Following is the second of a Two-Part Series written by guest blogger Ryan Gunderson after a recent trip to rural Zambia.

Ryan is a business professional with Medtronic, the world's leading medical technology company.  He earned a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He writes about sustainable, scalable solutions to end global poverty on his blog Riches For Good and is actively pursuing his goal to help 1 million people out of poverty during his lifetime.

By Ryan Gunderson

I met Blessings and Francis in October 2008 when I visited the church they both attend in Lusaka, Zambia.  Although some 90 people were in attendance, Blessings and Francis stood out to me for the obvious reason that they were the only two speakers in the main meeting that day. Before Sunday school I introduced myself to all who were present, and I told them I was traveling with a non-governmental organization (NGO) and would be visiting rural farmers in Zambia to help them increase their incomes. 

Intrigued by the purpose of my trip, Francis invited me to his house after church, and I gladly accepted.  Blessings separately invited me to his house; the three of us traveled to Francis' house, where we spoke for about an hour.  I'm pictured below with Blessings (suit) and Francis, and several members of Francis' family.

I shared my goal to help 1 million people out of poverty and asked Blessings and Francis for any suggestions.  They each shared their opinion that many people have ideas for small businesses, but they lack startup capital. 

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Attending the "VI Inter-American Conference on CSR: The Business of Inclusion" in Cartagena was a great opportunity to draw a parallel between the nascent BoP/ Development through Enterprise movement in Latin America and the one in the English-speaking world, which I've had the chance to dive deeper into in the course of this year.

Following is a brief summary of my impressions and three main takeaways from the conference.

1. Lots of "top down"; not as many "bottom up" approaches

Most of the Latin American examples of business activity tackling the problems of poverty still come from MNCs and big corporations, in general. In fact, most of the panels, sessions and exhibition stands at the conference featured big companies that are the usual suspects of BoP activity in these countries (think CEMEX, Codensa, Colcerámica, etc.)

It is thus understandable that the title of the conference blends the concepts of CSR and BoP activity. Slowly but steadily, CSR is being viewed as a stepping stone towards making low income markets part of the business strategy of corporations. However, the conversations about entrepreneurial solutions to the problems of poverty are still not as strong, which shows that the ecosystem of support for these ventures (investment funds, venture philanthropists, enterprise development organizations, etc.) is still in the process of formation and will hopefully learn from the path walked by its counterpart in countries like the United States or India.

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Following is the first of a Two-Part Series written by guest blogger Ryan Gunderson after a recent trip to rural Zambia.

Ryan is a business professional with Medtronic, the world's leading medical technology company.  He earned a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He writes about sustainable, scalable solutions to end global poverty on his blog Riches For Good and is actively pursuing his goal to help 1 million people out of poverty during his lifetime.

By Ryan Gunderson

Mr. Hakawale is a farmer who lives along the banks of the Magoye River with his family in rural Zambia.  Up until 1997, he cultivated a small plot of land, watering his crops by hand with a bucket.  When I visited Mr. Hakawale in October 2008 as a guest on IDE's annual board trip, he gave us all a great history lesson of irrigation on his farm, starting by holding up a rusted out metal bucket he used years ago, shown in the picture below.

In 1997, Mr. Hakawale met a representative of IDE (short for International Development Enterprises), a Colorado-based non-profit that has been helping rural farmers in the developing world to increase their incomes since the 1980s.

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Guest Blogger Lesley Pories is a Deshpande Foundation Sandbox Fellow, working with the Water Literacy Foundation in India.

Before taking on this role, Lesley worked as a Research Analyst with the People and Ecosystems Program at the World Resources Institute. A graduate of Emory University, she double-majored in International Studies and English and minored in French.

By Lesley Pories

Social entrepreneurship is the key to growth in India.  So believes Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, one of a notable number of Indians who honed their own entrepreneurship skills to profit from India's burgeoning IT sector back in the 1990s.  Co-founder and Chairman of Sycamore Networks, Deshpande is convinced that it is social entrepreneurs who will push India to the next level, and he's doing his part to ensure that this happens.

