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Brazil’s Cash Transfer Scheme Improving the Lives of the Poorest
Rumour has it that when senior civil servants at the Department for International Development (DfID) tried to interest the development secretary Andrew Mitchell in cash transfers, they couldn’t get anywhere. One morning he came across a column by my colleague Aditya Chakrabortty and was converted. Within a short space of time the "must rea...
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- Latin America
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Brazil bank oversight under fire
Brazil’s central bank is being urged to strengthen its oversight of the banking sector after it alleged that Banco Panamericano, a medium-sized bank by assets, had concealed losses of about R$1bn (US$580m), apparently resulting from high rates of customer default at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Shares in Panamericano fell by 30 per cent on Wednesday after the bank’s difficulties became public and its management was replaced. But they rallied by 8 p...
- Region
- Latin America
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IGNIA Fund Invests MX$38.1 million in Barafon, a BoP Public Telecommunications Provider
MONTERREY, Mexico , Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- IGNIA Fund I, LP, the first impact investing fund in Latin America , announced today that it has invested MX$38.1 million ( US$3.1 million ) in Servicios Caseteros S.A.P.I. de C.V. ("Barafon"), a provider of public telephony and related services to low income populations in Mexico through a networ...
- Region
- Latin America
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The New Normal: Haiti After the Earthquake
It’s amazing how quickly things can return to normal. You wouldn’t know it from watching CNN, but big segments of life in Haiti, including in the capital, Port au Prince, which suffered the greatest damage, have returned to what would have been considered normal in the days and months before the quake. There is plenty of destruction still evident, and tens or even hundreds of thousands of people living in tents or under blue plastic tarpaulins throu...
- Region
- Latin America
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The Candy Bar at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Should Big Food Be Delivered to the Amazon?
Last week, Nestle, the world’s largest food company, launched a barge called Nestlé Até Você a Bordo - or Nestlé Takes You Onboard - on an 18-day voyage up the Amazon River in Brazil. This so-called floating supermarket will bring more than 300 well-known Nestlé brands, including Ninho (packaged milk), Maggi (soups and seasonings) and Nescafé (instant coffe...
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- Latin America
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IGNIA Completes Closing of Fund I at US$102 Million
MONTERREY, Mexico, June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- IGNIA Fund I, LP Latin America’s first and largest impact investing fund, announced today that after seven rounds, it has concluded its fundraising process having reached US$102 million to serve businesses at the base of the socio-economic pyramid. This last round was led by J.P. Morgan with a US$5 million commitment and by Corporacion Mexicana de Inversiones de Capital (Fond...
- Region
- Latin America
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Nestle to Sail Amazon Rivers to Reach Emerging-Market Consumers
Nestle SA will begin sailing a supermarket barge down two Amazon river tributaries tomorrow as it competes with Unilever to reach emerging-market customers cut off from branded goods. The world’s largest food company will send a boat with 100-square meters (1,076 square feet) of supermarket space on a journey to 18 small cities and 800,000 potential consumers on the Para a...
- Region
- Latin America
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Slim, Gates Team Up on Health in Mexico, Central America
Carlos Slim and Bill Gates are working together to fight poverty in Mexico and Central America. The two richest men in the world announced the $150 million 2015 Meso-American Health Initiative today at a press conference at the Museo National de Antropologia in Mexico City. Slim and Gates, who will each donate $50 ...
- Region
- Latin America
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