possible that poverty and underdevelopment, two of the most intractable economic and social problems of our time, can be solved simply by doing more of the same, that is, by throwing money and aid at the problems that underlie them? Most development experts have long conceded that it cannot, but just as sincerely most of them have admitted that they do not really know what else will work.

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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 prestigious Ashoka Entrepreneur Trust. Below I have provided some of the most interesting excerpts from the article:

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What will tomorrow’s companies look like? What impact, if any, will innovation blowback have? PSDBlog’s Michael Jarvis points to a new effort, called Tomorrow’s Global Company, that attempts to arrive at some answers:

Now, a UK-based think tank, Tomorrow’s Company, has teamed with leading firms to launch an inquiry addressing core questions on the future role of business in society. Co-chaired by BP and Infosys and with experts such as John Elkington on the inquiry team it should spark some interesting debate. Will business really take on global challenges? Do you think the framing questions are even the right ones? In a welcome step, the inquiry is asking you to share your views here.

Sadly, there’s nothing explicit in the four questions about business and poverty. That said, the four are broad enough to warrant inclusion here, and to warrant some of your attention. The discussion closes September 15, so chime in soon.

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