Energy poverty in the developing world is a complex and ongoing problem with serious impacts on health, economic growth, and the overall environment. The impact on the poor is particularly felt in their day to day needs for cooking fuel – much of it coming from either oil or gas - or from the decreasing availability of freely collected fuels such as firewood or its derivative, charcoal. Growing price volatility for these products has created shortages of fuel and increasing uncertainty around meeting basic needs. Indoor pollution from smoke contributes to health problems such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancers and eye diseases, and of course there are ongoing risks or burns and fire from unstable cooking pots and stoves. As I have learned more about these...
Aneel Karnani, a Professor at the University of Michigan and a Managing Director at FSG Social Impact Advisors, is a long-time critic of market-based approaches to poverty alleviation and the "base of the pyramid" concept in general. His latest article, Romanticizing the Poor, appears in the Winter 2009 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. A brief excerpt: Market solutions to poverty are very much in vogue. These solutions, which include services and products targeting consumers at the "bottom of the pyramid," portray poor people as creative entrepreneurs and discerning consumers. Yet this rosy view of poverty-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful. It allows corporations, governments, and nonprofits to deny this vulnerable population the...
Although we in the BoP sector often talk about the role of the informal sector as an important factor (both as a competitor and as an ally) when crafting sustainable models for low income communities, precious little has gone into analyzing it. One of the most important reasons for this lack of analysis is because of the shortage of data referring to it. By definition, informal businesses are hidden from the eyes of the state and so most of what we have relies on estimations and very micro-level studies. A recent cross-country report that appeared in the Brookings Papers on August 2008 aims to improve the understanding of the relationship between economic development and the informal economy. The report, entitled "The Unofficial Economy and Economic Development" is authored by...
Guest blogger Bree Olivari is a second-year MBA candidate at Thunderbird Global School of Management and is a leader of the Net Impact chapter. At Thunderbird, Bree integrates her interest in sustainable business with her degree in supply chain leadership. Her projects include mapping best practices of supplier codes of ethics, organizing Thunderbird's Sustainable Innovation Summit and greening procurement practices on campus. During a recent internship Bree helped design the distribution of micronutrient sachets to undernourished children in Mexico.By Bree OlivariAs I bit into an apple provided in my Net Impact lunch box, my mind wandered to the farm it came from and how this juicy treat related to a growing and global food crisis. It is expected that such a thought cross my mind...
Guest blogger Karen Lynn Vincent, a serial social benefit entrepreneur, is the co-founder and current chief operating officer at Resdida, a hybrid social business distributing content via mobile devices to the rural poor. She also works with the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) in the Center for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University.She sent us the following post from Santa Clara, California, where the Transformative Changes through Science and Technology: The Role for Social Benefit Entrepreneurs conference took place last week.By: Karen Lynn VincentDuring his morning address, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank said that the integration of the many Grameen companies occurs not in structure or organization but with the woman in the...
I had the opportunity to attend the Tech Museum Awards ceremony last week in San Jose, California. What's interesting about this annual event is not just the social entrepreneurs and their sometimes quite remarkable innovations, but also the way Silicon Valley turns out to honor them and, at least for an evening, to focus on applying entrepreneurial skills to benefit poor people. This year the event was attended by some 1,500 people including many of the Valley's wealthiest and most powerful Venture Capitalists, CEOs, and networkers. The mix of enterprises changes every year.This year was especially rich in BoP energy enterprises with seven entries. The prize winner was Distributed Energy Systems India, or DESI Power (desi means land or village in Hindi), which builds biomass...
Last Saturday morning was gray, rainy and windy in Philadelphia, but it didn't keep the Net Impact conference from building momentum. I began the day attending a session led by the Base of the Pyramid Protocol team. It was interesting to get a closer feel of this tool; a detailed wrap up of the session will be posted here in NextBillion by its organizers (NextBillion co-founder John Paul, Patrick Donaheau, and others) so stay tuned for that. Once the session wrapped up I walked down to prepare for the next panel "Unreasonable People: The Role of Entrepreneurs in Shaping Tomorrow's Markets". It was moderated by Virginia Barreiro, New Ventures global director at WRI, and featured panelists Agnes Dasewicz from the Grassroots Business Fund, Ben Powell from Agora Partnerships...
"Who are they?" Melanie Edwards asks us. Frankly, we don't know – and neither does the government. These are the people of Morro de Macacoes – Portuguese for "Hill of the Monkeys" – and they are among the 1 billion people worldwide whose existence has no official record. Imperfect or non-existent information characterizes base of the pyramid markets worldwide. When Edwards began working in Morro de Macacoes (a slum near Rio), she asked government officials how many people lived there. The answer ranged from 5,000 to 60,000. She saw this disparity as a business opportunity; after all, how can businesses, banks, governments and NGOs serve people's basic needs if they don't know who they are? Edwards' company, Mobile Metrix, is...
