Economic Development visualized

If you are remotely interested in Economic Development,visualization of statistics or funny Swedish professors, this one can't be missed.

Also check out where the data is coming from: gapminder.org.

Laotian for-profit Social Entrepreneur wins Ashden Award

I met Andy Schroeter, founder and CEO of the Laotian venture Sunlabob, at the TBLI conference in Bangkok, and I am happy that his determination and persistence increasingly pays off - now he has been awarded the reputable Ashden Award. Congratulations!

The Ashden Award is a UK-based foundation that awards outstanding solutions for sustainable energy. This year five first prizes were awarded. Among many entries Sunlabob received the first prize for Light and Power, sponsored by Climate Care in the UK.

Sunlabob had submitted the Solar Lamp solution. Thereby lamps with accumulators and charging electronics are distributed to households who each have to pay a deposit for the lamp. The deposit is refunded when they bring back the lamp. The lamps burn for 15 hours after which they switch off. The households then go to a central recharging station that is operated by a
village technician as a small enterprise. There they can exchange the spent lamp for a recharged one and only pay a recharging fee, ie. the deposit transfers to the recharged lamp which they take home. The recharging fees from all the lamps pay for the whole backup system: This is the state-of-the-art large solar array in the village that acts as the recharging station and which is rented by the village technician from Sunlabob. The rent covers all costs including amortizations, servicing, replacements and profit of Sunlabob. Our test-runs and calculations show that the recharging fees the households pay for regular lighting at home is comparable or even cheaper than what they spend for kerosene in the lamps they presently use. We are very proud to be able to achieve this without any direct subsidies, and we are proud that this solution has been developed in the field in Laos and is now internationally recognized as a breakthrough
for photovoltaics in remote rural areas anywhere on the planet.

Herb Wade, an independent renewable energy consultant with 30 years experience is quoted by Ashden Awards as having commented: "I personally have been directly involved in rural electrification through solar photovoltaics in more than 25 countries. The Sunlabob project is easily the one that stands out as the best at integrating PV based rural electrification, rural business development and lifestyle improvement for rural dwellers and, most remarkably, has done so with no support from the government and with the apparently achievable goal of full cost recovery."

An important criterion for the Ashden Awards was the potential for a large impact. Although our operations in Sunlabob require the development of a local skill base and the establishment of small enterprises to run the franchises, it was estimated by the jury that these obstacles can be surmounted. Now, after the pulbicity of the award, we are already being approached by companies and organizations from SE-Asia, East Africa, and South America for exploring how to get similar efforts to operate in their regions. We are of course looking forward to cooperate wherever we can.

A very interesting new aspect emerged because our solution directly replaces kerosene with electricity in a way that is easily calculated. For this reason we have now been approached by Carbon Trading organizations. It is also a reason why Climate Care sponsored the prize for our solution. This is a very interesting development and we intend to explore its potential to the
full. Again, we are proud that something developed in the Lao field conditions now has a chance to make a worldwide impact in a truly crucial area.

We will use the prize money of the Ashden Award to purchase further charging stations and solar lamps for villages in Laos. The demand is very high for them.

2008 Social Capitalist Awards will include For-Profit Businesses

Yes! Fast Company's Social Capitalist Awards 2008 will finally include for profit-businesses.

"This is our first stab at what will become a much broader effort in years to come. Our thinking: It's no longer realistic or credible to imply that non-profits are the only institutions that have meaningful social impact. As we wrote in last year's Social Capitalist Awards package, 'business changes the world at every moment, in myriad ways, for good and ill. Decisions in boardrooms or on factory floors set in motion both staggering progress and far-reaching disasters'"

The assumption that only not-for-profit initiatives can be social enterprises has always been a bad heuristic. Due to the fact that there are no easy and convenient indicators to assess social impact, the easiest way out used to be the simplification 'If they don't want to make money, then they're probably in the game for the social good'. That thinking has two fundamental flaws: Firstly, it overlooks that non-monetary goals may be decidedly different from social good (say foreign policy issues in development initiatives). Secondly and more importantly, it excludes for-profit initiatives not because of their (lack of) social impact, but for convenience: Just because not-for-profits are presumably in the game for the social good does not mean that for-profits are not in the game for social good and only after profits.