The Deshpande Foundation, the family foundation of Desh and Jaishree Deshpande, is headquartered near Boston, MA and focuses on promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and growth in the northern part of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the native region of both husband and wife. The Foundation focuses its efforts on five districts of northern Karnataka, which it has nicknamed the "Sandbox."  This name was not given because of the area's desert composition (it's not a desert), but rather as a symbol of what it hopes to achieve through its programs in the area.

A sandbox (a popular playground structure in America which, ironically, does not exist in India) is a space, defined by four walls, in which children use the sand to create.  In the same way, The Deshpande Foundation strives to nurture local people and organizations to create new structures that can lead to positive development within a confined space. 

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Today we are announcing the launch of NextBillion en Español, a new forum to promote and discuss inclusive business models that enhance and dignify the lives of the poor in Latin America.

As said in my last post, we are launching it with the coverage of the Interamerican Conference on Inclusive Business, whose opening ceremony kicks off in exactly 10 minutes, in Cartagena Colombia. 

Conceptually, it shares the spirit and intention of this site NextBillion.net, although focusing on the specific challenges of Latin America. Visually, you can consider this new blog a modest preview of what the "new NextBillion.net" will look like once we launch it it early 2009. In fact, the Spanish section will be fullly integrated into NextBillion.net under the new website.

A big THANK YOU goes to Rob Katz and and Manuel Bueno for their support and ideas. Also to the members of the Network for Inclusive Markets (AVINA and FUNDES) who are key promoters of this initiative and will be instrumental in the purpose of developing local and relevant content for the site.  

If you are interested in reading more about the thinking that went behind the decision of launching this new effort, I encourage you to read past the break.

Your ideas, suggestions, criticism, etc. are more welcome than ever.

Hasta pronto!

I'm writing from Cartagena, Colombia, where "The Business of Inclusion" conference will take place later this week. The conference is organized by the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Multilateral Investment Fund (FOMIN) and NextBillion has been invited to cover the discussions that will take place during the next few days as a media sponsor. As someone whose interest is contributing to a stronger and more maningful development-through-enterprise movement in Latin America, I am grateful for this opportunity.

There are two aspects of the conference I am particularly excited about. First, WRI will co-host a panel on Friday, in which we want to highlight creative and entrepreneurial solutions to some of the most pressing challenges faced by our society. Also hosting the panel will be AVINA, one of the largest private foundations in the region, and FUNDES, a key actor in the local enterprise development space.

The three organizations form the Network for Inclusive Markets, through which we intend to identify scalable business models serving the base of the pyramid in key sectors and mobilize key actors for their implementation in Latin America.

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Guest blogger Francesca van der Feltz is a graduating MS student with a focus in Asian Regional Business Environment at Thunderbird School of Global Management. She is the Net Impact president and Service Corps non-profit consulting leader on campus.

She earned a BA in journalism from Arizona State with focuses on political science, economics and law, and published front-page articles with the Arizona Republic's data team. She studied Dutch in the Netherlands and is learning Mandarin Chinese. She now focuses on sustainable trade and business practices in Asia.

By Francesca van der Feltz

Searching for amazing win-win solutions is a lofty goal, and my search at the Net Impact conference began with a session that explored the stake businesses have in supporting economic development and stable societies in the locations in which they operate. The panelists came from notable diplomatic and development organizations, and they each had a unique angle to discuss based on the programs they work in.

Business as a peacebuilder

The first panelist to present was Melissa Powell, head of strategy and partnerships for the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), where she leads the work on business and peace and UN-business partnerships. Powell articulated the UN's view of the private sector's role in conflict prevention and peace building, saying the private sector is a stakeholder in society and should therefore work actively to create a sustainable and fair global economy. Powell pointed out that business by nature has an interest in stable environments that allow for strategic decision-making.

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Guest blogger Bree Olivari is a second-year MBA candidate at Thunderbird Global School of Management and is a leader of the Net Impact chapter. At Thunderbird, Bree integrates her interest in sustainable business with her degree in supply chain leadership. Her projects include mapping best practices of supplier codes of ethics, organizing Thunderbird's Sustainable Innovation Summit and greening procurement practices on campus.

During a recent internship Bree helped design the distribution of micronutrient sachets to undernourished children in Mexico.

