The International Cocoa Coordination Organisation (ICCO), on Wednesday, urged Nigerian manufacturers to explore the potential of cocoa, so as to produce more cocoa-based goods.

(New York, NY) – Today FXB International released a Graduate Tracer Study. Among the exciting results include findings that, from their starting point as the poorest households in their communities, FXB-Village participants in Rwanda and Uganda show greatly increased income and savings. Additionally, the study shows that FXB-Village participants have vastly improved access to clean drinking water and are more likely to own their homes, and children are much more likely to be enrolled in school than they were at the beginning of the program. In each of the three study areas, the results show that the FXB-Village program significantly improves the lives of these participants.

RECIFE, Brazil — The Brazilian state of Pernambuco was once known for its vast plains of parched dirt and roving bandits called cangacos, who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. For later generations, escaping the widespread poverty of the northeast customarily meant moving to livelier southeastern cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, though many migrants still ended up living in favelas, or slums.

Most companies trying to do business with the 4 billion people who make up the world’s poor follow a formula long touted by bottom-of-the-pyramid experts: Offer products at extremely low prices and margins, and hope to generate decent profits by selling enormous quantities of them. This “low price, low margin, high volume” model has held sway for more than a decade, largely on the basis of Hindustan Unilever’s success in selling Wheel brand detergent to low-income consumers in India.

The man described as the the grandfather of social enterprise in Australia, Steve Lawrence has died after a long battle with cancer aged 60.

Agriculture is a powerful tool for reducing poverty and hunger. Events of recent years – such as food price increases, droughts, growing climate change impacts and other emergencies – have put agriculture high on the international agenda. We should be clear that agriculture is the solution. Economic growth generated by agriculture is more than twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. Agricultural development is also an effective means of assisting developing countries in building capacity and infrastructure as well as introducing innovation and technology.

NEW DELHI – The Indian government Tuesday introduced a bill in Parliament that will give power to the country's central bank to regulate the microfinance sector, where companies lend to small borrowers. Introduced in the lower house of Parliament by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the Microfinance Institutions (Development and Regulations) Bill will give powers to the Reserve Bank of India to set the maximum interest rate that can be charged by micro lenders. The RBI will also set performance standards for the institutions and ensure that they use "fair and reasonable methods" for the recovery of loans.

Grameen Foundation, KfW and CARE's Access Africa Fund announced they have each purchased a 25 percent stake in Musoni Kenya, the first microfinance institution to provide financial services to the poor entirely via mobile phones. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, it provides microloans largely to people who are underserved by the formal financial sector. This investment will help Musoni Kenya grow its operations, deepen its penetration in rural areas where financial inclusion is lowest, and pave the way for it to receive a license to accept savings deposits from the Central Bank of Kenya.

THE idea that an infusion of hope can make a big difference to the lives of wretchedly poor people sounds like something dreamed up by a well-meaning activist or a tub-thumping politician. Yet this was the central thrust of a lecture at Harvard University on May 3rd by Esther Duflo, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology known for her data-driven analysis of poverty. Ms Duflo argued that the effects of some anti-poverty programmes go beyond the direct impact of the resources they provide. These programmes also make it possible for the very poor to hope for more than mere survival.

James Ogule, who lives in Namugongo, a Kampala surburb, thinks the vendors selling matooke (plantains) by the road to his house should not be considered middle class. The vendors spend more than $2 (sh5,200) a day and Ogule who works with a government regulatory body thinks equating a middle class to sh5,200 a day is a pity.

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Friday reached out to the private sector in hopes of lifting 50 million people in the developing world from poverty, as wealthy nations grapple with a budget crunch.

The Skoll Foundation today announced the merging of Social Edge and Skoll World Forum into a new year-round platform, Skoll World Forum Online:

Bangalore, May 2012: Lok Capital, one of the largest dedicated funds in India for businesses focused on serving the lower income and base of the pyramid (BOP) customer segments and Acumen Fund, a pioneering nonprofit global venture firm addressing poverty in South Asia, East and West Africa, today announce Rs. 7 crore investment in Hippocampus Learning Centres (HLC), a for-profit rural education service provider in India. This is Lok Capital’s and Acumen’s first investment in Education and marks the launch of their respective education portfolios. Based in Karnataka, India, HLC provides affordable, quality education by employing and training local female teachers who coach students between the ages of 3-12 in both pre-school and primary instruction.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with around 167 million people, mobile banking has been relatively slow to take off. This is, however, changing. Last year the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued the first operating licences to 11 companies to provide mobile banking services.

Business processing outsourcing major Genpact Ltd has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Atyati Technologies, a technology platform provider for the rural banking sector in India. The terms of the transaction, including the stake acquired and the deal value, remain undisclosed. The deal is expected to close in 3-4 weeks.