This year, Fastcompany puts the onus of proof on the companies themselves, and asks for quantifiable results, both not-for-profits and for-profits. They still seem to be a bit suspicious about their own courage to include for-profits:

... we're looking for are companies whose pursuit of positive social impact is explicit--who embrace their responsibility for constructive social change on equal terms as their responsibility for financial success; and who link social mission with business strategy. Companies should be able to articulate that mission and strategy, and be able to quantify the results.

But by and large, that is a big step ahead. Social Entrepreneurs have blurred the borders of the private sector and charities, and there is no stepping back. And we shouldn't be too sad.

PBS starts blog about social entrepreneurs

PBS, the network of Public TV channels in the US, has started its own blog about social entrepreneurs called US NOW Enterprising Ideas:

"Maybe the 'breaking news' teams at CNN or ABC don't pay much attention to people using innovative ideas for public benefit, but we do. And here is where you'll find the latest news about these 'social entrepreneurs'—people who think outside-of-the-box and devise solutions to daunting social problems. Notices of major grants awarded, competitions won, projects launched, debates fueled. And we want to hear from you, too. We'll read your comments and consider whatever tidbits you send our way. Thanks for reading—and for participating!"

Sounds like a great initiative, and it has already earned a spot in my RSS feeds.

The world's most popular blog reports about social entrepreneurship

Boing Boing, the world's most popular blog, has published a story about social entrepreneurship. That means that a lot of people will read about social entrepreneurship instead of being productive in their day jobs (because that is what Boing Boing readers do, ahem, at least what I do. Luckily, in this special case, reading Boing Boing equals being productive in my day job. Great.)

Global Social Venture Competition: 2007 Winners from Berkeley and Thammasat

The Global Social Venture Competition is a business plan competition aimed at MBA students who have the ultimate social enterprise idea. And now the winners for 2007 are in:

Haas Business school of the UC Berkeley - good to see you there, guys - won with "Revolution Foods", a company providing healthy school food in California. But I am also happy to see the Bangkokian Thammasat students finishing second with "Verdacure" - they have worked out a cross-subsidised business that provides dental care to rural villagers and rather affluent city dwellers. Congratulations!

(Disclaimer: There have been three 2nd places, apart from Thammasat also teams from Stanford and Babson College came in second. And their ideas are good. I am just a little bit biased towards teams from a university I attended and the city I currently live in. Hip-hip-hooray. Sorry.)

Got a BOP idea? Join the Business Plan Challenge

You got a business idea that improves living standards in developing countries? Then join the Challenge of the Business in Development Network and send in your business plan until May 31st 2007. There are no restrictions on nationality or age, everyone can participate. You could win counseling, prize money and investors. I am curious to see what great ideas will be generated in this initiative.

The Business in Development (BiD) Challenge is the first international business plan competition for entrepreneurship and development. The BiD Challenge offers entrepreneurs worldwide the opportunity to develop and execute business plans that improve living standards in developing countries at a profit. Join now and develop YOUR business plan for poverty reduction and profit.

Essay competition: Private Sector Development

The International Finance Corporation (IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank) and the Financial Times announce their second annual Essay Competition.

"The Competition is soliciting action-oriented essays that:

* Provide insight into current Private Sector Development (PSD) research
* Develop and support the implementation of leading-edge PSD initiatives
* Strike a balance between conceptual and practical considerations for private-sector involvement in developing countries, and the effect of that involvement on development
* Reflect innovative, data-supported research resulting from the author’s own professional or academic work
* Target economic & financial policymakers, the international financial community and/or international domestic investors"

Eligible participants: Everyone

Entries accepted: April 25 - September 30, 2007

Prizes: Winner: US$ 20,000; 2nd & 3rd: US$ 10,000 each; 4th-6th: US$ 5,000 each

Be sure to check out last year's winning essays.

More information and registration

Innovatorz.org helps social entrepreneurs to tell their stories

Innovatorz.org is a young non-profit startup that has wants to publish stories about successful social entrepreneurs under the bold tagline "you've probably never heard about the most important people in the world". The company plans to help the social entrepreneurs with digital publications ("audio and video podcasts, blogs and slideshows"). Although the site has not a lot of content yet, the founders plan to have 200 social entrepreneurs blogging by the beginning of 2008. Godspeed from here!

