Digital Archive....

Dear governments: Want to help the poor and transform your economy? Give people cash. Chris Blattman I've just finished a new paper with a clunky title (the kind that economics referees hopefully love), Credit Constraints, Occupational Choice, and the Process of Development: Long Run Evidence from Cash Transfers in Uganda . It's with Nathan Fiala and Sebastian Martinez. We tackle one of the big questions in development: How to create jobs and speed up the shift from agriculture to industry in developing countries? We look for answers not at the macro level, but with a field experiment and micro-level data in Uganda. Countries like Uganda have mostly young, poor, populations. No one is unemployed. If you have no income, you're in trouble. So you scrape by doing odd jobs and low return activities. The real problems are underemployment (not enough hours) and low productivity employment (low return, low wage work). So how do you create "good...

Where Is the BOP Health Care Fortune? SSIR Opinion & Analysis By Andy Thornton The bottom of the pyramid (BOP) is a big market; that's its appeal. Its allure lies in its potential for social impact, new customers, and profits. But like any big market, it can—and indeed must—be segmented by social enterprises that seek to tap that potential. I saw this put into action first hand in our recent global study of healthcare social enterprises. The market is getting carved up, and early front-runners are accessing the easiest profits, not necessarily serving the highest need. I don't believe this system is intrinsically a problem—quality healthcare services to any part of the BOP are innately valuable. However, market builders and funders must be clear about which segment of the BOP their activities are benefitting, and they should innovate to ensure that those at the very bottom do not get left behind. An Indian impact investor broke it down for m...

Citizens Against Corruption: What Works? Findings from 200 projects in 53 Countries From Poverty to Power by Duncan Green I attended a panel + booklaunch on the theme of ' Citizens Against Corruption ' at the ODI last week. After all the recent agonizing and self-doubt of the  results debate ('really, do we know anything about the impact of our work? How can we be sure?'), it was refreshing to be carried away on a wave of conviction and passion. The author of the book, Pierre Landell-Mills is in no doubt – citizen action can have a massive impact in countering corruption and improving the lives of poor people, almost irrespective of the political context. The book captures the experience of the Partnership for Transparency Fund , set up by Pierre in 2000. It summarizes experiences from 200 case studies in 53 countries. This has included everything from using boy scouts to stop the 'disappearance' of textbooks in the Philippines to i...

USAID and Dispensers for Safe Water Announce $5.5 million Partnership Innovations for Poverty Action Blog Alexandra Fielden   Women in the remote village of Markuny in Kenya are taking the lead and treating their families' drinking water. This was not always the case; Markuny used to be one of the many places in the world where waterborne diseases are commonplace. Globally, diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five. To address the global challenge of sickness from cholera, diarrhea and typhoid, Innovations for Poverty Action developed the chlorine dispenser system – a low-cost technology proven to dramatically increase rates of household water treatment, decreasing the burden of waterborne disease. Today, USAID's Administrator, Rajiv Shah, announced an award from USAID's Development Innovation Ventures  (DIV) to support the scale-up of the Dispe...

New service makes it easier to provide direct aid to international charities Philanthropy Journal - All Articles NGOsource recently launched a new service that makes it easier for donors and grantmakers to provide international aid. While such philanthropy used to be fraught with risk, there now is increased assurance that funds directed thousands of miles away will be managed by a foreign non-government organization (NGO) that meets the rigorous standards imposed on tax-exempt organizations in the U.S. read more

The Power of a Simple and Inclusive Definition SSIR Opinion & Analysis By Elizabeth Garlow & Rich Tafel It's no secret that the social entrepreneur movement is characterized by confusing and often-contradictory definitions—for example, nonprofits that charge a fee for service and for-profits that have a social impact. Our failure to adequately define the social entrepreneur movement has made it inaccessible to the very communities where cutting-edge innovation is likely to come from. Attempts at clear definitions are not new. In Stanford Social Innovation Review 's spring 2007 article " Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition ," Rotman School of Management's Roger Martin and Skoll Foundation's Sally Osberg made a pioneering attempt at defining the field of social entrepreneurship. It uses apt phrases such as "unjust equilibrium," "transformative benefit," "social value proposition,...

Impact Investing: New Enterprises and Collaborations SSIR Opinion & Analysis By Jenna Nicholas Last week, impact investors and social entrepreneurs gathered from around the country in San Francisco, Calif., for Investors' Circle —an early-stage impact-investing network. Hundreds of angels, venture capitalists, and foundations comprise the group, which has invested in a large number of social enterprises dedicated to improving the environment, education, health, and community. From hundreds of social enterprises that applied to present at the conference, only fifteen were selected to make a formal pitch. Between these pitches and an array of informational booths, investors could learn more about individual projects and companies, then debrief and compare notes. A few enterprises that stood out were Grampower , which sets up smart microgrids in remote areas to provide on-demand, reliable electricity to telecom towers and rural households with...