News
Let there be light… 
WDCSD, August 31, 2006
Africa Investor, 31 August 2006 - Supplying Africa with electricity is a bit like rowing a boat against the tide. You put in a lot of effort, it feels like you’re going somewhere, but when you look up you find the boat has lost ground. Despite some mega-projects on the horizon and billions of dollars expected to be spent on new generating capacity, the absolute number of people without electricity in Africa will continue to rise for at least the next 15 to 20 years. Some time around 2025 new capacity construction will catch up with population growth.
That is the scenario painted by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its 2004 World Energy Outlook, which estimates that more than half a billion people in Africa do not have access to electricity: the only major world region where the number of people without electricity exceeds those who do.
>> More Details | created on: 09/08/2006
There’s Money in Thirst
By Claudia H. Deutsch, The New York Times, August 10, 2006
Everyone knows there is a lot of money to be made in oil. But a fresh group of big businesses is discovering there may be even greater profit in a more prosaic liquid: water.
You’ve got exploding urban populations, increased pollution and a need to address those things in a meaningful way,’’ said Ian Barbour, general manager of Dow Chemical’s Water Solutions unit. “Of course, we’re investing significantly in the water business.”
>> More Details | created on: 08/14/2006
Solar Power Brings Relief to Villagers
WBCSD, August 5, 2006
IPS, 5 August 2006 - Bishop Kodji, a small fishing and canoe carving island in the Atlantic Ocean off Nigeria's sprawling commercial hub of Lagos, has become the first village to be electrified under the Lagos State government's pilot solar energy project.
Before setting up the project, the village, with a population of 5,000, had not known electricity since its existence.
>> More Details | created on: 08/14/2006
Southern Africa: Conference to Explore Affordable Lighting for the SADC
By Thapelo Sakoana, allAfrica, July 18, 2006
In a quest to give access to affordable lighting to millions of households in Southern Africa, an electronics company will host a conference to explore the feasibility of building a factory to manufacture Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) in the region.
This because the majority of citizens in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region do not have access to electricity while those who use it "still struggle to afford quality lighting".
>> More Details | created on: 07/24/2006
Small generator aims to empower Africans - Foot-powered device test-runs in Rwanda
By Laurie Goering, Chicago Tribune, July 3, 2006
MUSHERI CENTER, Rwanda -- In this remote village of dirt-floor homes, recharging a cell phone has long meant bicycling 25 miles to the nearest town with power, or 4 miles to the closest charged-up car battery.
So the excitement was palpable when aid workers showed up recently with the first test model of what might prove to be an energy revolution for Africa: the Weza, a foot-pedal power generator.
>> More Details | created on: 07/05/2006
Botswana: Housing for Poverty Alleviation
By Onalenna Modikwa & Selebi-Phikwe, Mmegi/The Reporter, June 6, 2006
Phikwe Town Council has welcomed the pilot poverty alleviation and housing schemes by the Department of Housing. The programme was started in 1992 by government to facilitate economic empowerment of poor households who do not qualify for SHHA loans through employment creation, poverty alleviation and home ownership.
>> More Details | created on: 06/08/2006
All-Filipino team wins MIT entrepreneurship tilt
By Erwin Lemuel Oliva, INQ7.net, June 2, 2006
A team composed of Filipino students and professionals bagged the top prize in the MIT $100K, an entrepreneurship content run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
>> More Details | created on: 06/05/2006
The New Electric Lamp
By Jeremy Caplan, Time Magazine, May 21, 2006
Sitting in a brightly lit classroom at the Stanford Business School three years ago, Matt Scott got to wondering what it would take to light the rest of the world. Artificial lighting may not seem a necessity like food or shelter, but 1.6 billion people around the globe lack access to electricity and the on-off switches we take for granted.
>> More Details | created on: 05/23/2006
A Moneymaking Water Pump
By Ross Perlin, Time Magazine, May 21, 2006
To Martin Fisher, 48, and Nick Moon, 51, a simple pump could be the solution to poverty for millions of Africans. They're the co-founders of KickStart, a San Francisco--based nonprofit that encourages rural entrepreneurship by providing tools that Africa's poor can afford. Since the group was founded in Nairobi in 1991 under the name ApproTEC, it has developed a machine to make building blocks, a press that extracts cooking oil from seeds, a hay baler and a series of hand-operated micro-irrigation pumps. Their latest, the MoneyMaker Hip Pump, retails in Africa for $34.