In India, businesses and businessmen, particularly from the private sector, have always been viewed with some suspicion. Given our underlying socialist ethos, this is perhaps not surprising, but in recent times, this has worsened with reportage about the various means that some businesses have used to gain an advantage, be it bribing government officials and elected representatives, indulging in coercive practices with their customers, misusing monopoly power, concealing information, or ill-treating employees.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Foreign investment and increasing exports are propelling high economic growth rates in Africa, but haven't established enough jobs to substantially reduce poverty or meet the high expectations of the continent's large number of youths and poor, according to an annual economic progress report released Friday at the World Economic Forum's meeting here.

Five African social innovators have been included in the World Economic Forum's list of Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2012. The awards were announced at the Ethiopian summit of the WEF by Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of WEF.

Kampala — The number of absolutely poor Ugandans has dropped to 7.5 million (24.5%) from 8.5 million (31.1%) as of 2010, a Ministry of Finance status report released in Kampala shows.

AT A time when SA’s dairy industry is losing milk producers because of the sector’s limited viability, an international index has forecast growth for the industry from an expected rise in prosperity and buying power among consumers in emerging markets including Africa.

African governments and donor countries should launch a "big push" this year towards meeting the millennium development goals (MDGs), according to a high-level panel.

AFRICA is the continent where “mobile money”—monetary transactions on mobile phones—is by far the most advanced. According to a new survey of financial habits by the Gates Foundation, the World Bank and Gallup, in 20 countries more than 10% of adults said that they had used mobile money at some point in the previous 12 months; 15 of those countries were in Africa.

When it comes to mobile communications, there's still a lot of room for innovation at the bottom. In Bangalore, India, researchers from the University of Toronto and Microsoft are now imagining new business models for the world's poorest phone owners by adapting a little-known protocol that can receive pictures as bitmapped text messages. The technology could readily be used in the roughly 1.5 billion low-end Nokia and Samsung phones in circulation.

The U.S.-India Business Council, in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, held the first annual U.S. India Business Summit-West, titled “Building Bridges, Fostering Innovation,” at the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel here April 26 and 27 (Read: India-US N-Deal 'One of My Proudest Moments': Condi Rice).

To be successful in business today, a company must do more than just sell a good product. According to a recent study (pdf), 80 percent of Americans are likely to switch brands, if comparable in price and quality, to one that supports a social cause.

A World Bank partner devoted to developing the private sector and The MasterCard Foundation will spend millions of dollars so more impoverished Africans can get loans and other financial services, officials said.

Social entrepreneurs create innovative solutions for tackling the world’s most vexing social problems. Whether they’re solving hunger, improving the environment, or fighting for political freedom, these entrepreneurs place social missions at the center of their business activities — aiming to maximize social value instead of profits, though both are important for maintaining a sustainable organization.

One network of top executives is proving that good business means wise investments -- specifically investments in people who have the power to create global change but may simply lack opportunity.

BANGALORE: In a further boost for social venture investing in India, microfinance and investment firm Accion International has launched its $10 million investment vehicle, Venture Lab, which is focused on providing seed capital to organisations that promote financial inclusion.

Large technology companies have a clear target group in mind when they design initiatives to promote entrepreneurship. Start-ups that engage in these programmes are typically led by founders set on building the next big technology service product. But not Vanajakshi Raveendra Lokhande, the owner of a small business that makes pickles and noodles in the north Karnataka district of Bagalkot.

NEW YORK—“This is such an exhilarating experience. We’re very excited to meet President Clinton and Dr. Yunus. Win or lose, we are already winners,” Abhinav Chanakya, an MBA student representing the Asian Institute of Management in Manila told the Asian Journal while on the sidelines of the Hult Global Case Challenge’s final round of competition.

A multi-awarded program in the Philippines leads the innovation of solutions for the Base of the Pyramid. From the words "Happy" and "Pinoy" (a slang word for Filipino), Hapinoy continues its mission to empower more women micro entrepreneurs - and they do it with a smile.

Nothing beats the economics and ingenuity of a great dual-use product. On a scorching February day, Moses Kizza Musaazi stands behind the latrines at Mpigi UMEA Primary School, describing the features of his portable incinerator. The mud at his feet is red. So are the uniforms of the children who surge and subside in waves as he delivers his tutorial.

In his TedMed talk last week, where he called for a renewed focus on improving root causes of health problems rather than waiting until they cause full blown illnesses, Sandeep Kishore noted this somewhat startling statistic: Of the 30 years of average life-expectancy gains the United States made in the last century, a surprisingly small amount of that average increase--just five years--stems from improvements in the sort of medical care we get in hospitals. The rest of those gains came from other sources, like improvements in water quality and sanitation, vaccinations, and other improvements in public health.

