Category: Business

Building Infrastructure for Under-Served Markets

Finalist for Youth Business International’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award In just three years, Sharad Tandale has created a successful infrastructure engineering company employing 175 people and providing a range of services to meet the huge demand in the neglected and underserved small towns and rural areas of India. Sharad’s business, Innovation Engineers […]

Achieving Scale

Scale is the single biggest unmet challenge in development and impact investment today. IDE, the development organization I founded, has helped some 20 million people living on a $1/day move out of poverty, but this is a drop in the bucket compared to the 2.7 billion people still living on less than $2/day. About the […]

The Future is Yours

Every day, when watching the news, we see pictures of famine and floods, droughts and demonstrations, confronting us with the effects of increasing resource scarcity, climate change, food security, civil unrest and poverty. We see the increasing numbers of people left behind. Many wonder how on earth we are going to address all these challenges. […]

Building Schools & Delivering Quality Education in China

Interview with Huaping Yang, Finalist for Youth Business International’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award Spirited entrepreneur Huaping Yang has overcome failure to launch an education business which today enables hundreds of students to work towards achieving their goals. Chinese company Chengdu Aosite Education (AST) is a three-pronged after-school tutoring chain for students of […]

Building Schools & Delivering Quality Education in China

Interview with Huaping Yang, Finalist for Youth Business International’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award Spirited entrepreneur Huaping Yang has overcome failure to launch an education business which today enables hundreds of students to work towards achieving their goals. Chinese company Chengdu Aosite Education (AST) is a three-pronged after-school tutoring chain for students of […]

Forging a Sustainable Future in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka’s Northern Jaffna District, a region ravaged by 30 years of war and unrest, Prinson Thuraiaiya’s unique brass foundry business (producing castings from waste metal) encompasses entrepreneurial spirit, sustainability and a positive social mission. This is Prinson’s story…. I was born into a poor family. I keenly engaged in school education hoping to […]

It's Africa's Time: Encouraging Inclusive Business Models in Africa

While Africa’s challenges are well documented, there’s an increasing recognition that the continent is on an upward trajectory. And yet Africa’s wealth disparities are amongst the biggest in the world and over the long run this will undermine economic growth, productivity and the development of markets. Economic growth alone is not enough. As a result […]

It’s Africa’s Time: Encouraging Inclusive Business Models in Africa

While Africa’s challenges are well documented, there’s an increasing recognition that the continent is on an upward trajectory. And yet Africa’s wealth disparities are amongst the biggest in the world and over the long run this will undermine economic growth, productivity and the development of markets. Economic growth alone is not enough. As a result […]

Youth Unemployment in Sierra Leone

The high rate of youth unemployment is one of the challenges the Business Booster is designed to tackle. Now that my time in Sierra Leone is almost over, having spent 10 weeks surrounded by locals at home, in the office and during my free time, and inspired by the theft of my laptop two days […]

A Sri-Lankan Coconut Entrepreneur’s Story of Success

An Interview with Nimali Gunawardana, Nimali Chips and Fibre Mill, Sri Lanka Nimali Gunawardana (25) and her business, Nimali Chips and Fibre Mill, have been hailed as pioneers. Within a year she has created an environmentally-friendly enterprise producing and exporting coir for mattresses and coir piths and, more uniquely, making coconut husk chips which is […]

6 Ways Businesses Can Be Inclusive and Socially Responsive

The big question that us development professionals who are working at the intersections of development and business faces today is whether private sector led growth can be inclusive and socially responsive. Our experience on that count is mixed. Businesses obviously promote economic growth, jobs and other associated social benefits. However, the business models generally tend […]

Good News Network Zambia

When I told my elderly neighbour in Ireland recently that I was returning to visit Malawi, her response was: “Oh! Isn’t it terrible out there, the poor little guys, you see them on the telly, little babies with flies in their eyes, all sick and skinny and everything”. I can’t blame her. What she knows […]

5 Steps to Developing a More Efficient and Ethical Supply Chain

It has been less than three months since the most recent factory collapse occurred in Bangladesh, and the fashion community has taken many steps to prevent such future tragedies since the collapse. For those of you who are looking to become part of the solution, here’s a quick guide to building a healthy value-chain based […]

iDE and innocent foundation: Creating successful NGO-Business Partnerships

Since 2006 non-profit organisation iDE UK and the innocent foundation have achieved a major impact in some of the world’s poorest communities in Africa and Asia. They have found new, innovative ways to create shared value that can offer insights into creating successful partnerships between NGOs and the business world. Creating shared value starts with […]

Product Paternalism – Consumer Choice at the BoP

Women’s empowerment means voter choice, partner choice, healthcare choice, reproductive choice, career choice, and consumer choice. Who would argue that a shovel, seeds, and a watering can are not useful and important products to sell in impoverished communities? Or school supplies, study aids, pens, and paper? Or a mattress to lift children off a dirt […]

Need or Want? Creating Demand at the Base of the Pyramid

Understanding what poor people purchase with their very limited resources, and why, is notoriously difficult. Those of us reading or writing about this are unlikely to have ever experienced anything like the life situation that drives these decisions. We can enter a poor person’s home and wonder why they have a television, when they are […]

Need or Want? New BIF Insider on Creating Demand at the Base of the Pyramid

Understanding what poor people purchase with their very limited resources, and why, is notoriously difficult. Those of us reading or writing about this are unlikely to have ever experienced anything like the life situation that drives these decisions. We can enter a poor person’s home and wonder why they have a television, when they are […]

Meet Anowara Shuley: Sewing Fabrics and Reaping Success

Anowara Shuley is challenging traditional beliefs, empowering destitute women and educating the poor. Following a family dispute which left her destitute, she embarked on a self-funded tailoring course. At the age of 24 she launched her business, Shawon Hosto Shilpo, producing fashion and handcrafted products for sale in Dhaka in Bangladesh. However, due to a […]