>> More Details | created on: 05/23/2006
Six Trends Will Drive Sustainable Development, According to PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers, April 10, 2006
Sustainable development will steadily advance over the next 10 years, with six major trends influencing industry world-wide, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers' report, "Corporate Responsibility: Strategy, Management and Value." The challenge of creating strategies that meet immediate needs without sacrificing the needs of future generations will be driven by the growing influence of: global market forces; revisions in corporate governance; high speed innovation; large scale globalisation; evolving societal requirements and communication, the report says.
>> More Details | created on: 04/11/2006
HK explores new ways to help poor people
China View, April 6, 2006
More than 300 participants from various sectors on Thursday attended the Conference on Social Enterprise to discuss new approach to helping the poor.
>> More Details | created on: 04/07/2006
ICRISAT to collaborate with CII and Coca Cola Foundation on watershed development
Moneycontrol.com, April 3, 2006
ICRISAT & Coca-Cola Foundation Collaboration for Backward Areas Development through Strategic Intervention in Watershed Development The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Coca-Cola Foundation will collaborate for sustainable and equitable management of Rural Water Resources Infrastructure and other Natural Resources Management (NRM).
>> More Details | created on: 04/07/2006
Power to the people 
Economist, March 11, 2006
AS A young boy in rural Bangladesh in 1971, Iqbal Quadir walked ten miles to collect some medicine for a sibling who was unwell. But when he arrived at his destination, the medicine man was not there, so he had to walk home empty-handed, having wasted an entire day. Many years later, having moved to America and become an investment banker, Mr Quadir was reminded of this episode when the network at his New York office stopped working.Mr Quadir was seized by the idea that "a telephone is a weapon against poverty". He decided to dedicate himself to making telephones more widely available to the poor in his homeland.
>> More Details | created on: 03/10/2006
The Business of Giving
By The Economist, February 23, 2006
Philanthropy is flourishing as the number of super-rich people keeps growing. But the new donors are becoming much more businesslike about the way their money is used, says Matthew Bishop.
>> More Details | created on: 02/28/2006
The Birth of Philanthrocapitalism
By The Economist, February 23, 2006
RELATIVE to the corporate environment, we are in the 1870s. But philanthropy will increasingly come to resemble the capitalist economy, predicts Uday Khemka, a young Indian philanthropist and a director of the SUN Group investment company owned by his family.
>> More Details | created on: 02/28/2006
Business Prophet
By CK Prahalad, Business Week, January 23, 2006
This article discusses how strategy guru C.K. Prahalad is changing the way CEOs think.
>> More Details | created on: 01/27/2006
Can Africa Join the Investment Revolution
By Africa Business, November 29, 2005
>> More Details | created on: 01/09/2006
Pennies from the poor add up to fortune
By David Ignatius, The Korea Herald, July 1, 2005
>> More Details | created on: 01/03/2006
The Akassa Community Development Project in Nigeria: Statoil and BP
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, January 1, 2005
Reviews how corporate social responsibility programs are helping to build and sustain livelihoods in the Niger Delta.
>> View Article | created on: 11/18/2005
The Global Compact: A Business Perspective
International Chamber of Commerce, July 1, 2004
A look at the Global Compact as businesses begins to take more of a role in International Development.
>> View Article | created on: 11/18/2005
Academic Research
Rethinking organizations that serve Latin America’s mass markets: a study of AES-EDC experience in Venezuela
By Henry Gómez-Samper & Patricia Márquez, May 24, 2006
The paper examines the experience of a privately-owned public utility as it undertook to turn poor consumers who obtained power from illegal connections, into paying customers. The methods used to focus on poor communities were shaped by visionary leadership when the company was acquired by a multinational corporation. Recommendations made by operating staff ushered the experience, and helped shaped a value proposition that benefited the company, appealed to poor consumers, and led to wide-ranging organizational change.
>> More Details | created on: 05/24/2006
Housing Policy in Developing Countries: Conjectures and Refutations
By Robert M. Buckley & Jerry Kalarickal, World Bank Research Observer, Vol. 20, No, 2, October, 2005
This article discusses housing policy in developing economies. It examines recent research findings in light of earlier arguments as to the benefits of more market-oriented approaches.
