Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jordan Kassalow, Graham Macmillan and Miriam Stone – three staff members at VisionSpring – to conduct a long-form interview. Formerly known as Scojo Foundation, VisionSpring is the pioneering base of the pyramid-focused enterprise working to provide access to eyeglasses in low-income communities around the world. NextBillion.net readers will be familiar with VisionSpring's basic story; after all, our team published a What Works case study on the company back in 2007. We've followed their progress for a long time, up to and including their recent name change and announcement of a 5-year fundraising prospectus. (Full disclosure: I work at Acumen Fund, which is an investor in VisionSpring.) Rob Katz, NextBillion.net: How,...
Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jordan Kassalow, Graham Macmillan and Miriam Stone – three staff members at VisionSpring – to conduct a long-form interview. Formerly known as Scojo Foundation, VisionSpring is the pioneering base of the pyramid-focused enterprise working to provide access to eyeglasses in low-income communities around the world.
Acumen Fund is an investor in VisionSpring, having made a $500K debt investment back in 2006. We’ve followed their progress for a long time, up to and including their recent name change and announcement of a 5-year fundraising prospectus.
Rob Katz, Acumen Fund: How, when and why did you get involved with VisionSpring?
Jordan Kassalow, Chairman and Co-Founder, VisionSpring: It was very practical. I spotted a market...
The Innovation Hub covered earlier co-launches a pre-incubation initiative "for young online entrepreneurs."-Startup Africa,HatTip Sean Park!
Buy into Africa says the Investors Chronicle
Juhel, a growing Pharmaceutical manufacturer founded by Ifeanyi Okoye
Green Wifi covered earlier in...
Editor’s Note: This post is authored by Acumen Fund Summer Associate Amy Lin. Amy is pursuing an MBA and International Relations MA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, respectively. Her professional interests are in international development in sub-Saharan Africa. She has worked at the World Bank, with TechnoSeve and with the Boston Consulting Group. Amy graduated from Yale with a BA in Political Science.
By Amy Lin
Proving that BoP services and profit can go hand in hand, Nairobi-based Meridian Medical Centre has been profitably operating three outpatient clinics with one-third of its clients earning only $4 a day. In April 2008, Meridian opened a fourth clinic in Doonholm, a...
The Oxford Analytica released following report on “The effect of a growing food emergency on security in the Horn of Africa”.
SIGNIFICANCE: Poverty, drought and food insecurity are well known in the Horn of Africa. This latest emergency occurs at a time of global increases in the price of food and fuel and when regional conflicts threaten to destabilise the region.
ANALYSIS: The sharp increase in food and energy prices globally has hurt the poorest and most food insecure regions of the world particularly hard. According to the US Agency for International Development’s latest estimates, as many as 16.3 million people in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti) are in need of emergency assistance or face food insecurity. Hunger and security. This latest food...
In
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Development Issues,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed,
Somalia,
drought,
food crisis,
humantarian emergency,
Health
USAID/OFDA Assistance to Somalia - $47,077,637
USAID/FFP(2) Assistance to Somalia - $197,415,500
State/PRM(3) Assistance to Somalia - $20,100,000
Total USAID & State Humanitarian Assistance to Somalia:
$264,593,137
Click here to retreive the full report by the USAID, et, alt.
Source:......
In
Warlords,
National Security,
Arab World,
Somali Foreign Policy,
NFD,
Somalia Islamic Courts,
Ethiopian Invasion,
UN,
humanitarian relief,
Hunger in Somalia,
OCHA,
Africa,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed,
Somalia,
food crisis,
Health
I recently received Dial 1298 for Ambulance’s first newsletter. 1298 is an ambulance service in Mumbai. In 2007, Acumen Fund took a $1.5 million equity stake in 1298 to fund expansion of their service. Since then, 1298 (the number you call when you need an ambulance) has grown faster than expected in Mumbai and is already expanding their service to two new districts in Kerala. The company has captured a lot of press attention, with coverage from the Economic Times, DNA, the Hindustan Times, and others. 1298 currently has 51 ambulances which have taken more than 50,000 trips since inception.
Before 1298 launched its service, Mumbai had only about 12 working ambulances that fitted with intensive care equipment (which were primarily linked to specific hospitals), and in respect of...
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO):
The general food security situation in Somali Region has deteriorated over the last two months due to cumulative effects of three failed consecutive rainy seasons, poor terms of trade coupled with the progressing dry “hagga” season. Humanitarian partners and elders are comparing the current drought situation to that of 1999/2000. The recently completed DPPA led multi-agency pastoral assessment team reported critical food security problems with records of massive livestock and human migration, reduced livestock births and production as well as increased prices of food.
