opportunity with LeapFrog

LeapFrog Fellowship

LeapFrog Investments, the world's first microinsurance fund, is looking for outstanding and dynamic young leaders to join us as Global Fellows.

 

Are you passionate about market‐driven solutions to poverty?

Do you want to be on the forefront of innovation in microfinance and alternative investment?

Do you want to apply your skills in financial analysis, private equity, or insurance to help change the lives of

25 million poor people?

 

LeapFrog Investments

LeapFrog invests in businesses that provide insurance to low‐income and vulnerable people in Africa and Asia.

The fund targets strong financial returns for investors while expanding a growing portfolio to provide valuable

insurance products to reaching 25 million people with insurance – 15 million of them women and children.

The role

This is a unique chance to work as an Investment Associate with a cutting‐edge organization in microfinance,

and the industry leader in microinsurance. Fellows will help LeapFrog to source and act on exciting investment

opportunities, and to grow the microinsurance sector. Working directly with the LeapFrog Principals, Fellows'

responsibilities can include financial modeling, investment due diligence, industry analysis, day‐to‐day

operations, marketing and transaction support. There will also be opportunities to work directly with our

portfolio companies, helping their high‐impact businesses grow and succeed. Flexibility and initiative are

essential to thriving in LeapFrog's entrepreneurial environment.

Commitment

The role requires a minimum 12 month commitment. Fellows will be staffed to LeapFrog's offices in Sydney,

Johannesburg or Edinburgh and may indicate a preference at the time of application. LeapFrog will cover

flights to and from the placement country, accommodation, and work‐related travel expenses. Fellows are

expected to secure their own funding for other living expenses – LeapFrog will assist in this process.

Impact

This intensive one‐year work experience will provide Fellows with hands‐on professional development

opportunities, allowing them to hone their skills and deepen their understanding of microinsurance and

impact investing. The role is also designed to deepen Fellows' own leadership capacity – working daily with

and learning from industry pioneers. Each Fellow's work will help grow the movement to sustainably protect

and enable the world's most vulnerable people. Together, LeapFrog Fellows will form a cohort of like‐minded

changemakers, poised to change the world and markets around them.

Experience

Ideal candidates will have had significant demonstrated experience in business analysis – including financial

modeling, monitoring and evaluation, and/or forecasting and project costing. Candidates with legal training

will have transaction or insurance experience at a highly respected firm. Experience in developing markets –

particularly in LeapFrog's target countries in Africa and Asia – will be considered a significant advantage, as

well as experience in microfinance, insurance or impact investing.

 

Additional skills sought:

• 3‐5 years experience in private equity, insurance, investment banking, management consulting, or law
• MBA or advanced degree in Commerce, Finance, Economics, Actuarial Science, Law or related field

OR significant and comparable experience

• Complex financial modeling experience including DCF and valuations; transaction or insurance
• experience for candidates with a law background
• PowerPoint proficiency
• A sound understanding of financial statements and analysis
• A can‐do and collaborative mindset – comfort with the ambiguities and demands of a rapidly evolving environment
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written

Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV and cover letter before January 15th, 2010 to Rachael

Neumann, with "LeapFrog Labs: Fellowship" in the title, at rachaelneumann@leapfroginvest.com

Placements will commence on March 1st, 2010. A later start date (around June 1st, 2010) is possible for

candidates graduating this year.

About us

LeapFrog Investments Ltd created and manages the world's first microinsurance fund. Launched with

President Bill Clinton in 2008, LeapFrog has raised $47 million to date from banks, funds, and microfinance and

insurance investors. Its profit‐with‐purpose investment approach has been hailed by many global leaders as a

new frontier for microfinance and alternative investment. In the recent Closing Plenary of the Clinton Global

Initiative 2009, President Clinton hailed LeapFrog as "Insurer to the Poor".

Learn more at: www.leapfroginvest.com

LeapFrog Labs

LeapFrog Investments also runs a not‐for‐profit technical assistance facility out of its Edinburgh office called

LeapFrog Labs. LeapFrog Labs is a separate, grant‐funded research and development facility. It aims to tackle

some of the toughest barriers to access to financial services for low‐income people. Labs administers the

Fellowship program.