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
At the Bottom of the Pyramid: Responsible Design for Responsible Business
By Nirmal Sethia, Design Managment Review, June 1, 2005
In this article, Nirmal Sethia, a professor of management and director of the Center for Business and Design in the College of Business Administration at California State Polytechnic University, in Pomona, calls our attention to what he calls "a pressing business responsibility that is a significant new business opportunity." The opportunity he refers to is what he calls "the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP)-almost four billion people, or nearly two-thirds of humanity, who live at the bottom of the economic pyramid, with a vast majority of them struggling to survive on less than two dollars a day."
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
India's Economic Agenda: An Interview with Manmohan Singh
By Rajat K. Gupta, McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 (Subscription Required)
In an interview, India's prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, discusses his country’s prospects and challenges, saying that the ultimate goal is to wipe out poverty, ignorance, and disease.
To him this can be accomplished by increasing foreign direct investment, particularly in infrastructure and by opening up the retail sector.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
Fulfilling India's Promise
By Rajat K. Gupta, McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 (Subscription Required)
The article discusses how India must take steps to boost its economic prospects, lift its living standards, and improve opportunities for the multinational companies that do business there.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
Lessons from the Field: An Overview of the Current Uses of Information and Communication Technologies for Development
By John Paul & Robert Katz, WRI Paper, November, 2004
An overview of the digital divide that effects many in the developing world and highlights many of the projects that are attempting to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to bridge this divide
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Housing the Urban Poor
By Asad Azfar & Aun Rahman, Acumen Fund , April, 2004
THe article discusses the negative aspects of living in urban slums and how a public private partnership between Saiban, a housing development nonprofit, and the Pakistani government is positively tackling this issue. Their scheme is based on theit ability to create affordable housing supply.
>> More Details | created on: 03/06/2006
Challenges to Sida's Support to Private Sector Development: Making Markets Work for the Poor
Sida Provisional Edition, October, 2003
The document forms a background to Sida's action for private sector development by 1. Taking a stand in the overriding objectives and values underlying Swedish development assistance; 2. Explains how private sector development can be an effective instrume
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
The Great Leap: Driving Innovation from the Base of the Pyramid
By Hart, Stu & Christensen, Clayton, MIT Sloan Management Review, September, 2002 (Fall 2002)
The authors illustrate their point of how and when BOP can be successful with examples of companies that are already profitably disrupting such industries as telecommunications, consumer electronics and energy production.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Do Rural Infrastructure Investments Benefit the Poor? Evaluating Linkages: A Global View, a Focus on Vietnam
By Songco, Jocelyn, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, February, 2002 (No. 2796)
Discusses the linkages between rurual infrastructure investments and household welfare.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
By C.K. Prahalad & Stuart L. Hart, Strategy+Business, January, 2002 (Issue 26, First Quarter 2002)
Dispells some of the assumptions regarding selling to the poor and discusses how companies can both maximize their profits and help the poor
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
India as a Source of Innovations
By C.K. Prahalad, 2000
Analyzes and the old mindset of the poor as an intractable problem and shows how currently there has been a shift in this mindset to one of the poor as an active market and the Bottom of the Pyramid as a source of innovation for this market.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Cases
Electrifying South Africa: Eskom
WBCSD, April 27, 2006
A key sustainable development issue is access to essential services for improved quality of life, including improved health services, clean water, adequate food and modern energy. Electricity plays a key role in delivering all these services. It underpins the economic and social development of many countries, and provides the support infrastructure for such development to occur. Therefore, for any nation or region to move forward and become competitive in the global market, providing reliable and affordable electricity is crucial.
>> More Details | created on: 07/13/2006
Electrifying rural Moroccan households: Electricité de France (EDF), Tenesol, Total
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, June 2, 2005
Through a unique program developed by Morocco’s National Electricity Office (ONE), EDF, Total and Tenesol (previously Total Energie) are helping remote Moroccan villages access electricity through solar power installations.
>> More Details | created on: 11/23/2005
Access to Electricity program eases poverty: ABB
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, March 1, 2005
ABB’s Access to Electricity program is designed to promote sustainable economic, environmental and social development in poor communities and is yielding its first concrete results in a remote village in southern Tanzania.