Jeffrey Sachs lecture podcasts

Ben over at Technology, Health & Development notes that pop-star economist Jeffrey Sachs and best-selling author of "The End of Poverty" gives a series of lectures at the Royal Sociaty in London which are broadcast by BBC's Radio 4. MP3s of the lectures are available as a podcast for one week after the air date. I haven't had the time to check out the first one, but I guess they will be exciting, given Sachs' opinionated and entertaining style.

The schedule and topics are:

Lecture 1: Wednesday 11 April 2007, 9am
Bursting at the Seams

Lecture 2: Wednesday 18 April, 8pm
Survival in the Anthropocene

Lecture 3: Wednesday 25 April, 8pm
The Great Convergence

Lecture 4: Wednesday 2 May, 8pm
Poverty in the Midst of Plenty

Lecture 5: Wednesday 9 May, 8pm
A New Politics for a New Age

Old wine in new skins: Prahalad's "New Social Compact"

Over at NextBillion.net Al Hammond celebrates C.K. Prahalad's and Jeb Brugman's new article "Cocreating Business’s New Social Compact" in the Harvard Business Review as "transformative" and "an idea as radical as his and Stuart Hart's suggestion 5 years ago that there was significant value to be found in business engagement at the base of the pyramid".

So what is to it? Basically, Prahalad tells us that NGOs and Multinationals should partner up and co-create products and services for the BoP.

As Brugman and Prahalad picture it, there is an initial "stage of pre-convergence", where companies and NGOs fight over the nature and speed of deregulation and the companies’ conduct, especially in developing countries. From there onwards, the process of convergence comes in three stages:

Stage 1: Companies and NGOs realize they have to coexist. They look for ways to influence each other. Some corporations and NGOs execute joint social responsibility projects.

Stage 2: Some companies get into bottom-of-the-pyramid segments and niche markets even as NGOs set up businesses in those markets. Companies and NGOs try to learn from, and work with, each other.

Stage 3: Companies and NGOs enter into cocreation business relationships. Cocreation entails the development of business models in which companies become a key part of NGOs’ capacity to deliver value and vice versa.

Sounds pretty neat, but you have the feeling that you have heard that before? That is probably because you did.

Apart from the massive literature on Public-Private-Partnerships (which has at least overlaps with the specific NGO-MNC partnership), Stewart Hart wrote about the specific need to partner up with NGOs it in his seminal "Capitalism at the Crossroads", where he also gives multiple examples of working partnerships (chapter: working with non-traditional partners):

In our analysis of BOP ventures, Ted London and I found that successful strategies (like ApproTEC's) rely heavily on non-traditional partners, including non-profit organisations, community groups, and local (even village-level) governments. ... As another example, Bata, a leading retailer of shoes with operations throughout the developing world, has entered into an innovative partnership with the NGO Care in Bangladesh to gain access to rural areas in the country...

The idea came also through in the BoP protocol (even coined as co-creation), which places a huge emphasis on ecosystem creation and selecting the right partners. And funnily, Prahalad and Al Hammond himself pointed out how important it is to forge partnerships with NGOs on their 2002 article "Serving the poor, profitably" (p.17). And that is only three sources I can think of from the top of my head - there must be a lot more.

Prahalad and Brugman have found a nice way of systematising the process of convergence and putting it into three easily comprehensible stages - but is it a "transformative vision" or a "radical idea"? I don't think so. The "Profit at the BoP" idea was radical because it disrupted traditional thinking: You businesses are stupid because you are missing out on a huge opportunity. It is not only OK to do business at the BoP, but it makes sense in terms of shareholder value. The "New Social Compact" on the other hand describes the traditional conflict of NGOs and companies and suggests that is it disruptive to think of NGOs and MNCs as partners. I'd rather think that this is by now conventional wisdom. But then again, is it bad to educate the public (ie. HBR readers) once again about the opportunities of cooperation at the BoP? Of course not.