Learn more about Labs at: http://www.leapfroginvest.com/labs.php

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

CHRISTINE STEARN | Columbia Business School |  EMBA 2010 expected |  w: gsb.columbia.edu

 

 

 

Root Capital Receives PRI and Grant From Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Root Capital Announced as Recipient of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's First Agricultural Development Program-Related Investment


$10 million investment and $4 million grant will expand economic
opportunities for 500,000 rural households in Africa



Root Capital was announced today as the recipient of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s first program-related investment (PRI) from its Agricultural Development initiative. Root Capital will use the six-year, $10 million PRI as loan capital to scale its operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The investment will expand economic opportunities for more than 500,000 rural households by enabling Root Capital to extend access to credit, financial management training, and global market opportunities for small and growing rural businesses. The $4 million operating grant will support Root Capital’s five-year growth plan to achieve a financially self-sustainable lending program by 2013.

“Providing access to capital, financial training, and global markets empowers businesses to grow, communities to thrive, and economies to flourish,” said William Foote, Founder and CEO of Root Capital. “Root Capital is honored to receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to connect smallholder farmers and other rural producers in Sub-Saharan Africa to global markets. We aspire to catalyze broader change in the capital markets that will truly impact global poverty and improve livelihoods for the rural poor.”

“Access to the types of financial services provided by Root Capital is a critical enabling factor in the development of efficient agricultural markets and the entire value chain,” said Lutz Goedde, deputy director of the Agricultural Development initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “By funding these services, we hope to provide small farmers and their families opportunities to increase their incomes and lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.”

To read the full press release, click here .

For all press inquiries, contact Lara Cote: lcote@rootcapital.org

Lunch with Reuben Abraham THIS Monday, Dec. 14

Hi all,

Reuben has agreed to have lunch with us on Monday from 1230-130pm at the Rockefeller Foundation (420 Fifth Avenue at 37th Street (entrance on north side of 37th on NW corner)). He sits on the Board of the Soros Economic Development Fund which is meeting later that afternoon.

 

He will discuss his work at the Indian School of Business where he is setting out to build the world's best center for research and practical experimentation on business models for serving poor customers. He will specifically focus on his involvement in the recent launch of a housing development and finance company (backed with commercial VC money) focused on building low-income housing for India's slumdwellers. This will be an informal discussion.

 

Reuben received an MBA and PhD from CBS and is increasingly well-known as an iconoclastic writer and public intellectual challenging prevailing views about bottom-of-the-pyramid business and development generally.

 

Please email Mara directly, or reply to this post, if you are sure you can come. We can host a maximum of 8 students so if more than 8 of you have confirmed by Sunday at 4pm we will randomly select the people who can attend.

 

If you do come, please try and get to Rockefeller a few minutes early so that we can get you through security and to the conference room (I will provide a simple lunch) to make the most use of Reuben's time with us.

Thanks,
Prof. Bugg-Levine

Agora Partnerships NY Young Professionals Board

I'm currently working with Agora Partnerships to identify 5-7 individuals to form our pilot New York Young Professionals Board. Please feel free to forward this information along to anyone that you think might be interested in being a part of this. Thanks for your help!

Agora Partnerships’ mission is to give developing world entrepreneurs the management tools, networks and financing needed to launch successful, socially-responsible companies. The organization works to find great entrepreneurs and give them practical, hands-on help and provides them with the opportunity to obtain equity financing from an investment fund specifically designed for them.

These individuals will be responsible for:

1) Fundraising for the nonprofit organization

2) Publicizing Agora and our model  

3) Providing advice, perspectives, and support to the organization.

We are looking for people:

1) Interested in Latin America,

2) Interested in economic development or social entrepreneurship,

3) With appropriate professional expertise, and

4) Committed to the goals of Agora

If you are interested please email your resume with a cover letter to Emma Taylor at ETaylor@agorapartnerships.org.

The deadline to apply is December 15th (but this may be flexible).

Please see the website for more information regarding Agora's model and current projects and feel free to contact me with any questions!

http://agorapartnerships.org/community/ny-young-professionals-board


Best,

Melissa


Melissa Cheong
mcheong09@gsb.columbia.edu
(646) 642-2560

Questions for session 11

Taking Stock of Microfinance: Does it really help the poor?