>> More Details | created on: 11/23/2005
Solar Energy in Rural South Africa
By Patricia H. Werhane & Michael E. Gorman, Darden Case No. UVA-E-0145-SSRN, 2005
This case describes Solar Electric Light Fund's pilot project to deliver solar-energy units to a rural, nonelectrified village in the Maphephethe region of South Africa. What appears to be an innocuous project with positive social dimensions ends up causing social stratification in the village's poorer class. The case presents students with some interesting ethical dilemmas as traditional community values of equity and social class are challenged by an attempt to improve living standards. It may also be taught as an environmental-ethics case concerning alternative-energy options (see also "SELF (A)" [UVA-E-0112] and "SELF (B)" [UVA-E-0113]).
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
Eskom and the South African Electrification Program A
By Patricia H. Werhane & Michael E. Gorman, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0162-SSRN , 2005
Eskom, a South African electric-utility company, is currently spending $400 million annually (roughly 30 percent of its annual profits) to implement a national social-initiative project. This project is a countrywide infrastructure-development program to provide electricity to the citizens of South Africa, who were often denied access to basic services under apartheid; thus, the company is hoping to fulfill its goal of becoming a "model corporate citizen."
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
Eskom and the South African Electrification Program B
By Patricia H. Werhane & Michael E. Gorman, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0163-SSRN , 2005
After Eskom implemented a viable plan for providing electricity to more than 1.75 million South African households, many of its customers failed to pay for service, which resulted in a debt of approximately $400 million by 1997. This negative consumer behavior, however, was not necessarily unjustified, as South Africa's black citizens had historically used consumer boycotts as a means of protest against the apartheid state. Consequently, the country's consumer base had evolved in an environment where nonpayment was often seen as a social norm rather than negative behavior. Recognizing that consumers' behavior was the result of living under an oppressive regime, Eskom needed to address this seemingly intractable situation. See also the A, C, D, and E cases (E-0162, E-0164, E-0165, and E-0166).
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
Eskom and the South African Electrification Program C
By Patricia H. Werhane & Michael E. Gorman, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0164-SSRN , 2005
Eskom had committed to spending approximately $400 million annually to provide 1.75 million South African households with electricity by 2000. The company had to forfeit an additional $300 million because of consumers' nonpayment for service. Moreover, the company also faced rising operational costs as a result of consumers' illegally tampering with their electrical connections. In fact, these costs had increased to such an extent that annual costs were higher than annual sales in many of the areas Eskom served. This illegal behavior, however, had evolved under an oppressive regime that forced many consumers to steal from the existing infrastructure in order to access basic services. Following the end of apartheid, Eskom hoped to receive an adequate return on its investments in the electrification program. See also the A, B, D, and E cases (E-0162, E-0163, E-0165, and E-0166).
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
Eskom and the South African Electrification Program D
By Patricia H. Werhane & Michael E. Gorman, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0165-SSRN , 2005
The D case concerns Eskom's commitment to provide employment in rural areas by training residents to work on local electrification projects. The company discovers, however, that its employees, for a small fee, often help customers make illegal connections to power lines, thus avoiding payment for service. In some communities, as much as 80 percent of the electricity is illegally obtained. How should Eskom deal with this problem? See also the A, B, C, and E cases (E-0162, E-0163, E-0164, and E-0166).
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
Eskom and the South African Electrification Program E
By Patricia H. Werhane & Michael E. Gorman, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0166-SSRN , 2005
Eskom produces the world's cheapest electricity by using coal-fired plants, most of which have not been retrofitted to meet World Bank standards. Moreover, most South Africans without electricity burn wood, which creates even more air pollution than coal. Should Eskom retrofit its coal-fired facilities and raise the price of electricity or continue to expand its inexpensive electrification program? See also the A, B, C, and D cases (E-0162, E-0163, E-0164, and E-0165).
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
The Volta River Project
By Patricia H. Werhane & Michael E. Gorman, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0161-SSRN, 2005
In 1998, Ghana was considering new ways to generate electricity to solve the recurring problem of power shortages due to droughts. This case discusses the Volta River Project, which was conceived by Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of Ghana. Built in 1963, the Volta River Dam was a joint project between Ghana and Valco, a multinational aluminum company that was to be the largest consumer of the dam's electricity. Various difficulties, including repeated droughts and a long-term low negotiated price for Valco's electricity, have created a shortage of electricity in Ghana. The case poses the following question for students: What is the best long-term solution - should Ghana build another dam or develop other solutions to this recurring problem?