By Bree Olivari

As I bit into an apple provided in my Net Impact lunch box, my mind wandered to the farm it came from and how this juicy treat related to a growing and global food crisis. It is expected that such a thought cross my mind especially since the details from the session I attended at the Net Impact National Conference hours earlier entitled "The Global Food Crisis: Business-Led Solutions to Alleviate Food Insecurity and Malnutrition" were still fresh.

Back to my thoughts of the apple farm. Much unlike the farms described in the session, which the world's poorest communities depend on, the apple farm probably uses technology developed over the past fifty years, can afford to use fertilizer and may even receive a subsidy from the US government. Furthermore, the apple farmer clearly has access to a reliable transportation infrastructure which affords her access to markets where she can make well-informed decisions on price and value for the customer.  

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Guest blogger Katherine Yue is a second-year MBA student at Thunderbird School of Global Management where she has assisted in research on business and capacity growth in microfinance and health microfranchises. She interned for FINCA Jordan in its founding year, strengthening business risk management disciplines.

Prior to Thunderbird, Katherine was a project manager at the largest health care organization in the US, leading process redesign and enterprise risk management systems. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in economics with a focus on society and technology.

By Katherine Yue

The second day of the 2008 Net Impact Conference took me from an interactive workshop on scaling enterprises at the base of pyramid to a session on strategic philanthropy.  Bringing it all home was a session called Social Entrepreneurship At Work, Moderated by Mark Milstein from Cornell University, with panelists Jordan Kassalow, Co-Founder and Chairman of Vision Spring, Christine Eibs Singer, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of E+Co, Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Founder of Jaipur Rugs Company and Jaipur Rugs Foundation.

In the audience, Jordan Kassalow pointed out Neil Blumenthal and Jocelyn Wyatt's attendance and their instrumental participation in the initial growth of VisionSpring.  Tal Dahtier, who started MBAs Without Borders, was also on hand to encourage MBAs to pursue their passion in social entrepreneurship.

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Back in April I posted news about the World Challenge competition, hosted by BBC and Newsweek. Well, I just got an e-mail from a friend reminding me about it so I went to the competition's website, only to find out that the final round is on and that votes for one of the finalists will be accepted until tomorrow.

So I encourage you to visit World Challenge, take a look at the twelve finalists and cast your vote! There are interesting projects coming from Latin America, Africa, East Europe and Asia.

Finally, a hat tip for the BBC/ Newsweek crew for the remarkable job they have done profiling these projects through video.   
 

Guest blogger Christi Huizenga is a second-year MBA student at Thunderbird School of Global Management.  Before Thunderbird, she spent five years in project management and business development for International Justice Mission, a human rights NGO.  Christi has a B.A. in Business Communications from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.

Christi Huizenga

The days when development finance organizations were the only ones pouring capital into emerging markets are long gone. Private Equity firms are increasingly chasing returns into emerging markets.  A panel last weekend at the Net Impact North America Conference brought together both private equity firms and development finance organizations to discuss the trade-offs between profitable returns and the social impact of these investments. 

It was moderated by Graham Sinclair, of Sinclair and Co. and the first panelist was Peter Greenwood from OPIC (the Overseas Private Investment Corporation), a U.S. Government agency working to develop private sector opportunities overseas providing services to U.S. firms.  Services include insurance, financing assistance, and support for privately owned and managed investment funds.  OPIC private equity is essentially a fund of funds and they provide investment guarantees to their clients.  

While OPIC does not directly invest in emerging economies, they can choose to work with funds that will have a development impact.  OPIC rates investment opportunities based on factors such as environmental impact, workers rights, human rights and other development contributors. 

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(Editor's note: Today, November 19, is World Toilet Day, part of an awareness campaign led by Water Aid. This post is timely to stop for a second, think about and learn more a crisis that keeps 2.5 billion of the world's poorest citizens away from basic sanitation services)

Guest blogger Mike Pezone is a returned Peace Corps volunteer from the Philippines and a 2nd year MBA from The Johnson School at Cornell University.  He focuses on Base of the Pyramid business models at Cornell's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise.  This past summer he worked in Mexico conducting the BoP Protocol  to develop a water purification business model for an early stage startup.