"If people don't have a job, they don't have hope. And if you don't have hope, what do you really have?" (George Roberts of Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co., the founder of REDF)Recently Jocelyn Wyatt and I were fortunate to have Carla Javits, the President of REDF (originally named the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund), as a guest speaker in our class at Berekely's Haas School of Business. REDF is a nonprofit based in San Francisco that creates job opportunities and pathways to employment for people with significant barriers to work. It was also one of the first organizations to embrace the venture philanthropy approach, serving as both a model for others in this field, notably Acumen Fund, and a testing ground for Jed Emerson's ideas on measuring...
At NextBillion.net, we follow the various universities leading innovation in base of the pyramid strategy and research. It gets better when this research leads to actionable, practical solutions for development. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is becoming a center of excellence for market-based approaches to poverty alleviation throughout its entire ecosystem. I was excited to learn about a number of initiatives at the university driving development through enterprise. Even as I was writing this post, the MIT Global Poverty Initiative was running Poverty Week at MIT, featuring dozens of events and spotlighting the biggest problems facing humanity. Base of the Pyramid Curricula: MIT faculty (including, for example, Amy Smith, Iqbal Quadir, Rick Locke, Ken...
Paul Polak is wearing a sweater vest. This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s met him or seen him speak. The man loves sweaters – cardigans, sweater vests, pullovers. Hell, in Camden today – with temperatures hovering around 40 degrees in the midday sun – Paul’s sweater makes a lot of sense. But despite his grandfatherly image, Paul is a truly a young, tireless innovator and entrepreneur at heart. Polak is the founder of the non-profit International Development Enterprises (IDE) and the author of Out of Poverty (review here). He is dedicated to developing practical solutions that attack poverty at its roots. For the past 25 years, Paul has worked with thousands of farmers in countries around the world to help design and produce low–cost, income–generating...
Outside, it is grey and rainy, but inside, the Camden library is warm and inviting. Today's special session merited an early arrival to Pop!Tech: Scaling the Bottom of the Pyramid, a 2-hour talk by longtime BoP innovators Paul Polak and Bunker Roy.Bill Gordon, a Pop!Tech board member, kicks things, describing Pop!Tech's active social change mission – realized through its Accelerator and Social Innovation Fellows Programs. He then introduces today’s speakers as the "heavyweights of the social enterprise world." I, for one, don't argue with that description.Bunker Roy admits that he is the product of a "very expensive, elitist education" in India, which prepared him for a career as a doctor, engineer or diplomat. When he decided to work in a village...
Guest blogger Charlene Chen is a 2nd-year MBA at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, with a focus on international development through ICT and social entrepreneurship. She spent this past summer working in SME development at an internet services provider in Ghana. Prior to Haas, she worked at Deloitte Consulting and earned a B.S. in Computer Science and Psychology from Duke University.By Charlene ChenThese may seem like depressing times, judging by the current economic crisis. Yet there were nothing but smiles at the Social Capital Markets conference, brought together dozens of organizations and hundreds of individuals reaffirming their commitment to investing in or sustaining social enterprises. I was particularly inspired by the variety of creative approaches to address...
I absolutely love that phrase. I heard it at the Social Capital Markets 2008 conference this week in beautiful San Francisco, said by William Foote, Founder and President of Root Capital, on a panel I didn't attend but heard about later. The phrase perfectly epitomizes the mood and underlying themes of the conference, and the panel I myself moderated, as well as the panel I was asked to blog about for NextBillion.net.I love this phrase because I see the positive message within it, just as I tend to see the positive in most things, including my approach to business strategy which I call "disruptive leadership." which I've already blogged about here.You could argue there is absolutely nothing positive in the word "pathological." The Encarta® definition...
Jocelyn Wyatt leads the Design for Social Impact initiative at IDEO (a global design consultancy). Prior to IDEO, Jocelyn worked as an Acumen Fund fellow in Kenya and served as Interim Country Director for VisionSpring in India. Jocelyn has an MBA from Thunderbird and a BA in Anthropology from Grinnell College. She blogs (periodically) on www.jocelynwyatt.com. By Jocelyn Wyatt Fully admitting my bias here, I did think the Design in the Developing World panel was an especially interesting conversation between a top-notch set of designers and practitioners. Caroline Balerin launched the panel with the question "What would it look like to design for the other 90%?" I fully expected the panelists, who have traditionally designed products, to respond with something about...