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
SELF A
By Patricia H. Werhane & Scott B. Sonenshein, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0112-SSRN, 2005
This series of cases (see also the B case, UVA-E-0113) describes the choices facing Neville Williams, founder and president of SELF, in his attempt to provide environmentally friendly electricity to rural China. SELF is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve the standard of living in developing countries. The A case encourages students to choose among three alternative-energy sources - hydropower, photovoltaics, and clean coal - that are technologically sufficient and environmentally sustainable. Students are not told what the acronym SELF stands for until the end of the A case.
>> More Details | created on: 01/20/2006
SELF B
By Patricia H. Werhane & Scott B. Sonenshein, Darden Case No.: UVA-E-0113-SSRN. , 2005
The main purpose of the B case is to demonstrate that corporate and managerial ideologies play a role in determining how to finance projects. Williams must decide how to fund rural-electrification projects in such developing countries as China. Given SELF's ideology, students must evaluate the alternatives of government subsidies for energy development, partial subsidies, and individual payment plans for energy. See also the A case (UVA-E-0112).
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
Mobile sales contribute to poverty reduction: GrupoNueva's Amanco
World Business Council on Sustainable Development, January 1, 2005
AMANCO is a Latin American leader in the production and marketing of integrated solutions for the construction, infrastructure and irrigation industries. AMANCO is part of GrupoNueva, a holding company operating throughout Latin America for more than 60 years, with more than 30 firms and factories located in 13 countries and some 7,000 employees.
AMANCO bases its leadership on the quality of its products, service excellence and a firm commitment to sustainable development within a profit-oriented framework.
>> More Details | created on: 04/11/2006
Serving the Poor: Do Embedded Ties Matter?
By Pablo Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez & Joan Enric Ricart , IESE Business School, January 1, 2005
In the past, the 4.6 billion people living in poverty were considered anything but a market. Recently, however, several authors have suggested that by stimulating commerce and development in low-income segments, multinationals could radically improve the lives of billions of people and help create a more stable and inclusive world. In order to succeed at this challenging goal, companies need not only to innovate strategies, business models and products, but also to better understand the market and local customer needs.
>> More Details | created on: 04/18/2006
Concrete Innovation with Mi Casa: Holcim Apasco
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, October 12, 2004
Holcim Apasco helps people self-build concrete homes to an acceptable standard and improve the availability of affordable construction materials through its Mi Casa distribution centers.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Project Employability: Lafarge India
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, October 6, 2004
Lafarge is working to alleviate high unemployment in rural areas combined with a lack of skilled and qualified masons in the construction markets through its "Project Employability" program.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Shell Solar in Sri Lanka: Improving lives with the flick of a switch
World Business Council on Sustainable Development, April 1, 2004
Shell Solar Lanka, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell, intends to target these market segments where potential customers will be able to save money over the lifetime of a solar home system by moving away from the inconvenience and recurring cost of kerosene lanterns and battery charging, while receiving better service.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Businesses Are Helping to Overcome Global Poverty
By Stern N, Richard Ivey Business School, January 1, 2004
The facts today point to a decline in global poverty and to the reality that global economic development is working. These positive developments are due to policies pursued by both public organizations and the international business community. But as the Chief Economist of the World Banks says, business can do even more to help the world's poorest countries.
>> More Details | created on: 04/18/2006
CEMEX , Mexico
By Ajit Sharma & Sharmilee Mohan, SidharthSingh, University of Michigan Ross School of Business, December 12, 2003
Discusses how Cemex profitably provides housing for the poor in Mexico.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Suez aims to bring water to all in Brazil
World Business Council on Sustainble Development, December 2, 2003
Suez’s subsidiary Aguas do Amazonas has successfully teamed up with French development NGO ESSOR and Brazilian NGO ADEIS to put in place the “Water for All” pilot project, demonstrating that Suez can serve poor communities and grow its formal customer base at the same time.
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005
Procter & Gamble – PuR Water Purification Sachets
World Business Council on Sustainble Development, October 21, 2003
A complementary approach to providing piped-treated water is through treatment of drinking water directly in people’s homes. This point of use (POU) model has the advantages of cost, immediate availability and ease of distribution to reach rural areas
>> View Article | created on: 11/22/2005