Fareed Zakaria is one of the most respected international journalists, and one with a clear sense of the direction the world is headed in our times. Author of The Post American World among other books, columnist, Editor of Newsweek International and host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, he's also a strong advocate of market-based approaches to poverty alleviation. He sits on the Board of Advisors of Acumen Fund and has interviewed Acumen's CEO Jacqueline Novogratz in the past.
On September 16, Zakaria will join the Board of Directors of VisionSpring to moderate a conversation titled Business Solutions for the Base of the Pyramid. He will be joined by VisionSpring Founder Dr. Jordan Kassalow and introduced by Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. If you're in New York City, mark your calendar for this event and contact VisionSpring's Kelly R. Ricculli for more information . If not, stay tuned for our coverage of the event and a summary of the main takeaways.
This venue takes place days before New York hosts several discussions reviewing the progress towards the Millenium Development Goals. In addition to Gates Foundation's TEDxChange, the role of inclusive business in achieving the MDGs will be discussed in a feature event on September 21. The session will convene corporate leaders like MASISA's Roberto Salas, leading academics like Havard Kennedy School's Jane Nelson, and social entrepreneurs like LifeSpring Hospitals's Anant Kumar. NextBillion will also be there and provide a coverage of the discussions.
Lastly, and to round up this Friday's Roundup, I'd like to point you to some of the web reports on Maker Faire Africa, which concluded last week in Nairobi. Emeka Okafor's blog has several pieces covering MFA, and Afrigadget posted a great set of photographs that can be accessed here. Along these lines, I recently had a chance to read Making Do, by Steve Daniels, the mind behind the Better World By Design conference that we've covered here on NextBillion before. Making Do is a must-read for anyone interested in the informal economy and the fascinating social and economic dynamics that take place beneath it. I insist: it's a must, so here's the link again. Don't miss it. I may write an article with some musings that have stuck with me after reading the piece.
This is a holiday weekend in the United States so NextBillion will be back next Tuesday. Plenty of good content including profiles of the makers at MFA await us!