Click here to view the full report by FAO. You may also like to click here more FAO reports on......
In
Somali Peace Process,
Pan Somalism,
Add new tag,
Balkanizing Somalia,
Greater Somalia,
National Security,
Ethiopian Invasion,
Africa,
Food Crisis Emergency,
Western Somalia (Ogaden),
Somali Islamic Revolution,
Col. Cabdullaahi Yuusuf Axmed,
Health
I’ve been spending the week at one of a series of 8 conferences on eHealth, brainstorming with other entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, health informatics specialists, and policy experts. The setting could hardly be more lovely--the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio center looking down on the deep waters of Lake Como and looking up at the sheer granite cliffs of the Alps. The scale of the scenery seemed to match the scale of our task, to figure out how to unlock the eHealth marketplace—that is, unleash entrepreneurialism and market forces combined with technology—to provide better health care, or for many rural communities in developing countries, any health care at all. The barriers are well understood. Very limited access to health care facilities in rural and many...
By Hesseltje S. van Goor
A recent development on Facebook has shown that social networking may be more powerful than simply a vehicle for gossip between friends, co-workers and ex-significant others. When Coca-Cola executives responded to a Facebook-based call for humanitarian action, it showed a new opportunity for dialogue between consumers and corporations: smart organizers can harness this kind of rapid message-spreading medium to foster a conversation between the decision-makers at the top and the masses at the point-of-use.
Incensed by the irony that remote African communities had limitless access to bottles of Coca-Cola, but no infrastructure to get medicines to sick children, innovator Simon Berry decided to speak up and ask Coca-Cola to dedicate a fraction of its...
Omatek covered earlier, raises N6bln ($51mln) in their recently concluded IPO.
A $100 Million Legacy Africa Alpha Hedge Fund Launched By INTL Consilium and First City Monument Bank.- HedgCo
Oson Chemist describes itself as "...a leader in pharmaceutical distribution and supply chain management..."
Emmanuel Banza a mechanic, describes his mill for crushing cassava leaves,a necessary food...
In
markets,
food,
fabrication,
invention,
hardware,
Finance,
Innovation,
entrepreneurship,
manufacturing,
funds,
Health
mPedigree co-founded by Bright Simons emerges as tool to fight the deadly scourge of drug counterfeiting and other product reliabilty challenges: ...It refers both to a world-first technology platform that interconnects GSM mobile networks in the West African republic of Ghana to a central registry wherein pedigree information of product brands belonging to participant manufacturers are stored,...
The journal Health and Human Rights has been around since 1994, and it started out under the editorship of Jonathan Mann. Paul Farmer has took over the reins in 2007, and now it has gone online and open access. The inaugural edition of the journal in this new format has a host of interesting looking articles, but my eye was caught by the piece entitled 'Notes on the rights of a poor woman in a poor country' by Tarek Meguid, Deputy Head of the Department ofObstetrics and Gynecology at Bwaila Hospital and Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi. What is striking about the article is its graphic -- and moving -- description of a vast gap between the human right to health (often in the form of access to basic medical supplies) and what actually happens in health care centers in low-income...
Founded by the award winning Ibrahim Abouleish, Sekem group pioneered Biodynamic agriculture in Egypt.The National reports:
It’s not supposed to be like this. The desert does not give up its grip lightly. Yet some 60 kilometres north-east of Cairo, what should have been (and was 30 years ago) a parched dry scrubland of desert and rock is now a place of vivid green, a patchwork of fields rich in...
Acumen Fund Fellow John Tucker was interviewed by VisionSpring’s Miriam Stone. Read the full interview here, in which John reflects on what he’s learned over the past year working in India as a Fellow. Good stuff....
Emmanuel Mbulu founder of Tone-a-Matic a muscle stimulator manufacturer, discusses entrepreneurship.
New Scientist profiles rugged wheelchair prototypes for the developing world.
Reuters reports that currency traders and investors are increasingly drawn to African currencies. via Cheetah Index
"Ndume Little Pick-up" a solution to waste...
Two new reports offer useful tools for thinking about the future, both focused on the United States and both needed.
The first report, Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health, Settlements and Welfare comes out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and details the ways in which climate change may exacerbate a number of problems we don't usually think of as environmental. Among their findings were these key impacts:
* Heat: Almost every part of the country will experience higher average temperatures, but the impacts of increased heat will be particularly acute in urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest and across many areas of the West. The rapidly aging U.S. population as well as children and the poor will be particularly vulnerable to health impacts,...
