NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - blog entry - Comments

Granted Loan?

Laura Venuti — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:01:26 -0500

Is the loan to purchase these product granted by the MFI on the client behalf?

China is on the path to what

China Sourcing — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:33:59 -0500

China is on the path to what I believe will be even greater industrial success than the USA and small to medium size businesses will provide most of the jobs just as they have in the USA.

Healthcare for BOP poultry stock

Paul Rigterink — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:36:04 -0500

As strange as it may sound, I believe that the sale of veterinary poultry medicines at the pharmacies described in this article can dramatically increase the health of personnel at the BOP. Backyard producers value chickens for their adaptability, contributions to the family’s income and general welfare, and for insect control and fertilizers in the garden. In most family flocks, chickens scavenge plant or food residues and insects around the home. With minimal care, family flocks can hatch and raise chicks, produce high-value meat, and supply eggs. Eggs can be a particularly important source of food for children with protein malnutrition who are between six months and three years of age. Live chickens sold for meat bring a good price and a primary source of income for poor farmers. Inexpensive disease control markedly increases the survival and productivity of a family poultry flock. The following four preventive practices, given every three months, will eliminate most health problems in poultry flocks: 1) Vaccination for Newcastle disease, 2) Deworming for roundworms and tapeworms, 3) Dusting under wings for irritating external parasites such as lice, and 4) Treatment for chronic respiratory disease to increase production. BOP personnel can easily raise up to 50 healthy chickens. To feed the chickens and obtain maximum profit on a small farm, BOP personnel can use: 1) Excess and/or unusual food crops, 2) Crop residues, 3) Household refuge and 4) Scavenger feed (e.g., weeds, seeds, insects, worms, etc). Once BOP personnel have met this “from 5 to 50 challenge”, they will be ready to move-on to learn the technology of “transitional” poultry systems of 200-300 birds and finally full commercial production of 500-10,000 birds.

Congrats! Anyone know more?

Jkalan — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:59:05 -0500

Congrats to MEC for such an innovative and integrated approach to developing the clean energy sector of the BOP. Also, thanks to Grace for her fantastic reporting and keeping us informed on all the developments! I am a University of California student recently returning from studying development in New Delhi, and working for ITDG in Kathmandu. I am currently researching BOP investment strategies and success in poverty alleviation through the renewable energy and micro finance sectors in India and China. I was wondering if anyone knows of schemes such as this, or renewable energy development investment by the private sector in China, as I have had a very difficult time finding information! This site has been an invaluable resource for me, and I thank everyone who contributes and everyone who is working so hard innovating unique solutions to improve the conditions of those in poverty. Best, Jon jonathan_kalan@umail.ucsb.edu

NV Growth

Derek Newberry — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:45:40 -0500

Hi Nopp,

I'm glad you asked - as a rule, we only work with companies in our countries of operation, but as a matter of fact, New Ventures is aiming to expand its operations into new countries this year - check back with us over the next several months for developments...

-Derek

Long-term commitment ensure long-term success

Nopp — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:03:48 -0500

Clean energy is a very good source for local poor, but the problem is (according to my conversation with local people) the providers of such energy abadoned the clean energy projects after few or several years leaving local people to take care of maintenance etc. Local people could do it only if everything goes well, otherwise they also abandon the projects. My suggestion is clean energy providers should have a long-term plan for helping them, do not assume they can do the job after some years. Probably, they know how, but they can not do.

Great Innitiative!

Nopp — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:43:49 -0500

This is going to be a great initiative in helping the poor address the social and environmental problems. Do you plan to invite small companies from other countries additional to five countries above?

New Venture's website is

Carrie — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:29:09 -0500

New Venture's website is cool. It looks like investors might be able to join the idea as well.

Beyond Kickstart

Derek Newberry — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:24:50 -0500

Hi Mike,

You make a very insightful comment, as one thing we shy away from on NextBillion.net is BoP technology that may have a "cool" or "feel-good" aspect to it, but is not fundamentally designed for the actual needs of people at the base of the pyramid. Products like KickStart really do increase the productivity of farmers who use them, but of course these pumps are not a silver bullet poverty solution.

Now that those farmers have the technology to increase their productivity the question, as you mention, is where is the market? This is where organizations like mine (New Ventures) come in - we connect these producers to viable markets domestically and internationally. I don't think it's the job of technology makers like KickStart to be able to accomplish this, it just shows that a number of actors are needed to effectively and sustainably connect the poor to the mainstream economy.

-Derek

Too Much Money Chasing Too Few Investments

Eric — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:50:43 -0500

As an individual with a former VC background, in my opinion, access to capital is not the issue. The problem is finding qualified entrepreneurs and business plans. I completely agree with the title, “Too Much Money Chasing Too Few Investments.”

Kudos to the vision of empowered female entrepreneurs!

Vicki Flaugher — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:25:08 -0500

I find this story very uplifting and look forward to the impact of this type of investment in women entrepreneurs worldwide. I believe it is simply amazing what women are capable of doing. Thanks for sharing the info.

BOP Deal flow

Munya — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:05:11 -0500

It certainly seems there's a tangible increase in public and private capital targeting the BOP. I look forward to reading more on your approach to scaling BOP strategies. When it comes to scaling BOP strategies in Africa, I think the main challenge is still the entrepreneur. They are undoubtedly the missing key in this region unlike India for example. Very few are able to develop their ideas into a bankable business proposal and tend to over value their sweat capital input, which seems to be a fairly common challenge in structuring seed stage investments. The progress might be slow but it's worth the effort, these are the pioneering years!

Phone Banking

NK — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:55:39 -0500

With the estimation of 2.5 billion people in developing countries expected to be mobile phone customers in 5 years. This technology has tremendous potential to improve the business interactions in the developing world. Not only will it help the BoP, it will add numerous new customers to cell phone companies. If security can be enhanced, which I believe it will, billions of the BoP will have access to services that will help their struggle out of poverty. I am extremely excited to see when this project will actually be implemented and its results. Lets face it, the BoP cannot pull itself out of poverty only through micro-lending and these financial services are needed. They will allow faster transactions, the less need for money, and the ability for checking and savings accounts to be established.

Great Work!

Mike Heiss — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:08:02 -0500

I've been following KickStart for a while now, and I'm happy to see their recent recognition. It seems like their pumps are everywhere in East Africa, and now they're expanding into other technologies such as seed presses for oil, sanitation, and transport technologies. It seems to me that these technologies are focused on building the local economy, increasing productivity and adding value to locally sold goods.

My question is: Is this model actually growing the local economy, or is it simply redistributing money to the few entrepreneurs from an already small pool? Do there need to be exports to bring in foreign capital to grow the local economy? I realize that a local economy can work based on circulation of capital, but will its people remain poor relative to the rest of the world? Overall I want to know if exports are necessary to grow an economy, and if so, should KickStart or another organization try to link producers (who are now producing a surplus with their foot pumps) to consumers overseas?

Majority Rules?

Mike Heiss — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:35:34 -0500

For ease if discussion, I will use Christian Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) as an example of "religious institutions." I think we would all be more comfortable supporting a Christian mission in a place where the majority is Christian over a place where Christians are the minority. However, even if Christians are the majority, would we be ignoring the non-Christians by working through Christian FBOs? Would funding the FBOs then be an incentive to convert? Even if we claim to only support indigenous lead FBOs (rather than sending Western missionaries), the very act of supporting them may be implicitly imposing our values.

On the other hand, if BoP initiatives are truly built from the bottom up, we should not impose our secularism on a religious BoP. Ideally we would support organizations based on merit in terms of social good, ignoring religious affiliations. This is difficult because we cannot simply ignore views associated with religious organizations. I understand that people hesitate using the church after the history of the crusades and other socially irresponsible actions, but we should try to see its current actions through unbiased lenses, recognizing that it may be an effective means of social improvement.