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009 

Time: 6:30-8:30 pm

Location: Warren Hall, room 208

RSVP appreciated but not required: Please click here

 

While microfinance has been hailed as one of the most effective tools for development and poverty alleviation, critics of microfinance argue that microfinance institutions don't serve the poorest of the poor and may actually increase poverty by burdening the poor with unpayable debt.  From a donor perspective, such institutions may be financially unstable and may not deliver as well as promised on indicators of social well-being.  SIPA's Microfinance Working Group invites you to join us for a special panel discussion on the social impacts of microfinance: Taking Stock of Microfinance: Does it Really Help the Poor.

 

Panelists:

1.       Jonathan Morduch, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at NYU, Director of Financial Access Initiative, and leading researcher in the field of microfinance and impact evaluation.

2.       Richard Rosenberg, Senior Advisor to the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (a World Bank unit), former Deputy Director of USAID’s Center for Economic Growth.

3.       Micol Pistelli, Director of the Social Performance Program at the Mix Market .

4.       Janiece Green, Director of the Women's Market at Women's World Banking

Moderator: Louise Schneider, Vice President of Global Social Investment at Deutsche Bank and Former Senior Director of Capital Markets at Women’s World Banking.

 

Kiva's lack of trasparency?

A couple of people in class sent out articles about David Roodman's Microfinance Open Book Blog on Kiva's lack of trasparency.
Enjoy the back to back with the founder of Kiva, Matt Flannery

http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/matt-flannery-kiva-ceo-and-co-founder-replies.php

Microfinance group in CDO scheme

The article Antony has mentioned in class on Deutsche Bank and a major microfinance company trying to rehabilitate CDO as a mean for microfinance market.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c4eb7b5c-ceff-11de-8a4b-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Enjoy!

Questions for session 9

Cellphone banking becoming more popular with customers

Cellphone banking has overtaken Internet banking as the most popular mode of doing banking, the ‘Mobility 2009’ survey results revealed on Tuesday.

The second phase of this survey, which was conducted by business technology research company World Wide Worx (WWW) and sponsored by banking firm First National Bank (FNB) and mobile technology company Blackberry, highlighted that 28% of customers were now using cellphone banking, compared with 17% in 2007.

Trust is the main factor for people not using cellphone banking, followed by the lack of know-how.

In South Africa, more people are currently using cellphone banking than Internet banking. About 10% of customers use cellphone and Internet banking, 6% use only Internet banking, 18% use only cellphone banking and 66% of customers in South Africa do not use any electronic channels.

The services that are driving cellphone banking are balance enquiries, transaction notification and airtime purchases. Prepaid services, such as airtime and electricity, show large growth.

Consumer field research provider Dashboard’s MD Peter Searll said that the survey found that the highest satisfaction experienced from cellphone banking is notifications.

FNB Commerce CEO Len Pienaar revealed that cellphone penetration at the bank is reaching one-third of all customers.

In September 2009, FNB processed transactions worth R745-million through different interactive cellphone banking services. It currently has over one-million registered cellphone banking customers, with the black working-class citizen as the average cellphone banker.

“Cellphone banking is the first technology that crosses income, generation and racial barriers,” said Pienaar.

He pointed out that unstructured supplementary service data, which is a simple text exchange service that allows the display of menus on a mobile phone, enabling users to interact with these menus, will introduce cellphone banking into Africa, as it is as easy and simple to use as short message systems. Cellphone banking on wireless application protocol is also a trend that is expected to grow.

Pienaar said that entry-level market cellphone banking has become the primary customer interface, as it has become an important, common and alternative banking channel.

“All cellphone banking market segments have reached exponential growth rates especially in entry-level segments,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, WWW MD Arthur Goldstuck said at a presentation of the findings that features and affordability are key drivers in the use of cellphones. Email and Internet applications are the biggest areas of proportional growth, while the camera application is currently the most widely used features on a cellphone, but will not offer market growth to manufacturers.

