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Technology at the Edge: Low-tech, near-term examples
Several new technology innovations developed specifically for BOP markets are already making a noticeable impact. KickStart (formerly ApproTech) has been developing and promoting such technologies since 1991, with the explicit goal of helping entrepreneurs in East Africa establish and run...
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Cheap, but are they marketable?
Two articles about low-cost cell phones were posted to the Newsroom this week. The first talks about plans by the GSM Association’s Emerging Market Handset Program to purchase 6 million of Motorola’s new phones, expected to wholesale below $30. The article mentions several other chip and...
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Technology Innovations at the Edge
BOP markets used to be regarded, if they were regarded by large corporations at all, mostly as a place to unload excess or obsolete product. That has changed, as I will attempt to illustrate in this and following posts. What I am suggesting is that low-income, predominantly rural communities...
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Taxes and the Digital Divide – Serious Problems
As an economist and self-styled BOP researcher, I’ve always been interested in the effect of technology on efficiency, price competition, and cost-of-living at the BOP. WRI, through its now-sunset Digital Dividend project, studied the effect of technology on low-income communities for years,...
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Sachet Marketing – the Best Strategy?
Trendwatching.com recently posted a good piece on Sachet Marketing, a BOP strategy already being used successfully to sell a variety of consumer products ranging from soap to cell phone minutes. The approach involves serving up products, services and loans in affordable portions, sachets or...
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The Myth of CSR
A controversial title, to be sure. The Myth of CSR (PDF), published in thismonth’s issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, identifies a keytruth about corporate social responsibility while failing to take the next step. Deborah Doane hits quickly on CSR’s underlyingfallacy:...
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An Enabling Environment for Doing Business?
The World Bank’s annual Doing Business report carries the subtitle “Creating Jobs” this year (free overview available - PDF). Its indicators - using data comparable across a remarkable 155 countries - can be used to analyze how governments encourage or inhibit investment,...
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MNC.org – Meet NGO Inc
All Paths Lead to the BOP, by Jeb Brugmann originally appeared in the September issue of Alliance Magazine.While the media and public discourse has been accentuating the divide between the private sector and civil society, the trend in practice has been towards convergence. NGOs and...
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