The rapid growth of mobile phone use for financial transactions is creating a rare opportunity to expand markets and transform lives.

Throughout the world, mobile banking can bring low-cost financial services to millions of people, especially in developing countries where banking services are not readily available. It also has enormous potential to open new markets for organizations that can facilitate it. Mobile Money Summit 2008 will give you the insights and connections to make the most of this global phenomenon.

Click here to find out more about Mobile Money Summit 2008

Speaker: Brooke Partridge, CEO, Vital Wave Consulting

Format: This interactive session will be held via teleconference with materials and dial-in details delivered to registered attendees prior to the event.

To register: RSVP with name, title, company, and phone number to events@vitalwaveconsulting.com. This a free event and open to the public but RSVP is requested.

Market segmentation is essential in identifying, sizing, and developing effective market penetration and expansion strategies. Today's business managers are expected to explore a broader range of market opportunities for their products and services, often in unfamiliar markets in developing countries. In this session, participants will learn about:

The World Bank Group and its partners are proud to announce Lighting Africa 2008, the first global business conference and development marketplace competition for off-grid lighting in Africa. The conference is designed for investors, financiers, private firms, end users, and development agencies to showcase and expand business opportunities targeting low income populations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Click here to read more about the event.

About Dr. Farmer:

Physician-anthropologist Paul Farmer, M.D., Ph.D., has worked in
infectious-disease control for nearly two decades. He is a co-founder of Partners in Health, an international charity organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also trains medical students, residents, and fellows at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he is an attending physician in infectious diseases and Associate Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities, and at L’Hôpital Bon Sauveur in rural Haiti, where he served as medical director for 10 years. He has been a visiting professor at institutions throughout the U.S. as well as in France, Canada, Peru, the
Netherlands, Russia, and Central Asia.

Along with his colleagues at the Brigham and in the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Farmer has pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies for infectious diseases (including HIV/AIDS and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis) in resource-poor settings. Author or co-author of over 100 scholarly publications, his research and writing stem in large part from work in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi and from clinical and teaching activities. He is the author of Pathologies of Power (University of California Press, 2003); Infections and Inequalities (University of California Press, 1998); The Uses of Haiti (Common Courage Press, 1994); and AIDS and Accusation (University of California Press, 1992). In addition, he is co-editor of Women, Poverty, and AIDS (Common Courage Press, 1996) and of The Global Impact of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (Harvard Medical School and Open Society Institute, 1999).

Among the numerous awards Dr. Farmer has received in the last decade are the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, the Salk Institute Medal for Health and Humanity, the Duke University Humanitarian Award, the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the American Medical Association’s International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award, and the Heinz Award for the Human Condition.
In 1993, he was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius award” in recognition of his work. Dr. Farmer received his Bachelor’s degree in 1982 from Duke University, and his M.D. and Ph.D. (in Anthropology) simultaneously in 1990 from Harvard University.

The Millennium Campus Conference will be held at MIT on April 18-20, 2008, and will feature over twenty notable advocates including Senator John Edwards, economist Jeffrey Sachs, Dr. Paul Farmer, musician John Legend, Amy Smith of MIT, and UN Ambassador Augustine Mahiga of Tanzania. The event will bring together 700-1000 students over three days to discuss topics on international development and action-plans among students to be actively engaged in the process. The three day event provides attendees with opportunities not only to see and listen to world-renowned lecturers and professionals, but will also allow them to engage in debate, take part in activities and workshops, make connections at networking luncheons, and much more. The Global Poverty Initiative at MIT, a founding member organization of the MCN, is co-hosting the Inaugural Millennium Campus Conference with the MCN.

The University of Cambridge Program for Industry, Business & the Environment Program is the premier international forum for executive learning and leadership for sustainability. The six annual Senior Executives Seminars held around the world aim to help a select group of highly influential decision-makers understand the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development and to inspire them to make the necessary changes within their organizations and beyond.

Unite for Sight's 5^th Annual International Health Conference will be held from April 12-13 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

The conference will bring together 180 expert speakers in international health and development, public health, eye care, medicine, social entrepreneurship, nonprofits, philanthropy, microfinance, human rights, anthropology, health policy, advocacy, public service, environmental health, and education.

Keynote Addresses will be given by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Dr. Sonia Sachs, Dr. Susan Blumenthal, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, and Dr. Allan Rosenfield.

Click here to register for the conference. Registration is rolling; fees vary by date of registration. Significantly discounted student rates are also available.

All of the funds raised from the registration fees will go towards Unite For Sight's eye care programs in rural villages, refugee camps, and urban locations in developing countries.

EMPEA and Private Equity International
announce the launch of The 2008 Emerging Markets Private Equity Forum: New York.

Building on the success of three previous emerging markets events in London - where over 450 delegates from 50 countries attended last week - the New York Forum will focus on the following key themes: