As I opened up my interview notes, Francisco pinged me over Skype.  His message was simple: I just have a feeling, 2009 is going to be the year of ANDE.  This has to be more than a coincidence, I thought.  After all, the interview notes I'd just clicked open were from a conversation with Randall Kempner – the incoming Executive Director of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE, for short.)  Laughing, I wrote back to Francisco, telling him of his fortuitous timing.  He agreed that my interview with Randall was destined to be our first post in 2009.

It's more than timing; the development through enterprise sector is developing quickly.  I predict that the next 12 months will bring more formality and more cross-organization cooperation to our sector, as a range of funders, investors, entrepreneurs, intermediaries and research organizations work to take the base of the pyramid concept and turn it into an investible asset class.

A good first step towards this goal is creating the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, and hiring its first Executive Director.  The Aspen Network is basically a trade association for organizations like Acumen Fund, New Ventures, Agora Partnerships, E+Co, Technoserve, Root Capital and others working to help small and growing businesses take hold in low-income markets (full disclosure: NextBillion's sponsors, Acumen Fund and New Ventures, are members of ANDE).  Before taking his new job, Randall Kempner was Vice President for Regional Innovation at the Council of Competitiveness.  He has also worked for the OTF Group and before that, as a consultant with Monitor Group.  Randall graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a M.B.A and an M.P.Aff.  He earned his Bachelor's degree in Government from Harvard University.

In our conversation, we discussed the role of innovation in economic development, how the Houston Astros broke Randall's heart in 2005, and just about everything in between.

Rob Katz, NextBillion.net: Who is Randall Kempner?

Randall Kempner, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs: I'm a loud and proud Texan - a fifth generation Galvestonian.

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Guest blogger David Auerbach works on strategic growth projects for Endeavor, a global organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs.  He is a 2003 graduate of Yale University.

By David Auerbach

High-Impact Entrepreneurs – those running high-growth, innovative businesses – are important drivers of economic growth in emerging economies. Endeavor, a non-profit with operations in 11 countries, supports these entrepreneurs by providing access to mentors, strategic advice, managerial talent and inspiration. In turn, these entrepreneurs – who come from a wide range of industries such as architecture, meat-processing and IT – create wealth and good jobs in their economies.

As the economic crisis continues to be felt around the world, Endeavor conducted a survey of 92 portfolio companies from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Jordan, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey and Uruguay. Endeavor asked about how the entrepreneurs had been affected so far by the crisis and what they foresaw happening in 2009. Three general trends emerged:

It’s going to be tough this year and next:

The results showed that 85% of Endeavor Entrepreneurs are already feeling the effects of the crisis:

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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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Francisco and I have been remiss in not posting more news & notes roundups here on NextBillion, so here's a shot at redemption - at least for today.  Without further ado, some news and notes within the Base of the Pyramid community:

The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs - ANDE - just announced the hiring of its first Executive Director.  Randall Kempner will be based at the Aspen Institute; he starts January 6.  ANDE, which we've written about before, is basically a trade association for organizations working with small and growing businesses in low-income communities.  (Full disclosure: both Acumen Fund and World Resources Institute, who sponsor NextBillion.net, are members of ANDE.)

For the curious, check out Randall's profile at Prosperity Strategies, the Council on Competitiveness and OTF Group.  We at NextBillion wish him the best of luck in his new job and look forward to working with ANDE to further the cause of small and growing businesses in developing countries.

In other base of the pyramid news, the Legatum-Fortune Technology Prize was announced earlier this week at a lavish dinner in Washington, DC.  The five finalists attended, each vying for the USD $1 million prize.

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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 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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Outside, it is grey and rainy, but inside, the Camden library is warm and inviting.  Today's special session merited an early arrival to Pop!Tech: Scaling the Bottom of the Pyramid, a 2-hour talk by longtime BoP innovators Paul Polak and Bunker Roy.

Bill Gordon, a Pop!Tech board member, kicks things, describing Pop!Tech's active social change mission – realized through its Accelerator and Social Innovation Fellows Programs.  He then introduces today’s speakers as the "heavyweights of the social enterprise world."  I, for one, don't argue with that description.

Bunker Roy admits that he is the product of a "very expensive, elitist education" in India, which prepared him for a career as a doctor, engineer or diplomat. When he decided to work in a village instead however, his mother was appalled; but it marked the beginning of a remarkable career.

Roy founded the Barefoot College, a school only for the poor, in 1971. He asserts that rural India is full of professionals not recognized for their skills, such as water diviners and traditional midwives. His college is open only to people without a formal education and seeks to combine the knowledge of local people with modern technologies.

Roy's students create buildings that harvest rainwater and win architectural awards without a professional architect's involvement. They share knowledge and learn other skills, which they share back home.  In 38 years, the Barefoot College has served 3 million people who live on less than $1 per day.

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Monday afternoon sessions just kicked off with the panels on each of the three tracks here at SoCap08. The "Social Entrepreneur Track" is of special interest to me, as it concernes the tools and skills needed to turn social entrepreneurs into sustainable and scalable organizations that can scale and successfully serve the poor.

