Successful Last Mile Distribution
Delivering Cutting Edge Micro-Irrigation Technologies
I’m excited to share with you an inspiring private/ non-profit collaboration between Toro Irrigation, a US-based world leader in irrigation equipment design and manufacturing and International Development Enterprises, an international non-profit organisation with over 30 years of experience developing markets for agriculture products and services that benefit smallholder farmers. Through the partnership, an innovative drip […]
The Africa Fertilizer Gap
Africa has awoken. Ten of the world’s fastest growing economies are now in Africa, with around one third of our 54 countries seeing annual GDP growth of over 6%. However, this momentum has not yet spread to all sectors. Cereal crop yields in Africa are only one-third as high as in developing Asia, and only […]
How Financial Innovation In LatAm Is Securing Housing For The BOP
I’m intrigued by FOMEPADE, a rising star in Mexico’s financial scene. Conceived by microfinance veteran Juan José Gutiérrez Chapa (a founding partner of Banco Compartamos) to provide quality housing to underserved markets, FOMEPADE launched in 2012 a housing loan program that incorporates housing providers into a unique value chain for the families at the base […]
Fighting Malnutrition With Improved Complementary Foods For Infants
As of 2014, malnutrition remains a widespread issue across the globe. Families living at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) spend an average of 60% of their income on food, and yet, undernutrition still accounts for over 3m deaths per year among infants and young children. 26% of all under-five children are stunted, irremediably reducing […]
Mobile Money For The Unbanked
The State of Mobile Money Product Offering – What do people use mobile money for? In an article published earlier this month, we discussed the level of mobile money usage and calculated that on a monthly basis, around 54m people were making transactions globally. But what do people use mobile money for? Which products are […]
The Importance Of Design Aesthetics On Products Designed To Fight Poverty
Over recent years it has been recognised that business can help alleviate poverty, by providing income generating products and services to many living at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP). The advance of Design for the other 90% and other recent initiatives such as Human Centred Design and the recognition of Design Thinking have generated […]
Three Things You Don’t Know About Broadband
In the past year MIT and NASA have been working hard at setting up broadband connectivity in the moon. The results have been so positive, that you can actually have better connectivity in the moon that in many countries on earth, including the United States. At the same time Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, created […]
Moving Beyond M-Pesa: Innovations In Financial Inclusion
Everyone has now heard about the success of M-Pesa in Kenya. With over 11.6 million active users, 79,000 agent outlets, and $1.1 billion in real time payments each month, M-Pesa has been a game changer in the quest for ubiquitous financial inclusion. M-Pesa has been so successful that mobile network operators (MNOs) have rolled out […]
Twitter Jam: Designing for the BoP – On Storify
What’s A Foundation-Owned Social Enterprise, And How Can It Help Solve Market Failure
My organization, Gradian Health Systems, uses an atypical business model to get our product into the hands of those who could benefit from it. We produce a unique medical device, the Universal Anaesthesia Machine (UAM), which is designed to provide anesthesia in any environment – including infrastructure-poor hospitals that lack consistent access to electricity or […]
State Support For Private Sector Innovations: A Deep-Dive Into The Philippines
The Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) profiles more than 1,200 programs that engage the private sector in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). CHMI works through Regional Partners around the world to identify programs using innovative delivery and financing mechanisms to improve access to high quality, affordable healthcare for vulnerable communities. Our partners at the […]
GRADIAN I: Spinning Out A Commercial Entity From A Nonprofit Foundation
A healthcare provider in Malawi delivers anesthesia using Gradian’s UAM Globally, 2 to 3 billion people lack access to adequate surgical care.1 Of the more than 230 million major surgical procedures performed worldwide each year, patients in low- expenditure countries receive just 3.5 percent of the total, even though they account for 34.8 percent of […]
Living Goods: Improving Health, Improving Incomes
Mary is a typical mother living in a rural Ugandan village. She has two options when one of her four children falls sick. Her first and allegedly cheapest option is walking long distances to a public facility, where she will spend hours waiting in the heat and in many cases find that free treatments are […]
Design Expo 2014 – Google Hangout Video – The Business Model Behind the Bright Idea
Persistent Energy Partners Look To Solar Horizon
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part article on Persistent Energy Partners and its first acquisition in Ghana. In part two, we take a closer look at PEP’s first acquisition and its position in the pay-as-you-go solar sector for low-income markets. In some ways, the business model for delivering products and services to […]
KARIBU Solar Power: Making Quality Solar Affordable
From Dream to Reality Initially started by then-banker, Adam Camenzuli, and his friends from York University (Canada) in 2012 our team seeks to address one of the many issues hindering African economic development: kerosene usage. Did you know that over 500 million people across Africa have little to no access to safe sources of light […]
Making Bluetooth Work For Rural Low-Income Families
By Vincenzo Capogna, Innovation Manager, SunnyMoney SunnyMoney is a social enterprise founded by London-based charity SolarAid and we are the largest seller of pico-solar lights in Africa. A pico-solar light is a compact portable device that uses a photovoltaic panel to produce up to 10watts of power. Combined with advanced batteries and LED bulbs it […]
GravityLight: Designing for the BoP
Globally, 1.3 billion people do not have access to electricity. Millions more are ‘under-electrified’, with unreliable and sporadic supply. Instead they typically rely on kerosene for lighting. Hazardous, expensive and polluting, there is a real need to replace kerosene with a safer, sustainable and affordable light. GravityLight was born from a challenge by SolarAid to […]
Inclusive Business In Asia – Abuzz With Potential
Photo: Selling fish in Myanmar Asia, the most populated continent, is well used to fast growth. But as the call for inclusive growth gets stronger, attention is turning to inclusive business. During April and May the team at the Practitioner Hub for Inclusive Business have been in touch with a host of contributors across the […]