Make Poverty Business

The World Bank are holding a conference on financing small businesses on 5 and 6 May in Washington. The conference website includes a host of resources on the subject. 

The peer-to-peer micro-lending organisation Kiva help businesspeople in the US to lend to small businesses in developing countries. They have now announced that the major credit card company Advanta will match any loans made using the Kiva-Advanta credit card.

The Economist has recently published a good overview of the opportunities for conventional banks to provide financial services to bottom of the pyramid customers in Africa.

Wharton Business School have published a good survey of some emerging problems in microfinance.  In Make Poverty Business we identified the problem that micro-loans tended to increase poor people's risk if not accompanied by micro-savings and micro-insurance.  Wharton now identify the problem that many new entrants are coming into the (unregulated) market, in some cases exploiting poor people and diluting the initial good intentions of reducing poverty.

This summary of a recent meeting at INSEAD Business School gives a good overview of creating business models to serve the bottom of the pyramid.

INSEAD business school have conducted a major survey of attitudes to corporate social responsibility in big companies.  One of the key findings is that "only one manager in about six is likely to view her company as a global corporate citizen with a responsibility to help solve social problems, as opposed to one stakeholder in three".