 

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/cellphone-banking-becoming-more-popular-with-bankers-2009-11-03

 

Reminder - Agora Partnerships Event Tomorrow Night

For those of you that haven’t already bought your tickets, please join us tomorrow night for a celebration of Agora Partnerships 4th Anniversary.  This is really a great organization - I worked with them over in the summer assisting them with their El Salvador expansion plan and I promise that you will have a great time at the event. Agora promotes economic development in Central American countries by investing directly in and providing technical assistance and consulting services to small businesses. These small businesses can be engines for accelerating development and Agora provides capital that is badly lacking and addresses the “missing middle” (bigger than microfinance clients but smaller than traditional bank clients). Agora's approach to helping businesses and its dedication to building a culture of entrepreneurship in the developing world is incredibly inspiring. The event promises to be a lot of fun and you will get a chance to hear from Agora's co-founders, Ben Powell and Ricardo Teran.
 
Date:    Tuesday November 3
Time:    6:30-9:30
Place:   Gabarron Foundation, Carriage House Center for the Arts 149 East 28th St. (at Lexington)

Purchase tickets at: www.agorapartnerships.org

Hope to see you there!




Melissa Cheong
Columbia Business School  2009
mcheong09@gsb.columbia.edu

Nov. 4 sangria social hour with Bugg-Levine & classmates!

We’ve arranged for the school to cap off our Nov. 4 make-up class by buying us cocktails at Havana Central!  Specifically, CBS will spring for 9 pitchers of sangria, which amounts to one glass for each of the 45 students.  So head on over to Havana Central (2911 Broadway, between 113th & 114th Streets) when class ends around 9 pm.  The restaurant is setting aside a portion of the back room for us, providing a few tables and chairs and plenty of space to mill around and mingle with Professor Bugg-Levine and the classmates whom you rarely sit next to but are dying to talk to.  You’re free to order other drinks and eats as well, but you’ll need to pay for those.  Also, feel free to invite spouses, partners, and others who are eager to socialize with our awesome class; however, our school subsidy is only large enough to cover the students enrolled in the class, so please make sure your guests know they’ll need to pay for whatever they order.

 

Let me know if you have any questions, and hope to see you at Havana Central!

Nicole C. Wong

Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business & Economics, 2009-10
Columbia University
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Email: nwong10@gsb.columbia.edu
Twitter:  @nicolecwong
Website: www.nicolecwong.com

 

Doing Business 2010: A record in business regulation reform

Since 2004 Doing Business has been tracking regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business. Despite the challenges presented by the financial crisis, the number of reforms hit a record level this year. Between June 2008 and May 2009, 287 reforms were recorded in 131 economies, 20% more than the year before. Reformers focused on making it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening property rights and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures.


Download the Doing Business 2010 overview
http://www.doingbusiness.org/features/Highlights2010.aspx

Questions for session 8

Hedge Funds for Good

Interesting article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review relating to
some of the material discussed yesterday in class. Could this be an
innovative channel for HNWIs/UHNWIs to make in impact in development?

http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/hedge_funds_for_good/

Hedge Funds for Good

By Suzie Boss

Looking for the silver lining in the current financial mess takes a special
breed of optimist. Combine that with a quest to redefine the hedge fund as a
force for good and you can start to sound downright quixotic. Ghanaians can
easily find out if the drug they bought is legitimate by texting a
scratch-off code and receiving instant authentication.

Yet that¹s what the founders of New York-based Uhuru Capital Management have
set out to do. The firm will manage a conventional fund of hedge funds, but
with an attention to social values. What¹s more, general partners will
direct 25 percent of their profits to help social entrepreneurs scale up
efforts in developing markets.

The founders bring solid credentials for both making money and doing good.
Peter Kellner, a successful private equity investor, is a protégé of Ashoka
founder Bill Drayton and cofounder of Endeavor, a nonprofit that supports
high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets. And Neal Goldman launched
Capital IQ, a financial research firm that was later sold to Standard &
Poor¹s.

The opportunity to put sustainable investing ideas into practice is what
attracted Jed Emerson, Uhuru¹s managing director of integrated performance.
After years of talking up blended value theory on the conference circuit, he
says, ³what we really need are more and deeper examples of practice.²

Will wealthy individuals and families warm to Uhuru¹s approach? Justin
Rockefeller (the youngest son of U.S. Sen. John D. ³Jay² Rockefeller IV) is
one who showed early support, providing start-up capital and family name
recognition.