Paraphrasing Moses Lee in one of his recent posts, the questions is how to turn will to serve the poor into business skills to do so in a sustainable and scalable manner.

The first panel in this track was on "Building a Business Plan", featuring panelists Kevin Braithwaite, from RootSpace, a business incubator based out of Lebanon and Kirsten Gagnaire, an advisor with the Social Enterprise Group.

A quick raise of hands at the start of the panel shows what could be an accurate diagnostic of this sector: When asked how many in the room were "early stage social entrepreneurs", around 80% of the room rose hands. A few minutes later Kirsten asked how many were currently functioning organizations and only a third of the initial hands went up this time.

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In times like this, when clean energy technologies are the hype and talent in the sector is in high demand, Mathias Craig could have any job in the world. His training includes engineering degrees from both UC Berkeley and MIT, and his true passion is wind power. In stead of getting taking one of the job offers he got after graduate school Mathias decided to found blueEnergy Group and bring energy to underserved communities. He is now the executive director of the organization.

blueEnergy helps communities in the caribbean coast of Nicaragua develop sustainable energy systems through hybrid wind and solar technologies that are manufactured, maintained and operated by themselves.  I learned a lot from Mathias, his passion, vision and commitment. Like most entrepreneurs, he didn't have much time to plan at all when he decided to become one in such an isolated area. He just did it. Now he is living up to his dream, with all the ups and downs that entails.

Like everyone I met in GSBI, I will keep an eye out for Mathias and how he continues to build a robust organization and scale his initial idea. I wasn't able to get him on film in California but he sent us the following clip, recorded a few days ago while working with his team in the caribbean coasts of Nicaragua. 

Finally, make sure to catch Mathias' blog on Social Edge. You'll get a good feeling of the challenges he faces as an entrepreneur but mostly the drive and passion that keep him at the job.

Guest blogger Muhan Cheng graduated from National Taiwan University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and received her Masters Degree in Environmental Management from the Nicholas School of the Environment, at Duke University, in 2008. She currently works as an intern with the Ecosystem Services Review Program at the World Resources Institute.

An interview by Muhan Cheng

In many developed countries, fair-trade is usually associated with products like coffee, cocoa and handicrafts from Latin America and Africa, but not usually to crafts coming from countries like China. According to the Fairtrade Foundation, at the end of 2007, there were 632 fair-trade certified producer organizations in 58 producing countries, representing 1.5 million farmers and workers.

Beijing Fair Field Co. Ltd. is one of the first social enterprises that promote the idea of fair-trade in China. The company employs women in rural areas, helps them make handicrafts that preserve the local features and sells the products to urban areas. This income-generating activity strengthens women's business skills, as well as their position in the family. Thus, Fair Field´s social enterprise model serves the objectives of women empowerment and poverty alleviation in rural areas; it runs on a not for profit self-sustaining business model.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jan Wang, who works for the Microfinance department of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) and currently serves as a vice president for Fair Field Co. Following is a summary of our conversation. 

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This post is the second in a two part series exploring China’s role in Africa’s development. Part 1 focused on the breakdown and impact of African exports to China, and Part 2 focuses on the role of China’s investment and imports into Africa.

Investment

It is no surprise that most Africans are welcoming Chinese investment and products. The history of traditional Western aid and investment in Africa is one of a nagging "I correct you because I want what's best for you" parental-like stronghold over the continent. Tired of "the politically motivated, finger-wagging approach of western governments," Africans have welcomed China’s emphasis on pure business. Numerous sources quote the lack of political motivation, as well as societal or environmental demands, as one of the primary reasons that Africa is welcoming the Chinese investment.

Sahr Johnny, the Sierra Leonean ambassador in Beijing, was quoted as saying the following regarding China's projects in Africa:

The Chinese are doing more than the G8 to make poverty history. If a G8 country proposes a project for Sierra Leone, there is an environmental assessment and evaluation of the human rights and governance situation. The Chinese just come and do it.

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This post is the first in a two part series exploring China’s role in Africa’s development. Part 1 focuses on the breakdown and impact of African exports to China, and Part 2 focuses on the role of Chinese investment and imports in Africa.

I think that those of us who are interested in the potential of market-based development need to initiate a conversation around one of the biggest elephants in the room, and that is the role that Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) and aid is playing in Africa's development. In particular, this inflow could fuel potential base of the pyramid (BoP)-focused enterprises and mean new opportunities in both employment and a greater access to choice in goods and services for BoP consumers.

I became interested in doing this piece on a recent trip to Hong Kong, where I was studying strategies that have been taken to propel corporate social responsibility in Asia. One morning at breakfast I came across the headline, "China’s Investments ease Africa's Poverty, says World Bank report" in the South China Morning Post. This July 12th headline grabbed my attention, as it was clearly at odds with those I had been seeing in the U.S., such as last August’s New York Times story entitled, "China's Trade in Africa Carries a Price Tag."

So, which is it? Clearly, the two seemingly opposing articles demonstrate that this is a very divided issue, and the strong journalistic stances risk convincing people one way or the other, when the reality of the effect is probably somewhere in the middle.

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