NextBillion

The Edmond de Rothschild foundation, based in Switzerland is exploring opportunities to partner with like-minded foundations in India to increase their work in the country. A network of 12 foundations spread across France, Spain, USA and Israel is at the pivotal point of transitioning from a traditional charity giving approach to strategic...

As we watch business leaders struggling to adjust to the "new normal" of the global economy, we can't help thinking of the economic transition India began almost 20 years ago. The changes that India struggled to cope with, such as slowing domestic growth, increasing globalization, and an uncertain political and...

Backed by strong support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) Charities Trust, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has brought together multi-disciplinary expertise for the establishment of Hong Kong's first Design Institute for Social Innovation. The new establishment will be called the "Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation" (JCDISI)....

Santosh Nagar is almost a city within a city. Inside this sprawling slum in Mumbai's north-western suburbs are rows of houses that sit cheek by jowl with each other. Over 20,000 residents run businesses from tailoring to soap making in its narrow, labyrinthine bylanes. There are almost half a dozen...

Microfinance Focus, January 17, 2012: Bob Annibale is Global Director of Citi Microfinance and Community Development. He leads Citi's commercial relationships with microfinance institutions, networks and investors across the globe. Bob also represents Citi on the Board of the Microfinance Information Exchange, the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds, the SEEP Network,...

'Why or how could anyone want to make shoes in a place full of so much poverty and corruption?' That's the question many people asked Canadian Tal Dehtiar when he founded Oliberté Footwear, the first company to make premium shoes in Africa using African materials and explicitly linking shoes sold by Western retailers to...

India plans to launch a $1 billion fund by June-July, with an initial capital of Rs 5 billion, to invest in innovations that can generate services and products to uplift the poor, a top government official told reporters on Monday. "We need to provide money to those who have ideas but...

It's late December and an icy fog cloaks the northeastern state of Uttar Pradesh. Here, far from the cities, smoke rises in dense, choking spirals from meagre wood fires and scantily-clad children shiver against the cold. These are largely farming families, and their mud huts fortified by the occasional brick...

NEW YORK, Oct. 27 /CSRwire/ - Solar Ear founder and CEO Howard Weinstein was selected as social entrepreneur of the year by World Technology Network. The announcement was made at the awards banquet held at the close of the World Technology Summit and Awards in New York City Wednesday night....

In the two years since the earthquake, several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have used Haiti's nascent mobile money services to deliver cash to people in need. These programs have been among only a handful of global examples (14 were identified worldwide) of cash distribution using mobile money and represent an important...

A Chinese, Latin American, and North American student are sitting in a classroom. The teacher pulls out a map of Africa, and asks 'tell me what you see". The Chinese student speaks of opportunity and business; South African steel, Congolese minerals, and Angolan oil to power his country's growth, and...

Case study highlights challenges facing the nascent social investing sector and explores ways to face them. ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Social investing. Impact Investing. Patient capital. That the idea itself has more than one name underscores the challenges facing an industry that seeks to invest in and grow companies that measure wealth both by...

Much of the media coverage of Haiti's post-earthquake rehabilitation has focused on the role played by the international community and aid donors. But on the second anniversary of the earthquake, the island's narrative may be slowly shifting from one of aid dependency to one of proactive self-help. The government is embarking on a multipronged...

Read the news, and initial reports about the Horn of Africa1 are grim with famine and conflict dominating the headlines. But despite a food crisis and flare-ups of violence, key areas of the economy are growing steadily. Even in the face of limited infrastructure, large numbers of young Somalis are embracing...

When Connie Duckworth flew into Kabul for the first time in 2003, the city below "looked like Berlin after World War II," she says. Since that visit with the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council-a non-partisan initiative tasked with supporting Afghan women-Duckworth has devoted her life and career to rebuilding Afghanistan, carpet by carpet....

A five-year programme rewards entrepreneurship across East Africa by supporting micro-businesses to establish energy services and create employment opportunities in rural areas. Willy Bamwenyena, 25, stands out as a young resourceful entrepreneur, who has been able to identify the energy gap in his community, in rural Uganda, and turned the need...

Urban India generates 40 million tons of rubbish each year, a figure that is growing by more than two million tons ever year. Just 25 percent of that rubbish is collected by government contractors and there is little recycling; the rest is dumped and left to rot, producing methane, which...

We're kicking off our search for businesses to profile in our fourth annual roundup of America's most promising social entrepreneurs. The idea is to find and report on business ventures that advance a social or environmental mission and aim to turn a profit. We're asking readers to suggest candidates using...

30 Second MBA featuring Yasmina Zaidman, Director of Communications, Acumen Fund. ...

Economists are not alone in their worry of an impending higher education bubble bust. Given the drastic increase in cost and decrease in relevance of a college degree over the past decades,Ashoka U Exchange participants - faculty and students across disciplines, administrators and social entrepreneurs - are united in their conviction...