By Mike Pezone

Water touches everything. This was reflected in the diverse backgrounds and interests of the panelists at the Saturday morning session about "innovative solutions to water and sanitation challenge".  Hailing from different corners of the water problem, panelists included Mikkel Vesterdaard - CEO of the company that created the Life Straw, Andra Tamburro - Program Director at Water Advocates (the first nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing American support for the global water problem), and Jeff Seabright - VP of Environment and Water Resources at the Coca-Cola Company.

Stan Laskowski, President of the Philadelphia Global Water Initiative Board moderated an engaging session between panelists and participants.  In my opinion the panel was less a discussion on innovative solutions and more of a call to action as each panelist cited statistics reminding us of the gargantuan scale of the current water crisis.

• 1,000,000,000 people lack access to safe drinking water
• 2,600,000,000 people lack access to proper sanitation
• 50% of the schools in developing countries lack access to clean water
• 75% of the schools in developing countries lack access to proper sanitation
• Every 15 seconds a child dies from a water related illness 

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Guest blogger Matt Austin is a second-year MBA student at Thunderbird School of Global Management focusing on the intersection of international development, entrepreneurship and venture capital. He spent this past summer advising a group of Endeavor High Impact Entrepreneurs in Turkey on their capital raising and expansion efforts.

Prior to Thunderbird, Matt was a private equity and M&A attorney for nearly seven years. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Iowa with a degree in Economics.

By Matt Austin

The buzz surrounding social enterprise in international development circles has been loud and growing louder.  Hybrid business models that blend private sector and non-profit approaches are becoming increasingly prevalent.  Development NGOs, multilateral institutions and government agencies are all looking for ways to incorporate more private sector approaches into their programs.  In response to this trend and growing demand from socially-minded students, business schools are adding many social entrepreneurship and BoP-focused courses. 

At the Net Impact Conference, a whole series of panels focused solely on social entrepreneurship and innovation.  The kick-off panel for this track asked an important question:  how much of this buzz surrounding the benefits and value of social enterprise is just hype and how much is reality?

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Guest blogger Kelly McCarthy is a Communications Manager and Research Analyst for the New Ventures Project at the World Resources Institute. Her current work focuses on developing impact metrics for the enterprise development community.

By Kelly McCarthy 

There was a lot of buzz about "impact" last weekend at the  Net Impact Conference. However, this year it wasn't just talk about creating impact, but most importantly how we consider, measure and prove it.  Perhaps the word was being used too liberally lately thus loosing a bit of its meaning. 

However, as I listened to many organizations whose work intends to generate positive environmental and social impact, it became apparent that a shift is occurring.  Rather than talking simply about impact in anecdotes and what was better than before, foundations, funds, design-for-impact, not-for-profit (and not-for-loss) organizations alike were talking about a "social capital market", as Jason Saul, CEO of Mission Measurement, summed it up during one of the panels. 

Following are a few thoughts that came to mind from the perspective of metrics and evaluation, while attending some of the sessions at the conference.

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Guest blogger Miguel Jardine is a first-year MBA student at Thunderbird School of Global Management where he focuses on Green Capital Allocation.  At Thunderbird, he has further developed his ideas on Triple Bottom Line value propositions and the leadership role of business in igniting meaningful progress in solving the environmental and socioeconomic challenges of our times. 

Miguel was born in Panama and traveled through Asia led by his fascination with intercultural collaboration.

By Miguel Jardine

I went to the 2008 Net Impact Conference in Philadelphia to try to answer the type of questions asked in the description of  one of the presentations titled "Measuring Impact:" "How do you define and measure the value of social impact?  How does this vary between public, private, and nonprofit organizations? What metrics forecast impact?"  Evidently I was not alone in my quest because I had to jockey for a good seat in the packed auditorium where Jason Saul, CEO of Mission Measurement, was moderating the panel discussion.

The presentation started by voicing the commonly held belief that the warm, selfless act of service seemingly defies the cold, calculated precision of measurement.  After all, how do you measure feelings of  compassion and happiness?  The answer, however, has become more and more significant as the business world wrestles with the new demands of integrating social responsibility into their operations. 

As they do, nonprofit organizations, who have dominated the social service marketplace, are being pushed to face the inevitable incumbent challenge: to reinvent themselves in order to remain competitive.  It is entirely possible, the panel empathized, for nonprofits to remain true to their missions with only a slight change in perspective.

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