NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Marketing - Comments

China & mobile social venture

Ludovic — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:25:23 -0500

Congrats to the NYT & NextBillion team / commnunity for all the good work done ! We animate here in China an ecosystem of Social Venture,via the Social Venture Forum (www.socialventureforum.com) - and last year organized a forum on "Harness the power of mobile toward Social Good" in China. For those interested to share, hereunder a link to the summary of the presentation: 2... Any idea, question, suggestion, am available at : Ludovic (at) kalibrio (dot) com

Out of poverty

Kapur Ghimire` — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:27:59 -0500

Dear Paul, I was listing to NPR and came to know about the things that you have done for farmers of Nepal. Like Krishna Bahadur Thapa. I, myself is from Nepal. My inner desire is to go back to Nepal or any third world country and teach them the basics of sanitation/ healthy living. I have inherited some land from my father and I would like to go back and turn that into a model village for the world to know that the change is not for bad. Since, you have done and you know so much about urban developments. I would be enlighten to learn a bit from you so I could share you wisdom with others to elevate their lives. Thank you and hope you could understand my feelings. Kapur Ghimire

In the past whenever there

Eddie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:45:36 -0500

In the past whenever there are 'public events' or charity shows such as Live Aid, one often wonders how the money is spent. We assume in the warmth of our houses that it will be wisely invested and given to the needy, but I guess we forget that the real progress is made by the people who educate and work their butts off to help people under these extreme circumstances. If only governments worked to build community with less wealthy countries rather than give handouts and forget the real issues, maybe we wouldn't have those problems. Anyway, enjoyed your post.

No out of poverty

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:50:48 -0500

I read your review of "Out of Poverty" and am afraid that we are mistaken in believing that the good things we can do to help smallholders improve their lot really does amount to an escape from poverty. Unfortunately, it usually does not. The improvement of the conditions of the very poorest people by means of intensifying agriculture on very small holdings (in this case, usually a couple of acres) by means, for example, of better crops, treadle pumps, and drips sytems, does not, and cannot ever, bring the expanding population of people depending on these tiny holdings "out of poverty". Do the calculations: at the end of the day, the 9 remaining members of the family Polak cites as his key example are earning exactly $1.06 dollars a day. Although their lives have improved, they are still living in extreme poverty, dollar-a-day poor, and, after having more kids on that land, will be even poorer. The only one who actually got out of poverty was the man who left the land to work in the Middle East and was sending money back to his folks in Nepal. Intensification of production on smallholdings can only get people out of poverty if it quickly leads them (if possible, all of them) to actually leave the land and get work that will provide a decent living. This is the real dilemma that so many of us working with very small farmers must face. We can help in the near term to improve their condition some (albeit they will still be horribly poor), but with the next generation of children, and more subdivision of the land, their poverty will only increase. The fear I have is that this is really "forever poor" not "out of poverty, quickly, and permanently." Again, do the numbers. I am afraid the book needs another title.

Means and Ends

Abigail — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:56:43 -0500

I think the answer to the question, "Does a farmer need a pump or does he/she need a loan?" is not a trade-off question, but highlights the potential for combining different market-based mechanisms to raise accessibility and demand. It's possible that, given the availability of the right financial tools and customer education, a farmer may wish to take a loan to buy a pump. If this happens, it's evidence that the farmer, who knows exactly what his/her combination of risk and need is, sees the pump as a valuable tool to increase income over the long term. Microloans are, of course, only a means - new designs for the BoP can be both means and ends, but in themselves they are nothing if they cannot reach their target market.

Plasma TVs

Justin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:15:49 -0500

$3600 for a plasma TV ouch...thats a phat dig out of your pocket. Personal I would just rather stick with LCD TVs because they are a lot cheaper and also last longer.

micro loan or moneymaker pump

Dr. Paul Rigterink — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:34:09 -0500

Can African farmers make more money with a micro loan or a MoneyMaker pump? Do they need agricultural supplies or the money to buy them from existing sources?

Brian, I enjoyed reading

Christine — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:42:46 -0500

Brian, I enjoyed reading your post. I think your fourth suggestion for a policy change in the President's Malaria Initiative is the most interesting. The issue of recycling the insecticide nets is a real issue. Is recycling even an option? Was this considered during the development process? Obviously, Africans need the bednets, but they also need an environmentally friendly way to dispose of them. I agree that this private supply chain should be reversible, but is anyone even considering this yet? I think most people are primarily concerned with distribution of nets, not the collection and redistribution. I see collection and redistribution as an opportunity for cost savings. Perhaps recycling the nets is less expensive than manufacturing them from scratch. I think investing in plastic recycling capacity in Africa would be a significant advantage since it will reduce costs and eliminate this challenge for the initiative.

