Beyond income: Understanding the BoP from an access to development perspective
No matter how much practitioners agree on quantifying the Base Of the Pyramid (BOP) based on their access to development and basic needs, we still seem to be loosing the battle against income threshold fundamentalists. Beyond the traditional controversies calculating purchasing power parity (PPP) income measurements, due in part to the lack of comparable basket […]
GSK & Save the Children Partnership: From Ambition to Action
The High Level Panel on the post-2015 development framework submitted its report yesterday (Thursday 30 May), giving the first indications of the settlement that will replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire two years from now. The debate has featured discussions on everything from plankton abundance to WiFi access, but one issue that stands […]
Sustainable Food Production – A 21st Century Revolution
I grew up on a small farm, living on less than a dollar a day per person. I was lucky—we had a big garden, an orchard, raised some of our own meat, and hunted and fished for most of the rest. Years later, I worked with refugees and famine victims, seeing firsthand the impacts of […]
Gyapa Stoves project cuts a record amount of carbon and improves lives
This week, the Gyapa Stoves project, run by Relief International, announced it had cut a record amount of carbon emissions. ClimateCare has long advocated integrated Climate and Development projects like this, designed from the outset to protect the environment and improve people’s lives. Since 2007, nearly half a million Gyapa™ stoves have been sold, impacting […]
An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Food Production
TechnoServe As Eshetu Abote, a member of the Shegole coffee farming cooperative in western Ethiopia, crouches near his maize (corn) crop, the difference is apparent. The shorter plants – cultivated using traditional methods – barely reach his shoulder. The taller plants have benefited from training given during monthly sessions supported by TechnoServe’s team, which is […]
Unleashing Africa’s Lions
In Thomas L. Friedman’s book The World is Flat, he uses a proverb to describe today’s globalized economy: Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle […]
Business and the UN MDGs Post 2015 – Changing context: Business opportunity
In less than 1000 days, the world is due to keep true to its promise to the deliver the UN Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs), the framework that almost 200 governments signed up to in 2000 to address the most pressing issues of the world’s poorest by 2015. Much has been achieved but there is still […]
Defining a New Development Framework that Strengthens the Contribution of Business
Since 2000 and the launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sub-Saharan Africa’s citizens have experienced growing stability and security alongside a sustained and widespread economic transformation that has lifted millions out of poverty. Despite these advances, progress across a broad range of MDG indicators remains frustratingly slow and uneven. At a time when aid […]
What are the most promising Base of the Pyramid business models in Latin America?
Housing, education and banking, increasingly through mobile technology, are three of the fastest growing areas for private companies doing business with the Base of the Pyramid. Thanks to creative and also profitable new business models, low-income Colombians living outside the formal banking system are buying homes and appliances like fridges and washing machines on credit, […]
Camfed and Pearson launch partnership for girls' education
We are delighted to announce a pioneering new partnership between Camfed and Pearson to transform educational opportunities for girls in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.The Camfed-Pearson partnership has been awarded a grant under the prestigious Girls’ Education Challenge, launched by the UK’s Department for International Development to give one million of the world’s poorest girls the chance […]
Camfed and Pearson launch partnership for girls’ education
We are delighted to announce a pioneering new partnership between Camfed and Pearson to transform educational opportunities for girls in Zimbabwe and Tanzania.The Camfed-Pearson partnership has been awarded a grant under the prestigious Girls’ Education Challenge, launched by the UK’s Department for International Development to give one million of the world’s poorest girls the chance […]
The SunWater Project – Advanced Solar Technology for Poor Farmers
In my last article, you heard about SunWater, a project to build a radically affordable solar water pump for $2-a-day farmers that will transform small plot agriculture, create new water markets, and significantly increase incomes that will raise bottom-of-the-pyramid families out of poverty. Our target customers are small-plot farmers in India and Africa. These farmers […]
How Using Mobile Payment Systems Can Increase Your Revenue And Help You Keep Track Of Sales
In several developing and emerging markets, the use of mobile phones to make financial transactions (‘mobile money’) is now widely accepted, including by those at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP)*. The largest telecoms provider in Africa, MTN, transfers close to $208 million across their networks every month, according to its CEO Themba Khumalo. […]
Pearson hosts brainstorming on affordable learning
Pearson HQ on The Strand here in London was the site on 9 May for a brainstorming session on the challenges facing affordable learning in the developing world. A keynote by Charles Leadbeater, a thought leader on innovation, was followed by discussion of how to make the most of mobile technology to make learning affordable […]
Getting Paid – The Value of Using Mobile Payment Systems
In several developing and emerging markets, the use of mobile phones to make financial transactions (‘mobile money’) is now widely accepted, including by those at the base of the economic pyramid (BoP)*. The largest telecoms provider in Africa, MTN, transfers close to $208 million across their networks every month, according to its CEO Themba Khumalo. […]
Transforming Solar Pumping to Eliminate Rural Poverty
What if we could harness the limitless power of the sun to carry water to the crops of millions of small poor farmers around the world? If I want to water my petunias, I turn on the tap outside my house, hold my thumb over the end of a battered green hose, and water away. […]
Creating Opportunities in Rural East Africa
For most young people in rural communities in Africa, opportunities are scarce. With only 28 percent of Africa’s labor force holding stable wage-paying jobs, and most of those concentrated in urban areas, rural life can appear to offer little prospect for advancement. On a recent trip to Kenya, I met 26-year-old Alice Micere from Njukiini, […]
Building an early stage ecosystem for Africa’s growing community of entrepreneurs
VC4Africa is building a leading peer-to-peer network that connects African based entrepreneurs with the resources (network, knowledge and capital) they require to realize their potential. Last week we announced the launch of DEMO Africa 2013, the second time this landmark event will take place on the continent, and already we are receiveing some quality applications. […]
An Industrial Concept for the BoP: Affordable Fire and Earthquake Resistant Houses
The recent earthquakes show that not earthquakes are killing most people but the insufficient built houses. Glass reinforced pipes are very popular in the gas, oil and water industry as they are heat resistant, lightweight and almost indestructible. They consist of sand (50%) polyester resin (30%) and glass fiber (20%). With diameters up to 4 […]
Challenging conventional wisdom in Africa: Unilever and TEDxEuston
Unilever’s state of the art savoury foods plant at Riverhorse Valley in Durban, South Africa Any business that is in Africa for the long term needs to become part of efforts to drive equitable and sustainable growth. Doing this while simultaneously developing new products to meet the rapidly changing needs of a growing, urbanising, and […]