Social Entrepreneurship in pictures: Winners of Development Marketplace photo contest

World Bank's Development Marketplace hosted a photography contest and has picked three winners:

• Training African Rats as a Cheap Diagnostic Tool (Tanzania)
• Ha Tien - Handbags - Habitats (Vietnam)
• Protecting the Environment: Profiting from Garbage (Burkina Faso)

In a media society craving for striking visual images it is great to have sensible projects documented by great photography.

Why Paul Wolfowitz fails

This lengthy but interesting portrait of Paul Wolfowitz in the New Yorker describes his mindset in a rather favourable way (ie. compared to European standards: he might not be the ultra-hawkish American imperialist he is often portrayed to be) but shows why he is doing a bad job as president of the World Bank: He is a strategist, and not a manager. (And of course, there are some other problems). Link

Skoll foundation announces 1-million-dollar social entrepreneurs

The Skoll Foundation announced its award winners 2007. The winning social entrepreneurs receive a grant of about US$ 1 million each. Congratulations!

Skoll Awards for Social entrepreneurs honor and provide support to organizations led by social entrepreneurs who have demonstrated a track record of pioneering social innovations and who are poised to increase or expand the impact of their work. They are advancing solutions in six critical issue areas: tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and economic and social equity.

Triple Bottom Line Investing Conference in Bangkok

Triple Bottom Line Investing Conference Asia 2007

Hosted by: Brooklyn Bridge, TBLI Group

Date: May 24 - 25, 2007

Location: Landmark Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

Plenary speakers: Ashok Khosla (Chairman Development Alternatives Group, India), Naina Kidwai (CEO HSBC India), Richard Laing (CEO CDC UK). -- I am happy to see a couple of accomplished for-profit entrepreneurs on the speakers list, like Nic Frances (CEO coolnrg, Australia) or Andy Schroeter (CEO Sunlabob, Lao PDR).

Paper submissions: Not accepted.

Registration fee: US$ 695 (commercial), US$ 495 for non-profit organizations and academics

For the past 8 years, TBLI has grown into the major international event, for learning and networking, around ESG. ESG or Extra Financial investing looks at financial, social and environmental, as well as governance risks and returns. TBLI Conference is a 2 day event that brings together all the leading thought leaders around ESG.

• Triple Bottom Line Investing (TBLI) is based on the principle that positive financial, social, and environmental returns are not mutually exclusive - sound investments ensure returns in all three areas.
• The TBLI Conference is the leading global Sustainable Investment education and networking event.
• The 2007 Conference is our eigth year as the largest global annual event on Sustainable
Investment.
• The theme for TBLI 2007 is “Opportunity” – keynote speeches and breakout sessions will focus on the growth of SRI in mainstream investment, the new initiatives that are driving this growth, and the emerging opportunities in alternative asset classes.
• Over 400 participants attended in previous years and we anticipate over 600 in 2007.

More information and registration at TBLI Asia 2007

Base of the pyramid conference 2007

Business with Four Billion: Creating Mutual Value at the Base of the Pyramid

Hosted by:
William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan
Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University

Date: September 9 - 11, 2007

Location: Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US

Plenary speakers: Al Hammond, Stuart Hart, Ted London, Mark Milstein, C.K. Prahalad et. al.

Paper submissions: Not accepted.

Registration fee: US$ 395 (before July 1st), US$ 295 for non-profit organizations, BoP Entrepreneurs residing in developing countries and students.

In particular, the conference will focus on sharing the latest thinking on three of the most intriguing and timely issues facing organizations that are interested in developing enterprise-based approaches to creating mutual value with low-income communities. These include:

• Generating a deeper understanding of the landscape, including the opportunities and challenges for enterprise development, at the base of the pyramid.
  
  
• Understanding the development implications of a BoP approach as compared to other poverty alleviation strategies.
  
  
• Developing the new organizational capabilities required to achieve both business growth and poverty alleviation.

More information and registration at bop2007.org

Winners: The USual suspects

Monitor Group and Fast Company have crowned their 2007 Social Capitalist Award champions. The numbers are considerably up from last year (43 vs 15 in 2006), and the list hast a couple of interesting newcomers apart from the usual suspects like Grameen, Accion and Kickstart. Nonetheless, the list is heavy on US initiatives, leaving out notable companies in developing countries.