With three weeks to go before the U.S. presidential election, it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of interest in democracy here at the Social Capital Markets conference. Fortunately, the conversation has (thus far) steered clear of moose burgers and the Weather Underground. After all, the democracy we’re discussing here at SoCap08 is actually related to democratic capital, not democratic governance. What is democratic capital, and why should the base of the pyramid community care? Well, on a very basic level, the democratic capital panel is all about giving investors and borrowers the power to connect directly, without the intermediation of too many financial institutions. This person-to-person connection takes the shape of four panelists and their social enterprises:...
NextBillion is heading west – San Francisco, to be precise. Francisco and I will be on the road this weekend – along with 600+ fellow attendees – in preparation for next week's Social Capital Markets conference, which runs Monday through Wednesday in the city by the bay. We'll have full coverage here on NextBillion, including guest posts from a stable of experts. I'm excited, and more than a little nostalgic. After all, San Francisco was the site of another conference, Eradicating Poverty Through Profit, which helped launch the base of the pyramid concept into the mainstream back in 2004. On Tuesday, I was on the phone with Justin DeKoszmovsky, SC Johnson's Manager for Strategic Sustainability – and one of the company's BoP champions. Justin and I...
I've long been an advocate of using for-profit business principles (e.g. capitalism) to promote development and world progress, specifically in technology. This belief has been formed from: My personal experiences working with local entrepreneurs in emerging market countries.Leading business initiatives such as Intel's "World Ahead" program that (uncomfortably at times) straddles business and philanthropic objectives.Reading/following various proponents of marrying for-profit businesses and non-profit philanthropies into win-win scenarios (e.g., CK Pralahad, Muhammad Yunus). This phenomenon has been gathering steam signaficantly over the last few years. Descriptors are abundant. From the original founders of NextBillion.net came "Eradicating Poverty through...
In case you are not familiar with the video series we have been displaying over the past couple of weeks with entrepreneurs from Santa Clara University's GSBI, make sure to catch up by meeting David, Tendai, Zipporah, Neelam and Christopher. Today's turn is for Alfonso Gamboa, an entrepreneur that is revolutionizing the practice of blue crab fishing in his native Philippines. Alfonso's leadership and efforts have earned him recognitions in venues like the World Bank Development Marketplace and the Business in Development Challenge. Nothing better to explain Alfonso's vision than the following excerpt from a recent Wall Street Journal article. By the way, these were his opening words during the final business plan presentation at GSBI. "Teach a man to fish," Mr....
After a longer-than-anticipated delay, I am pleased to bring you the third installment in the series of interviews about Lapdesk, an Endeavor company based in South Africa that provides portable desks to school children who need them, all 4.2 million to be exact. If you'll recall, I had a great conversation with Harvard Business School Professor Dan Isenberg back in February about what inspired him to write a case about Lapdesk (this is the first case that HBS MBAs encounter). After chatting Professor Isenberg, I probed Lapdesk founder Shane Immelman about the birth and evolution of the company. Now, after a number of near misses, I am happy to share the Lapdesk story from the perspective of Greg Durst, the Managing Director of Endeavor South Africa. How's that for 360 degrees of...
In my previous post about Anand Jaiswal’s article, Erik Simanis left a comment adding one more critique to the approach to BoP markets from a producer/consumer framework. In this critique he refers to “Beyond Basic Needs Business Strategies”, an article he recently co-authored with Stuart Hart and Duncan Duke. The article offers a very good overview of the current approach that is being developed in their Base of the Pyramid Program and that, by extension, lays the groundwork for their BoP Protocol Initiative. It is written in a clear and concise language and I would strongly suggest anyone interested in their work to take a look at it. (And for those who want to get a better feeling of what he means, do check out Robert Katz’s interview from last April).In his article, Simanis...
The product is something people everywhere need, but is often costly or – for more than a billion people worldwide – simply unavailable. It has to be produced locally on a daily basis. And the market price, in rural India, is less than $20 per household per year. An impossible business? I say no; in fact, I'd argue that this is a classic base of the pyramid business opportunity: low-margin, high volume; leveraging advanced technology; scalable; and potentially very profitable. I'm talking, of course, about clean water for drinking and cooking. And two of the businesses I've been mentoring at Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator have already achieved proof of concept for this market. Environmental Planning Group Limited (EPGL) is a fully commercial...
