How Do You Sell KnowledgeTo Smallholder Farmers?
iDE has over 30 years of experience working with smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. As a result we know two things: If smallholders are to transition from subsistence farming to the production of high-value fruits and vegetables for the market they need access to low cost agricultural technologies, such as a drip […]
Leveraging Technology To Boost Agricultural Development
The share of agriculture and allied sectors in India’s GDP is 13.7% (2012-13); providing livelihood to nearly 600 million Indians. The decrease in the share of Agricultural and Allied Sectors in GDP of the country in comparison to other sectors is on account of structural changes due to a shift from a traditional agrarian economy […]
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 […]
Designing Behavior And The Importance Of Being Multi-Channel
We spend a lot of time talking about the ubiquity of the mobile phone at FrontlineSMS. So much time, in fact, that we’ve now forbidden the use of the word in the office. It’s not the word’s fault, though, that it’s been so difficult to get an accurate idea of exactly how many people, how […]
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 […]
A Tale of Tradition, Technology & Tobacco
Ethnic communities living in remote areas are not only geographically isolated, they are technologically isolated too – that’s what I thought while going to the hilly part of Bangladesh lately. And I was wrong! I was visiting Bolipara – a remote place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of southern Bangladesh, a region famous for […]
A Tale of Tradition, Technology & Tobacco
Ethnic communities living in remote areas are not only geographically isolated, they are technologically isolated too – that’s what I thought while going to the hilly part of Bangladesh lately. And I was wrong! I was visiting Bolipara – a remote place in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of southern Bangladesh, a region famous for […]
How Selling Energy as a Service meets The Poor's Needs
Rather than trying to sell energy products with high up-front costs, innovative businesses are selling energy services A good starting point for a business is usually to target customers with money, and in places that are easy to reach. So it might not seem an obvious business opportunity to provide electricity to the 1.3 billion […]
How Selling Energy as a Service meets The Poor’s Needs
Rather than trying to sell energy products with high up-front costs, innovative businesses are selling energy services A good starting point for a business is usually to target customers with money, and in places that are easy to reach. So it might not seem an obvious business opportunity to provide electricity to the 1.3 billion […]
The Sun Is Shining On West Africa And Solar Microgrids
Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part article on Persistent Energy Partners (PEP) and its first acquisition in Ghana. In part one, Christopher Aidun, PEP’s managing partner, discussed the strategy behind the fund (formerly E+Co) and its focus on off-grid solar technologies. In this post, we take a closer look at PEP’s first […]
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 […]
Private Schools are Bridging Crucial Gaps for the Poor
When Mohammed Khan, a local businessman in the Indian city of Hyderabad, read in his newspaper that there was an entire neighbourhood of professional beggars with no access to school, he resolved to build one. Not only that, he managed to persuade the parents that classes for their children were worth paying for. Charging as […]
In Defence of Fair Trade
The School of African and Asian Studies – SOAS – has just produced a coruscating critique of fair trade. The research report is based on field work among wage workers on coffee and flower farms in Ethiopia and Uganda. It finds ‘unambiguously’ that Fairtrade has made no positive difference to wage workers. It finds that […]
Three Ways to Bridge the Employability Gap
What are the skills needed for employability in the 21st century economy? And what innovative models are needed to deliver these skills to students? In early 2012, Results for Development Institute (R4D) embarked on a research study that examined the skills needed for employment in Africa and Asia. This two year project, funded by the […]
Fashion Industry Workers: Shock Absorbers Or Assets?
The problem of bad labour conditions in the garment supply chain is quite straightforward. If brands and retailers direct orders to wherever they get the best combination of (lowest) price, quality and delivery, suppliers have two choices. Either they constantly increase their efficiency in order to lower unit costs, or they constantly cut every cost […]
Social Innovators: Healthy Soil Makes Healthy People
Howard Buffett’s recent book, 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World, shares two interrelated insights: that a farmer gets to produce around 40 annual harvests in her lifetime, and that living soils play an absolutely essential role in her and future generations’ abilities increase that harvest each year. Will a small farmer in Africa […]
How Can We Strengthen Food Security In South-East Asia?
This week at the World Economic Forum on East Asia, held in the Philippines, the region’s governments and senior leaders will explore ways to accelerate sustainable agricultural growth and achieve food security through market-based multistakeholder initiatives Home to 600 million people, South-East Asia has enjoyed vibrant and fast-paced growth. The member states of the Association […]
Announcing the Business Fights Poverty Design Expo 2014
A creative revolution is underway around the design of products and services that transform the lives of poor people. But perhaps the most exciting activity is around combining design innovation with business model innovation, so that social impact can be achieved on a massive scale. With 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty, it is […]
Real Change: How Mobile Tech is Transforming Africa
For years analysts have said that “Africa is Rising,” but now it’s really happening. With an expanding population and steady economic growth, social enterprise in Africa is today seeing real returns on investment. This “double-bottom line” success — financial plus humanitarian gains — is drawing new attention to Africa to not only advance, but also […]