Henry Neondo reports from Africa Science News:
The Murangiri farm emphasises traditional green vegetables, which Helen says occupy an important role in household nutrition throughout Kenya as these are the main source of vitamins and provide variety to meals otherwise consisting of maize, beans and occasionally, meat stews.
These green vegetables also provide a secondary source of proteins. In...
From the X-prize Foundation website:
The X PRIZE Foundation is researching prizes structured around entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty. The focus is to find methods that catalyze profit-generating firms both in terms of financial as well as human development metrics that address major development challenges in agriculture, capital, education, health and water. The goal of these...
Guest bloggers Shaila Parikh and Biju Mohandas work for Acumen Fund, based out of Hyderabad. Shaila is a Summer Associate and a Master of International Affairs candidate at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Biju is Acumen Fund's India Business Manager. Before joining Acumen Fund, he served for five years in the Indian Army's Medical and Dental Corps. Later, Biju completed his Post Graduate Program in Management with a dual major in analytical finance and strategic marketing from the Indian School of Business. By Shaila Parikh and Biju Mohandas In the middle of June, Acumen investee LifeSpring opened its second low-cost maternity hospital in a peri-urban area near Hyderabad. They plan to have six hospitals opened by the end of 2008,...
Health and Human Rights, vol. 10, no. 1 (2008) [full-text]
- First issue in the newly-adopted open access format. Includes an article on promoting greater access to biomedical literature to meet the needs of people around the world who cannot afford the subscription costs generally associated with health and medical journals.
International Journal of Refugee Law, vol. 20, no. 2 (June 2008)...
From the Betucare website:
Organically grown (Buchu) Betuline Baromsa, is known to be South Africa's wonder medicinal herb. One the rarest herbs in the world, it was first used by the Khoi San, an indigenous group of people found in the Western Cape, South Africa, for almost every body ailment.
While the Mail & Guardian expounds:
Soft-drink companies use it by the tonne, natural health devotees...
From the Science Blog
Scientists (from the Biocassava Plus project) have determined how to fortify the cassava plant, a staple root crop in many developing countries, with enough vitamins, minerals and protein to provide the poor and malnourished with a day's worth of nutrition in a single meal...[continue...
Civil Wars beyond their Borders: The Human Capital and Health Consequences of Hosting Refugees (Institute for the Study of Labor, April 2008) [text via Human Security Gateway)
Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough Guide (International Council on Human Rights Policy, June 2008) [text]
Disabilities among Refugees and Conflict-Affected Populations (Women's Commission, June 2008) [access to...
In
Environment,
conflict,
netherlands,
Mauritania,
detention,
sexual abuse,
humanitarian personnel,
climate,
expulsion,
disabled refugees,
family,
receiving country,
Human Rights,
Health
It is clear that many of today's poor will simply stay poor, even if economic growth is sustained. They are caught in one or more of five poverty traps: insecurity of life or livelihood; weak citizenship status; living in a deprived area; experiencing social discrimination; or held back by poor quality work. The second international Chronic Poverty Report, launched next week, shows that the poorest can be included in progress. ...(read more)...
Tejay Pharmaceuticals specializes in sterile small volume injectables,Opthalmic solutions and oral preparations.The company manufactures sterile pyrogen free injectables and oral...
East and Southern Africa Dairy Association reports:
Shambani Graduate Dairy has been a blessing to the farmers in Morogoro municipality. Shambani graduates started off with one milk supplier, processing capacity of 30 litres. Today the plant receives milk from over 200 suppliers and has a capacity to process 750 litres of milk dairy and produces up to three different products. Pasteurized...
Meridian Medical Services fashions itself as the "One stop" medical centre.
Kahindo Mateene a fashion designer "sews together tradition and trend"
SMS based Livestock Marketing Information System launched for farmers and traders.
Combination Industries serves up cheese snacks.
African minerals strengthens its social...
.img_assist_custom.jpg)
Position: VP of Sales and Operations Location: New York - with 30% international travel Organization: VisionSpring (formerly Scojo Foundation) is a global social enterprise, currently operating in 13 countries, which creates jobs and sustains livelihoods through the sale of affordable reading glasses to the 700 million people who require clear, up-close vision to read and work. VisionSpring trains low-income men and women as "Vision Entrepreneurs" to start microfranchises that conduct vision screenings within local communities, sell affordable reading glasses, and refer those who require advanced eye care to reputable clinics. Description: The VP of Sales and Operations is responsible for the leadership and management of VisionSpring's global operations team and the...
From the TED website:
Adam Grosser talks about a project to build a refrigerator that works without electricity -- to bring the vital tool to villages and clinics......