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This Week: Renewable Energy Fights Poverty, Makes Great Coffee
The New Ventures Entrepreneur of the Week series continues with a feature on the Solar Trade Corporation (STC), a rapidly growing business that sells solar-powered coffee dryers to farmers in Mexico and Central America. For this piece I interviewed VP Richard Trubey, who somehow made a huge...
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Remittances – My Two Cents
Remittances are not a substitute for aid, but their aggregate size encourages positive private sector activity that helps the BOP. This was my first thought when I saw Ignacio?s posting at the Poverty and Growth blog. He quotes the World Bank?s Raj Nallari, who criticizes government...
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The Race to the Top: Re-Framing Corporate Competition
I was just finishing college in the late 90s when I first heard of the phrase ?race to the bottom?. A few activist friends of mine had arranged a screening of Global Village or Global Pillage, an award-winning documentary that examined the harsh consequences of unchecked globalization. ...
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Microcredit: More Harm Than Good?
Thomas Dichter, a returned Peace Corps volunteer and development consultant to USAID and the World Bank, has written what Alex aptly calls a ?provocative and controversial essay?in which he claims that microcredit is not nearly as good a tool as it’s made out to be, and that what the...
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Sustainable Business & Biodiversity
Just a short posting for those of you interested on what is being done to scale up biodiversity friendly businesses.? This was sent me to me by Mareike Hussels my colleague?at WRI’s New Ventures program, a business accellerator for sustainable business.? She attended an event?in Brazil on...
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Is Base of the Pyramid Mainstream? Two Sites Suggest Yes
Sara?s recent post about the mainstreaming of green investment got me thinking about the mainstreaming of base of the pyramid (BOP) trends. Is it fair to use that word for such a niche hypothesis? Two projects, both with new web sites, suggest that it may be. Enterprise for a...
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New Ventures at Latin American Venture Capital Association Meeting
Three members of the New Ventures team (Virginia Barreiro, Mareike Hussels, and Rodrigo Villar) attended the recent Latin American Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) meeting in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The conference featured more than 20 speakers from venture capital firms and development...
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Success at the Intersection of Globalization and the Internet
E-commercehas long been hailed as a means of providing sustainable livelihoods toartisans in developing countries. Historically, these artisans havemarketed their wares directly to local consumers, tourists and toexport markets. To reach these global markets, local artisans have...
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