The difficulty with investing in the next big thing is that it is often not recognized as that until after it has become a current or former big thing. Before its arrival, it tends to be seen only as a crazy, risky thing or nothing at all. Emerging-market portfolio managers specialize in finding the next big thing. But after the transformation of many economies in Asia and Latin America in the past two decades and the strong returns and mainstream popularity of their markets, what’s left to be found?

For impact investors and social enterprises looking for ways to link up, the ultimate dream is to have a stock exchange aimed solely at mission-driven companies. That’s a difficult feat to pull off, to put it mildly. You need a critical mass of investors and stock-exchange ready companies, not to mention the wherewithal to meet all manner of red tape and regulatory hurdles, as well as establish the technology capable of supporting the venture.But such an exchange is well underway in Singapore.

At the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, we focus on helping social entrepreneurs build ventures that scale. My colleague and mentor Jim Koch, founder of the Center and one of the founders of both our signature Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) and The Tech Awards, returned from the Unite for Sight's Global Health and Innovation Conference effusive about his airplane reading. Jim's praise was for the Monitor Group's recently released report, From Blueprint to Scale: The Case for Philanthropy in Impact Investing.

Bangalore-based affordable medical technology and solutions company Forus Health Pvt. Ltd. (Forus) has successfully raised Series A funding of $5 million from two leading venture capital funds, Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India. Forus's mission is to address the healthcare delivery issues in the developing world through innovative, inclusive product design and service deployment. Its flagship product 3nethra, a portable, low cost, non-mydriatic, non-invasive pre-screening ophthalmology solution, can detect Cataract, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retina, Refraction and Cornea problems. 3nethra can be operated by a minimally trained technician, and can be deployed in remote areas.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is launching a platform for its financial advisors to offer clients investments with positive social and environmental impact in what appears to be a major push to offer sustainable investing to mainstream investors. Although many broker-dealers allow their advisors to offer sustainable investments to retail clients, few have specific advisor platforms for that purpose. MSSB made an announcement today about the new platform at the U.S. State Department-sponsored Global Impact Economy Forum.

Cooking the family meal can be a dangerous business for poor people in developing countries. According to a study by the World Health Organization, indoor air pollution from “primitive household cooking fires” is the leading environmental cause of death in the world. In most rural homes, which lack electricity, a stove can be an open fire and the fuel as basic as wood, dried animal dung or agricultural residue, together known as “biomass” fuels. The result is nearly 2 million deaths a year, worldwide, almost as many as are caused by malaria and tuberculosis combined. What’s worse, cooking with biomass releases carbon dioxide and “black carbon” into the atmosphere and consequently is a significant contributor to climate change.

When you think rural India, think factories and cell phones, rather than fields and bullock carts. Rural India, says a Credit Suisse report, is no longer an agrarian economy whose fortunes are dependent upon an erratic monsoon. Rather, they are now increasingly tied to the national economic cycle, something they had been largely immune from so far, as it gradually shifts away from agriculture.

Power Shift India: Nation turns to technology to extend a guaranteed identity to its poor

On World Malaria Day, a new report analysis the anti-malarial bednet market and concludes that we could get better value, more innovation and even more nets from the same amount of funds.

Incofin Investment Management, Fairtrade International (FLO) and Grameen Foundation will establish a ‘First Fund’ to focus on the unmet demand of smallholder farmers for long-term loans.

The slow decline of industrial manufacturing in developed nations and recent failures of financial capitalism across the globe have sent us searching for a new model of economic growth. I see the two movements of Technology Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship beginning to converge into a promising solution.

Last fall, a small group of social entrepreneurs from South America met to discuss how to foster more social enterprise in the region and create more bang for the buck at existing enterprise. The result was Sistema B, the first effort to adapt the American system of B Corporations—which ease operations for companies that combine profit and social good—to a foreign setting.

If you want to work in international development, go work for a big, bad multinational company.

IS THERE anything more prestigious than business?” What would sound tin-eared from the mouth of Mitt Romney reads very differently when attributed to a woman of long-standing poverty, discussing her newly found self-respect. The quotation comes from a recent paper by a trio of female researchers from Oxford University's Saïd Business School—Catherine Dolan, who lectures in marketing and corporate social responsibility; Mary Johnstone-Louis, a doctoral candidate; and Linda Scott, of the Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The researchers studied a sales programme that employs Bangladeshi women at the proverbial bottom of the pyramid, run by the Bangladesh arm of CARE, an NGO. Its Rural Sales Programme (RSP) focuses on women who are destitute due to abandonment by their family or the deaths of their husbands. CARE calls the women aparajitas (a Sanskrit term meaning “she who cannot be defeated”) and offers them jobs selling household goods, such as soap, household goods, even saris. Begun in 2005, RSP now employs more than 2,400 women across Bangladesh and has partnerships with companies such as Unilever, Danone and Bic.