Uhuru isn¹t sharing financial projections, but no one expects the firm to
grow to the size of the multibillion-dollar hedge funds. ³That level would
not be success for us,² Emerson admits. ³We¹re trying to maximize value. We
don¹t believe we would be able to manage funds as effectively,² he says, if
they mushroomed into the billions.

Uhuru¹s timing and smaller is better approach may work in its favor. The
firm starts at ³the current reset point,² Emerson points out, with no need
to recover losses, a problem plaguing many other hedge funds.

³It¹s pretty clear we¹re at an inflection point in the financial system,²
says Tim Freundlich, a partner at Good Capital and senior vice president at
the Calvert Foundation. ³Everyone¹s wondering, how do we come out of this on
stronger footing? The commitment up front to sustainability and social
responsibility< that¹s what they¹re leading with [at Uhuru]. In the hedge
fund world? There¹s been very little of that.²

But it¹s on the back end where Uhuru<Swahili for freedom< may really make an
impact. That¹s where a quarter of general partners¹ incentive-based
management fees will be channeled to the new Uhuru Sustainability
Foundation, dedicated to helping social entrepreneurs achieve scale in
developing markets. The foundation will keep overhead low by relying on
intermediaries such as Ashoka and Endeavor to manage the selection process.
³We become an investor in their fund management approach,² Emerson explains,
³in the same way we would if we were investing in for-profit activity.²

Once all the parts are operating, Uhuru will have in place a global network
of wealthy investors, hedge fund managers, and social entrepreneurs<groups
whose circles seldom overlap. Their shared knowledge will inform how Uhuru
makes money and does good. Predicts Freundlich, ³That could be a much bigger
conversation.²

Are international financial institutions (IFIs) crowding out private investment in microfinance?

This highlight is drawn from a recent paper published by MicroRate which analyzes the funding patterns and roles of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) in microfinance industry development, mentioned in class by the Professor.

Enjoy

http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.26.9136/

International Housing Solutions Fund in South Africa

An example of how accessing capital markets can speed up the development issue of affordable housing:

http://www.intlhousingsolutions.com/about/Sponsor%20Information.html

International Housing Solutions successfully launched a 10-year equity fund and have raised approximately R1.8 billion from investors around the world to invest in South African residential real estate for the low and moderate income households (up to 10% of the fund may be invested in select countries in Africa). The predominance of equity investors are North American (including Canada) with DBSA and Citibank SA as local South African investors. OPIC has contributed about 38% of the fund as debt.

IHS marketed the concept to international investors on the basis that South Africa is an attractive market for housing related investments due to the rapid growth of housing demand; acute housing needs at the lower to middle end of the income spectrum; and strong evidence of economic and political stability. The demand for housing, particularly in the moderately-priced segment of the market, far outstrips supply. In the opinion of IHS, the Fund Sponsor, this greatly lowers sales risk and supports profitable returns to equity providers.


Cheryl Gladstone
Columbia Business School | MBA 2010
CGladstone10@gsb.columbia.edu

The mServices Landscape in Emerging Markets

For students interested in the development of mobile services (following the discussion during the “IC4D” lecture about “now what?”: moving from infrastructure development to application and content development), the below free virtual seminar may be of interest. Vital Wave is an interesting consulting company that spun out of HP’s emerging markets product development group.

Prof. Bugg-Levine

Behavioral economics of Capuchin monkeys!

This is a bit tangential to our course, but for those of you interested in behavioral economics (which came up in our discussion of how "loss aversion" can influence perception of value creation in the provision of basic services like water), this paper is an interesting read. Anytime you can include the phrase: "We ... introduc[e] fiat currency and trade to a colony of capuchin monkeys" you know you're having fun as an academic...

Prof. Bugg-Levine


"How Basic Are Behavioral Biases?: Evidence from Capuchin Monkey Trading Behavior"

Abstract: Behavioral economics has demonstrated systematic decision-making biases in both lab and field data. Do these biases extend across contexts, cultures, or even species? We investigate this question by introducing fiat currency and trade to a colony of capuchin monkeys and recovering their preferences over a range of goods and gambles. We show that capuchins react rationally to both price and wealth shocks but display several hallmark biases when faced with gambles, including reference dependence and loss aversion. Given our capuchins’ inexperience with money and trade, these results suggest that loss aversion extends beyond humans and may be innate rather than learned.

