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Making the Market Work for the Poor
As a new development approach, making markets work for the poor (MMW4P) can have a big impact in SA because it is about changing the circumstances that prevent the poor from participating more effectively and extensively in the market economy.
By lowering the barriers blocking people’s participation in markets, by getting businesses to extend their activities to poor regions and by giving the poor a leg up into market activities, development agents — public and private — will be helping the poor to help themselves.
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Innovations: Technology|Governance|Globalization
New MIT Journal analyses global policy challenges by looking at innovations.
Innovations will be of interest to public servants whose method is entrepreneurial, and entrepreneurs whose projects have a public conscience; innovators interested in analysis, and scholars interested in innovations.
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Notes on Globalization and Strategy
Year 2 /No.4 /April 2006
IESE Business School, University of Navarra
The last Newsletter from the Anselmo Rubiralta Center for Globalization and Strategy at the University of Navarra devotes all its content to different aspects of BoP Strategies. The publication insludes notes by Stuart L. Hart and Ted London (Do's and Don'ts in Emerging Markets) and by Miguel Ángel Rodríguez (A Laboratory for Innovation).
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From Challenge to Opportunity: The role of business in tomorrow's society
World Business Council for Sustainable Development Publication
Companies able to tackle issues such as poverty, climate change and population shifts are those most likely to succeed in the future. This is a view shared by eight global business leaders in a major new publication from the WBCSD. From Challenge to Opportunity sets out a "manifesto for tomorrow's global business" as defined by the Tomorrow's Leaders group of the WBCSD. It also discusses why and how four key areas of business and sustainable development need to be profitable in order to be effective.
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The Development Impact of Remittances in Latin America
By Pablo Fajnzylber and J. Humberto López, World Bank, November 2, 2006
The report analyzes the characteristics of households that are remittance recipients and how these characteristics affect the poverty-reducing impact of observed remittances flows. It also devotes significant attention to the macroeconomic impact of these flows, and explores policies and interventions aimed at enhancing the development impact of remittances in the region.
On the whole, the main messages that emerge from Close to Home are quite positive. Even though the estimated impact is moderate in most cases and country heterogeneity is very significant, higher remittances inflows tend to be associated with lower poverty levels and with improvements in human capital indicators (education and health) of the recipient countries. Remittances also seem to contribute to higher growth and investment rates and lower output volatility. Against this background, remittances are to be welcomed and actions that lower the cost of remitting and therefore attract additional flows should be encouraged.
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Care Enterprise Partners
CARE Enterprise Partners’ (CEP), an initiative of the poverty-fighting NGO CARE Canada, is a clear leader in the movement to encourage market inclusion for the world’s poorest communities. Through the CARE Venture Fund, CEP will invest up to $2M CAD to support small business development in poverty stricken areas in the developing world. Recently, in a project called VegCARE, CARE has supported local Kenyan farmers through technical support and pre-finance production. This investment allowed the local farmers to gain market access by partnering with Vegpro, the 3rd largest vegetable buyer and producer in the region. This initiative has helped the farmers attain a more sustainable income and livelihood.
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One Laptop per Child
One Laptop per Child is non-profit association dedicated to the research and development of a $100 laptop - a technology that could revolutionize the way to educate the world's children. This initiative was first announced by Nicolas Negroponte at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2005.
The goal of the organization is to provide children from around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. The $100 laptops, not yet in production, will not be available for sale. They will only be distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives.
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KickStart - The tools to end poverty
KickStart is a non-profit organization that develops and markets new technologies in Africa. These low-cost technologies are bought by local entrepreneurs and used to establish highly profitable new small businesses. They create new jobs and wealth, enabling the poor to climb out of their poverty forever.
KickStart believes that self-motivated private entrepreneurs managing small-scale enterprises are the most effective agents for developing economies. These entrepreneurs can raise small amounts of capital ($100-$1,000 US) to start a new enterprise. KickStart can help them to to identify viable business opportunities, access the technologies required to launch the new enterprises, and widely market new products.
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Grameen Danone Foods Social Business Enterprise
The Grameen Group and Groupe Danone entered into a 50-50 joint venture agreement effective March 16th 2006, to form a company called the Grameen Danone Foods Social Business Enterprise in Bangladesh. This unique initiative is joining the efforts and expertise of Danone, the world's leading healthy food company, and Grameen Group, one of the most successful and celebrated micro-finance and social business enterprises. Grameen Danone Foods' mission will be to bring daily healthy nutrition to low income, nutritionally deprived populations in Bangladesh and alleviate poverty through the implementation of a unique proximity business model.
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Credit and Saving for Household Enterprise (CASHE), India
CASHE is a poverty-focused project designed to address the fundamental problem of low incomes for poor women and their limited control over that income. The project is designed for rural areas primarily in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal, the three states in India. The design process was carried out jointly by CARE and DFID.
The goal of CASHE is to increase significantly the incomes and economic security of poor women and their households. The purpose of CASHE is to increase the availability of a wider range of microfinance services to the poor (predominantly rural women) and their use of those services.
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Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces
The Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces is an intiative at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaig, that seeks to develop and disseminate knowledge on subsistence marketplaces or the bottom of the pyramid, a topic that has been mostly ignored by 20th century marketing and management research and practice. The initiative is based on a bottom-up understanding of buyer, seller, and marketplace behaviors, rather than more macro-level approaches.
The logic behind the initiative is that kowledge will help empower individuals living in subsistence as consumers and as entrepreneurs. It will also improve the effectiveness of marketing and management practice, teaching, and research. As part os the initiative, a series of classes are offered.
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KIVA:loans that change lives
KIVA practices microfinance through Internet. It lets people connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, people can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), lenders can receive email journal updates from the business they have sponsored. As loans are repaid, people get the loan money back.
Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions. In doing so, it gains access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Partners are experts in choosing qualified borrowers. Kiva provides a data-rich lending platform for the poor. They work constantly to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle.
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