By creating the world's first long-term record of ecosystem health, Chinese and UK researchers have identified where specific social and economic policies have damaged the environment in eastern China. The work shows that wealth generation over recent decades is damaging essential ecosystem services on which the poorest rely - things like food, fuel, and clean water.

The government will form a commission to look into the activities of 54 organisations associated with Grameen Bank, the finance minister has said.

Citi Pakistan and the Social Enterprise Development Centre (SEDC) at LUMS are collaborating on a capacity building project, supported by $50,000 grant from Citi Foundation.

Earlier this week at theGlobal Philanthropy Forum, Tracy Palandjian, CEO of Social Finance, Inc., served on a panel discussion around the challenges and opportunities of impact investing. In the below interview with Tracy, we discussed her career trajectory, the first-ever social impact bond in the United Kingdom and its potential to be replicated in the United States, and much more.

UN high-level meeting is expected to call on world leaders to support the 57 countries currently most off-track to achieve their millennium development goal targets for sanitation.

After being the bad boy of microfinance, SKS is now trying to pick itself up and transform into a more cost-effective, diversified organization.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks, a rising socially conscious lifestyle brand, could have launched fast after its inspiring moment only to crash and burn. Yet smart planning and business sense gave the company the organic, slow-growth start that offers it the best shot at a sustainable future. Howyou run your company is just as important as why.

A study incorporating many grassroots voices examines how poor people in developing countries coped with the recent shock of higher food and fuel prices.

MicroPlanet brings together a world-class team of technology professionals to support microfinance sector

Greenlight Planet Inc. closed an investment round of 4mm USD with Bamboo Finance and Dr. P. K. Sinha, Co-Founder of ZS Associates. The current round follows earlier investments by Dr. Sinha. Greenlight Planet is a leading designer and distributor of solar-LED home lights, which are poised to replace kerosene lamps as the dominant indoor light source for the billion-plus people living without reliable access to an electrical grid, primarily in rural areas of the developing world.

(Reuters) - The World Bank on Monday chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington's grip on the job and leaving developing countries questioning the selection process. Kim, 52, won the job over Nigeria's widely respected finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, with the support of Washington's allies in Western Europe, Japan, Canada and some emerging market economies, including Russia, Mexico and South Korea. Unlike previous World Bank elections, the decision was not unanimous. "The final nominees received support from different member countries, which reflected the high caliber of the candidates," the Bank said in announcing its board's decision.

Approximately 180,000 people are added to the urban grid each day, according to the United Nations. That means, according to other estimates, that nearly 100,000 housing units are needed — every day, all around the world.

On April 4, one of the largest forceful slum evictions in Bangladesh’s history took place in Dhaka’s Korail bustee. Households, schools and shops within twenty meters of the road were bulldozed, with approximately 3,500 individuals affected.

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini says sharing experiences with Brazil will help South Africa deal with the challenge of hunger.

When he set out to wedge his coffee onto supermarket shelves in England and America, Andrew Rugasira didn’t start by making phone calls from his home in Kampala, Uganda. He didn’t begin by sending e-mails. The distance seemed too great for that. At one end of his business were farmers who, until he came along, thought their beans were purchased and carried off to make gunpowder. At the other were buyers at the corporate headquarters of chains like Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart. If he was going to succeed, he felt he would have to do it physically; it was as if he believed he could stretch himself to span the divide between the two worlds. So he got on a plane to London, without trying any advance contact.

Chennai based Villgro Innovation Marketing Private (VIM), an innovative rural distribution company, has raised a significant seed series investment from US-based investment firm Unitus Seed Fund and a group of angel investors to further expand its operations in South India.

According to the Microinsurance Innovation Facility of the International Labor Organizationand the Munich Re Foundation, “the number of microinsurance schemes worldwide has increased substantially over the past five years and now reaches an estimated 500 million worldwide.”

Intel has launched the latest device in its line of classroom computers: a tablet, Intel studybook. The Intel studybook is built to be both a rigorous education tool and a sturdy playmate. It comes loaded with Intel’s Learning Series software, including an interactive ereader and LabCam applications.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), an institution dedicated to the promotion and celebration of excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship across Africa, is partnering with Co-Creation Hub Nigeria (CcHub), Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space dedicated to catalysing creative social technology ventures, in an effort to encourage innovative ideas that could help transform the social technology space in Nigeria.

Accion, an international microfinance and investment firm, has launched Venture Lab, a $10 million investment vehicle which will provide seed capital and management support to financial inclusion startups worldwide, with a particular focus on East Africa and India.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program of low-cost laptops for developing countries has not led to any measurable impact in academic achievement, according to a recent report.

A micro franchise initiative founded by SC Johnson in Nairobi aims to improve levels of sanitation in low-income communities.

Taking a patronizing approach to investing in Africa undermines both the country’s people and entrepreneurial promise, argue Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen.