Doing business with the poor
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Saraman builds earthquake- proof houses in Iran
Saraman, a start-up company in Isfahan, central Iran, is an example of addressing housing and construction challenges in a profitable way. The company designs, fabricates and erects affordable, earthquake-proof pre-fabricated steel structures for houses, schools and hospitals.
Reuters Market Light: Creating Efficient Markets
Reuters Market Light (RML), a business incubated by Thomson Reuters, is a pioneering mobile phone-based agri information service provider. The service is designed to provide farmers with personalised timely and actionable agricultural information from pre-sowing to post-harvest stages through SMS...
Pot-in-pot Enterprise: Fridge for the Poor
In 2000, Mohammed Bah Abba was awarded the Rolex Award for Enterprise for his innovative Pot-in-Pot system to provide affordable, electricity free, refrigeration in arid Nigeria.
Vaatsalya Hospitals: Affordable Healthcare in Proximity
Vaatsalya is a for-profit chain of hospitals and clinics which aims to provide quality healthcare to semi-urban and rural areas and was started by doctors-turned-entrepreneurs Ashwin Naik and Veerendra Hiremath in 2005.
Allianz, UNDP and GTZ partner for a three-country study on Micro-insurance
In 2006, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) approached Allianz to work together on a market potential study to analyse the demand, acceptability and affordability of microinsurance products.
Ouro Verde is part of the New Ventures initiative at the World Resources Institute
Brazilian entrepreneur Luis Laranja's company, Ouro Verde, is part of the New Ventures initiative at the World Resources Institute. New Ventures works with small and medium enterprises that have positive environmental impacts, and helps grow environmental entrepreneurship in emerging markets.
Private Sector Supply-Chains Incorporating Social Enterprises
Some big businesses are currently active in the social business and enterprise sector using their skills to help entrepreneurs improve their business skills.
Corporate charitable partnerships come alive with Five Talents
Five Talents UK, a microfinance charity, has secured several corporate partnerships which have had a transformative effect.
WaterCredit Initiative: Connecting Micro-finance to Water and Sanitation
The WaterCredit Initiative is an initiative of WaterCredit Partners, an organisation with a long history of providing grants to assist communities with water supply and sanitation (WSS) services.
MDI Betterday Fairtrade Products: Better Quality, Better Health and Better for Society
MDI is a young and small 20 staff company specialized in equitable trade of agricultural products, including coffee, green tea, jasmine tea, snow mountain tea and cashews grown in eight provinces across Vietnam under the trademark Betterday Fairtrade. Production and primary processing of products...
Partnerships allow Maison Energy to provide energy to rural communities in Morocco
About two million people live without access to electricity in Morocco, mostly in remote rural areas where scattered and unevenly distributed homes make their connection to the national power grid difficult. As a solution, the National Office of Electricity (ONE) opted for a decentralized system of...
Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts: Crafting a Brighter Tomorrow for Disavantaged Women and Minorities in Vietnam
Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts (MVH) is a small and successful business, founded in 1990 by two passionate and energetic women. Building on the belief that social development is intricately tied to economic self‐reliance, Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts reaches out to artisans in underdeveloped areas and...
Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE): Linking Small-Scale Farmers to National and Regional Markets
KACE is the first and only national agricultural commodity exchange in Kenya, and it differentiates itself by dealing with a variety of commodities of which maize and beans are the most heavily traded. KACE acting as an intermediary further empowers rural farmers with market information and...
International Development Enterprise partner with Government to provide low cost irrigation technologies in Nepal
International Development Enterprise (IDE) is a development organization that operates in 11 countries worldwide with the aim of creating income opportunities for poor rural households in developing countries. IDE Nepal was established in 1992 with the aim of developing low-cost irrigation...
Turkish Trailblazer: Boosting Rural Areas through Business Investment
This is a study about a female entrepreneur in Turkey who achieved business success by breaking from the conventional practices preferred by others in her industry and investing in poorer parts of Turkey. Clothing, the industry in which the entrepreneur is operating, is one of the Turkish economy’s...
Multinational Corporations fund Hathay Bunano Proshikshan Society (HBPS), an NGO trying to promote the emploment of women in Bangladesh
While many NGOs in Bangladesh try to generate employment for the poor through microcredit, Hathay Bunano Proshikhan Samity (HBPS) chose to provide direct employment opportunities for poor women in rural areas, with special preference given to disadvantaged groups. Since 2005, the company produces...
Ecotact: Affordable Sanitation Services in Pleasant Surroundings in Kenya
Under the Ikotoilet project, Ecotact builds and operates high-quality, public, pay-per-use toilet and shower facilities on public land in urban centers with particular emphasis in the most disadvantaged areas such as urban slums.
Small Croatian enterprise becomes organic food production champion
“Eco Farm Mavrović” Ltd. is a small enterprise settled in one of most war affected areas in Croatia that started with a clear vision to change public perception of health through organic food production and consumption. Eco Farm Mavrović is an organic grain and animal farm.
Creating Value For All: Community-Based Tourism in Kyrgyzstan
Community-based tourism (CBT)-a type of a tourism that is owned and managed by the local community and its members- has emerged as a mechanism to facilitate locally based tourism activities in many developing countries, including the Kyrgyz Republic. The first CBT group was established in May 2000...
Beijing Shengchang Bioenergy S&T Co.: A Leading Bio-Energy Benefits Both Business Itself and Local Farmers in Beijing
Agricultural waste was previously just waste, burned outside in winter. It needs a lot of labour to handle and also produces severe environmental problems. This successful business converts agricultural waste into a valuable product. Beijing Shengchang Bioenergy S&T Co., Ltd. (SBST) is a...