NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Colombia

Small Enterprise Assistance Funds ("SEAF")

Ana Escalante — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:49:16 -0500

Managing Organization: Small Enterprise Assistance Funds ("SEAF")

Activity URL:

http://www.seafweb.org/

Activity Description: Small Enterprise Assistance Funds ("SEAF") is a global investment firm focused on providing growth capital and operational support to businesses in emerging markets and those underserved by traditional sources of capital. SEAF selectively makes structured debt and equity investments in locally owned enterprises with high growth potential.

Based in Washington D.C., SEAF invests in more than 20 countries around the world through an international network of 15 offices in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Investors include a cross section of public and private institutions, including several of the international finance institutions, local pension funds, insurance companies, banks and family offices.

Fundacion Mundial de la Mujer - Bucaramanga

Ethan Arpi — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 10:22:38 -0500

Managing Organization: http://www.fmmb.org/sp/inicio/default.htm

Activity URL:

http://www.fmmb.org/sp/inicio/default.htm

Activity Description:

Fundacion Mundial de la Mujer - Bucaramanga is a microfinance institution based out of Colombia that provides banking services to low income women who are also entrepreneurs. In 2006, the organization won the Inter-American Development Bank's prize for excellence in microfinance for non-regulated institutions.

PATH Ultra Rice

_Alex Bloom — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:51:17 -0500

Managing Organization: PATH

Activity URL:

http://www.path.org/projects/ultra_rice.php

Activity Description: Micronutrient deficiencies threaten the health, development, and productivity of millions of people worldwide. One approach to alleviating malnutrition is fortifying food with micronutrients. On a large scale, food fortification can be cost-effective and sustainable, and it allows people to get more nutritional value from the food they already eat.

To bring fortification to vulnerable rice-consuming communities, PATH developed a manufactured “Ultra Rice"--which can be mixed with rice and mimics the look, feel, and taste of rice--to provide nutrients the local diet may lack. In Colombia, two versions have been developed. One carries vitamin A; the other carries thiamin, folic acid, and zinc. An iron-bearing formula is expected to hit the commercial market later this year.

Neighborhood Information Units (NIU)

admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 09:43:21 -0500

Managing Organization: Colnodo

Activity URL:

http://www.colnodo.apc.org/acceso_comunitario.html

Activity Description: Neighborhood Information Units (NIU) look to build a community-oriented information network. The idea is to use the Internet to allow residents of NIU neighborhoods (on the outskirts of Bogota) to establish contact with each other, with other communities in Bogota, and with the rest of the world. The Neighborhood Information Unit is a space to share experiences and increase neighborhood involvement in city issues, and has contributed to generating employment, satisfying the need for information, and in general, democratizing access to knowledge.