Roundup: Growing Inclusive Markets, iBOP Asia and More

Rob Katz — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:05:09 -0400

A quick roundup of base of the pyramid news and notes, including a few new publications that have made it on my to-read list:

The UN Development Program launched a new website highlighting its Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative, which Staff Writer Grace Augustine covered here. (Full disclosure: I sit on the Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative’s advisory board, though I take no responsibility for the site's painfully long Flash intro nor the nonsense background music. Memo to UNDP web developers – simpler is better.)

Once in, you'll find that the site features case studies, some of which will be familiar to long-time BoP watchers (Pesinet returns!); others are completely new to the sector. There are 46 cases to go through, which should keep even the most hardcore case reader occupied for a while. Be sure to bookmark the site as well, since the GIM will be releasing heat maps (basically, country-specific market research on BoP consumer patterns) and a strategy matrix.

Another new web site to check out and bookmark is iBOP-Asia. Run out of the Ateneo School of Government, the site will document a three-year study on Philippine entrepreneurs'efforts to serve the less-than-$2-a-day population. NextBillion.net Staff Writer (and soon to be Ashoka employee) Al Hammond attended the project’s launch earlier this month. Interesting note: the iBOP-Asia research is being stewarded by Tony La Vina, an Ashoka Fellow, Dean of the Ateneo School and a former colleague of mine at the World Resources Institute. Small world…

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Roundup: Growing Inclusive Markets, iBOP Asia and More