Screen, laptop, projector and car battery

Rob Katz — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:37:11 -0500

KickStart's marketing bread-and-butter is the pickup truck based demo. They run pump-off competitions on trucks' beds and also bring actors to do mini skits.

If they're already bringing trucks out into rural areas to help market the MoneyMaker, why couldn't they bring a laptop, screen and projector, all plugged into the A/C outlet of the truck or a car battery?

It's not as impossible as you'd think...throughout its history, KickStart has demonstrated an ability to think outside the box as far as marketing is concerned - I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

farmers' access

Steve Cisler — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:58:16 -0500

I doubt that many African farmers have any way of watching YouTube videos. A few might have a computer or be near a telecenter, and even fewer of those will have the connectivity to handle flash videos.

fantastic social marketing tool?

james — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:57:56 -0500

more like a really really long commercial. but hey, i mean, at least african farmers can get the news on the new product through youtube.

Serving the BoP from within

Jeff Mowatt — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:22:50 -0500

This was very much the case with an early adopter of a social business model which was delivered in Russia between 2000 and 2005 under the People-Centered Economic Development paradigm. It began with self-investment to deliver a proposal for microeconomic development, which identified local business opportunities and the need for a moral collateral based microcredit bank.

A resounding success with 98% repayment, women borrowers outnumbering men by a factor of 4:1 and 10,000 new enterprises. And yet, it is almost unheard of.

This is I believe do to the misconception that the origins of advocacy for business models applied to eradicate poverty came post 2004, when in fact they were delivered as a white paper to US government nearly a decade earlier.

As a participant here I have never been able to write about it, or persuade editors to examine it.

Since 2004 P-CED has been a UK based software business, with a development presence in Ukraine. Our activism and advocacy being funded by software sales and maintenance revenue.

Our efforts over the past 4 years in Ukraine have been in raising awareness of corruption and mistreatment of children in institutional care and the preparation of a microeconomic 'Marshall Plan' with a nil overall cost outcome based on leveraging business investment for a mix of more-than and less-than full cost recovery social components.

While presidential candidates compete in their advocacy for a 'Marshall Plan' against poverty, the only plan that is more than political rhetoric sits largely ignored.

All of the above will be found, presented openly on the website link embedded next to my name above.

I'm frequently astonished of the extent to which an organisation like ours can both pioneer and be excluded from the dialogue on successful models for development.

Jeff Mowatt P-CED - Economics for humanity

impact of post election violence in kenya

David Alogo — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:20:35 -0500

The recent eruption of post election violence has really disrupted the operations of most microfinance institutions in kenya. The effects of the violence is still being felt despite the fact that there is some relative calm- as a result of the Annan led peace negotiation talks going on. Luckily, most MFIs in Kenya are known to structure their lending programs to begin early in the year and close before the christmas festivities.So in this regard, it would be expected that the repayment of most microfinance loans were not affected but studies need to be carried out to confirm or disaprove this school of thought. I am a student at a local university, specializing in microfinance and am currently carrying out a research on the effects of violence on MFI operations. I therefore would welcome comments and suggestions! all are welcome! my email address is davalogo@yahoo.com

Thanks for the post

Tal Dehtiar — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:38:28 -0500

Hi Brian, Great Post. Tal Dehtiar Co-Founder & President MBAs Without Borders

Reply about exits

Brian Trelstad — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:32:47 -0500

Thanks for this opportunity to provide some clarity on our model. We do in fact expect to exit our investments, and have already done so in the case of some of our debt investments, including A to Z. Most of our equity investments were made under three years ago, though we do expect to exit these investments with a positive return on invested capital. Though we have worked with philanthropic capital to date as our source of funding, we invest debt and equity, aiming to move the companies we work with towards increasingly commercial financing as they grow. Because we invest in companies that serve difficult-to-reach markets with unproven business models, and because we structure deals in a way that is flexible and not necessarily designed to maximize profits, we often provide capital before commercial investors are interested in coming to the table. However, we do expect returns, and over time, we seek to help a variety of investors identify opportunities that appeal to different levels of risk tolerance and different social criteria.

Additional details are available at http://www.acumenfund.org/investments/investment-discipline.html