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Micro Enterprise success in Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Krishi Bank was established in 1973 with the objective of strengthening the rural economy by extending credit support to the agricultural and agro-based sectors. In consideration of the importance of Micro-Credit and with the objective of generating employment as well as encouraging...

Micro-Enterprise Online Library

Micro-Enterprise Online Libary, published by National Institute for Social Science Information, provides an online micro-enterprise research library.

Microcredit Summit

Micro credit programmes offer small loans, and other financial services such as savings, to very poor people for self-employment projects that generate income, allowing them to care for themselves and their families. The Micro credit Summit Campaign brings together micro credit practitioners,...

Citi Dhaka arranges loan for NGO micro-finance institution

In July 2009, Citi Dhaka helped arrange a syndicated loan (subscribed by a group of local banks) for $21.7 million for BURO, a not-for-profit that is one of the fastest growing microfinance institutions in Bangladesh. BURO Bangladesh is a specialized micro-finance institution that provides high...

BBC micro enterprise article: "Tales of Africa's entrepreneurs"

BBC News Online says that while the world's leaders are "thrashing out strategies to improve the plight of the poor in Africa", many aid agencies are stressing that genuine progress must come from "small-scale projects as well as large international initiatives". The article then tells the tale of...

Harvard Business Page: Micro enterprise article

In this HBS Working Knowledge interview, Senior Research Fellow Jed Emerson, co-author of a new book on nonprofits, discusses the challenges of the community-based enterprise.

BBC article: So Afr-Eco Community Upliftment Project (SAECUP)

SAECUP is a non-profit organisation established a decade ago in South Africa to provide refuge for poor women and children. This BBC article explains the history behind SAECUP, and includes an interview with the founder. Over 130 woman are involved in a micro enterprise project, which transforms...

US Agency for International Development (USAID) - Supports Economic Empowerment for the World's Poor Through Microfinance (press release)

The press release from USAID outlines the agency's involvement in micro enterprise development projects during the 1990s, and claims that ‛micro enterprise development, providing credit and economic opportunity to the disenfranchised poor, helps ensure that the benefits of economic growth are...

R.E.A.C.T. Tsunami - ARCHIVED

As the reconstruction work in response to the Asia quake and tsunami continues, we will keep this page updated to maximise the possibility of cooperation between those wanting to help.

GSK, Nestlé, Coca-Cola & Dabur top up effort to tap rural consumers

Consumer product makers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Godrej and Dabur are rushing to the bottom-of-the-pyramid market with custom-made products six years after management guru CK Prahalad said consumers with incomes less than $2 a day can be a...

A Fresh Start: Asian villages carve out a new life

In 2004, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which credits itself with having saved the American bison a century ago, set up the Tmatboey Ibis Ecotourism Project to lure bird-watchers. During the most recent peak season, November 2008 to May 2009, services provided to bird-watching visitors brought...

Polycentric Innovation: A New Mandate for Multinationals

What do John Deere, Cisco, and Obopay have in common? All three companies form a new breed of enlightened Western firms that have embraced "polycentric innovation." Polycentric innovation is an emerging business practice that consists of networking international talent, capital, and ideas to meet...

Tatas going global with low-cost housing

The Tatas are giving a global perspective to their successful affordable housing model, which was launched in Mumbai. Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, said that Tata Housing has got enquiries for replicating the Mumbai housing model from other countries and is likely to start out from...

Towards Global Partnerships

Towards Global Partnerships, a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly, encourages partnerships between the UN and the private sector, outlines the principles that should govern such partnerships, and stresses the important role that the private sector can play in encouraging development and...

Fighting Poverty: A Business Opportunity - Report on the 10th International Business Forum

Fighting Poverty: A Business Opportunity - Report on the 10th International Business Forum, a conference report, provides a summary of the Forum's proceedings in respect to how business is addressing the Millennium Development Goals.

UN Global Compact and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises: Complementarities and Distinctive Contributions

The UN Global Compact and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises Complementarities and Distinctive Contributions, the world’s foremost comprehensive, voluntary corporate responsibility initiatives, are clarified in this document as to the complementarities and distinctive contributions...

Doing business with the poor - a field guide

The Guide explores the way in which several leading companies, including Shell, Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble, are developing inclusive business models designed to assist them to create new revenue streams while serving the needs of the poor through sound commercial operations. The companies are...

Make Poverty Business: Increase Profits and Reduce Risks by Engaging with the Poor

Make Poverty Business: Increase Profits and Reduce Risks by Engaging with the Poor (2006) is a book by Craig Wilson and Peter Wilson that sets out to provide a blueprint for on-the-ground managers of multinational corporations to create sustainable profits and reduce country risk by helping...

From Challenge to Opportunity: The role of business in tomorrow's society

From Challenge to Opportunity: The role of business in tomorrow's society, a paper from the Tomorrow's Leaders group of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), presents a fresh perspective on the role of business in society. The paper sets out a model through which companies...

Private sector delivery of public benefit goods and services

This documents presents a framework for doing business in low-income environments, utilising the power of marketing, and grounded in a number of actual case studies.