One in eight people on the planet lives in an Indian village. That's 775 million people, about half of whom live on less than $1 per day.To Drishtee and its founder, Satyan Mishra, these numbers aren't daunting; rather, they represent an incredible opportunity. Drishtee is franchisor that helps Indian entrepreneurs set up internet-enabled kiosks to provide basic services in their villages. (Full disclosure: Drishtee is an Acumen Fund investee; I work for Acumen Fund.)Since 2000, Drishtee's network has grown to encompass nearly 1,900 villages, bringing goods and services to about 2 million customers.(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)read more...
Some time ago, we at NextBillion had the pleasure of facilitating a debate about how - and how much - bottom of the pyramid strategy can improve the plight of the poor. The University of Michigan's Aneel Karnani wrote a very insightful paper critiquing various points about the BoP proposition. This paper then received a response by Michigan's C.K. Prahalad and Al Hammond (then at WRI; now at Ashoka). Recently, a new critique was published by "Innovations: Technology|Governance|Globalization", a journal we have praised already here. The critique, entitled "The Fortune at the Bottom or the Middle of the Pyramid?" is authored by Anand Kumar Jaiswal, from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. As I read his paper, I found myself agreeing with many of his...
A recent report, "Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use," by the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation highlights emerging trends by NGOs in the use of mobile technology to affect social change in global public health, humanitarian assistance and environmental conservation. While this report offers some great insights on how to use technology and telecom tools to address some of the world's toughest problems, it leaves out one of the most important challenges that NGOs, and most ICT for Development projects face; how toensure sustainability. To shed some light on this tension, I spoke with Ken Banks, the founder of FrontlineSMS (a tool for mass text messaging) about sustainability and the choices he is currently grappling...
I was recently pointed to GreenMango - an interesting project and winner of the Echoing Green Fellowship. GreenMango is based out of Hyderabad and profiles small time, base-of-the-pyramid owned businesses such as plumbers, carpenters, tailors, mechanics and electricians. The data and service is also currently restricted to Hyderabad. The platform is currently in Beta version - with a simple interface to search for local businesses, using filters for business type, business name, or the area/pin codes. Unlike Babajob, which depends on a more complicated variant of social networking, GreenMango offers a simple design and user reviews - that help one connect directly with the business. I was not able to write a review for my electrician, but I suspect that similar to popular auction sites,...
A key issue that the BoP development world currently faces is generating a tangible connection between markets, enterprise and the poor. After all, if we are going to alleviate poverty through enterprise, we require effective strategies that enable the BoP to participate in profitable business endeavors as well as markets that serve the BoP's needs sufficiently. In light of this difficult obstacle, WBI has taken steps to provide insight into how BoP development can be engaged successfully though its release of the special report "Business and Poverty: Opening Markets to the Poor." The report's 18 chapters-each about eight pages long-analyzes various effective strategies, obstacles and prospects for NGOs, non-profit organizations, corporations, banks, MFIs, and local...
This second part of my conversation with Leila Chirayath covers her vision Samasource, its business model and the pilot project currently under way in Kenya. Make sure to read the first part of this interview to have thorough vision of Leila's background and the beginnings of Samasource. Before reading, I encourage you to watch the video below to get a grasp of the circumstances that inspired this social enterprise.Francisco Noguera: What is your vision for Samasource? Leila Chirayath: Our vision is harnessing the world's untapped talent through socially responsible outsourcing...(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)read more...
I recently had the pleasure of spending some time speaking to Leila Chirayath, founder and CEO of Samasource (previously Market for Change), an organization that promotes socially responsible outsourcing to fight "the waste of talent" around the world. This first part covers Leila's background, the experiences that led her to become an entrepreneur and identify outsourcing as a vehicle for positive social change. The second part of the interview explores Samasource's business model, and its perspectives in more detail. I hope you enjoy learning about this story, as I very much did.Francisco Noguera: Leila, what is your background and how did you become a social entrepreneur? Leila Chirayath: I'll start with a story on why I care about development to begin with, and...
Welcome to part II of the “Endeavor” series. You may recall that part I involved a rather interesting conversation with Dan Isenberg, a Harvard Business School professor who had written a case about Endeavor entrepreneur, Lapdesk. Given that dialogue, it seemed only natural to continue the dialogue with Shane Immelman, founder and CEO of Lapdesk. So with no further ado, let’s have a chat with Shane. Tayo Akinyemi, NextBillion.net: What inspired you to found Lapdesk? Shane Immelman, Lapdesk: Simply put - if we ever hope to meaningfully address global poverty, then the answer must be to provide children in emerging markets with quality education - by doing so we will at least ensure that these children will be equipped to participate effectively in the societies within which...