Here is the paper: http://www.som.yale.edu/faculty/keith.chen/papers/Final_JPE06.pdf

BOP Q&A with the man Forbes named No. 1 Most Influential Management Guru

In this Q&A, academic C.K. Prahalad offers a five-year retrospective on his book “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.”

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2356

 

And Forbes released its list of the world’s Most Influential Management Gurus, which ranks Prahalad as No. 1.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/13/influential-business-thinkers-leadership-thought-leaders-chart.html

 

Nicole C. Wong

Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business & Economics, 2009-10
Coumbia University
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Email: nwong10@gsb.columbia.edu
Twitter:  @nicolecwong
Website: www.nicolecwong.com

 

Will solar speed up emerging cellphone revolution? The impact of solar-powered cellphones.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-14-will-solar-speed-up-emerging-cellphone-revolution

 

Microfinance Speaker Series

·         Microfinance course simulcast live from UC Berkeley – presented by Microlumbia

·         Mondays in Uris 332, 7-9 pm

·         First hour taught by Sean Foote, second hour reserved for guest speaker

·         Live interaction (via skype-chat) with the TA

 

Host:

Sean Foote

Speakers:

10/26 – Alvaro Rodriguez Arregui, Chairman, Compartamos, Managing Partner, IGNIA Partners, LLC

11/2 – Kurt Koenigsfest, CEO, BancoSol

11/9 – Kendall Mau, CFO and COO, Prisma Microfinance

11/16 – Steve Hardgrave, Senior Managing Partner, Gray Ghost Ventures

11/23 – Chris Dunford, President, Freedom From Hunger

11/30 – Maya Chorengal, Managing Director, Elevar Equity

12/7 – Tracey Pettengill Turner, Founder, MicroPlace & Premal Shah, President, Kiva.org

 

Inspirations and Innovations: Bridging the Technology Gap

Over the course of two days, March 27 and 28, 2009, the African Economic Forum, presented as a collaboration between the African Business Club, SIPA Pan-African Network, and African Law Students Association, demonstrated a multifaceted approach to understanding the challenges the continent faces in the wake of the global economic crisis as well as the resources it can harness to provide the impetus for rapid and reliable economic and social development particularly through technology.

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/chazen/journal/article/733348/Inspirations+and+Innovations%3A+Bridging+the+Technology+Gap#

Customer vs. Citizen

Yesterday I attended a fascinating meeting at Rockefeller Foundation that brought innovation experts together with leaders from the Foundation to discuss potential scenarios by which technological innovation will (or will not) improve prospects for development. Much of our discussion echoed the class session on "IT4D" (highlighting the importance of innovation in the social processes and business models that can faciliate adoption and scale-up of technology use, rather than just innovation of new products).
When we discussed the provision of basic services to poor communities, one of the experts used language that captures very nicely (and better than I did in class) the unique nature of these business models: she noted that when your business is providing basic services (like water, education, healthcare, etc.) to poor people you are dealing with "citizens not customers".
This is a great way to think about what we have been saying in many of our class sessions. To provide a product to a citizen sustainably requires more than just selling a better product at a lower price. The business innovator has to understand not only the consumer's preferences, but also the way politics will intercede, the way ideas about rights will influence your brand and customer behavior, the way entrenched interests in the current system can thwart your business growth, etc.
When I said that your business training is dangerous when you look to sell basic services into this market segment, I was simply saying that everything you know about serving "customers" can blind you to the complexity of serving "citizens." Being savvy about serving customers is necessary but insufficient to succeed in this market. The trade-off to the extra challenge is extra reward: providing citizens with an improved product is also much more rewarding as the positive spillovers to society (and the gratification to the business owner and manager) can far exceed the gratification of simply making profits from consumers.

Introduction to Microfinance: A Speaker Series

Oct 26 – Dec 7, 2009; Mondays, 7 – 9 pm; Uris 332

UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business invites you to be part of an innovative learning experience this Fall. This Speaker Series class explores why and how microfinance operations have grown to provide financial services to poor and low-income communities on a sustainable basis. Professor Sean Foote provides an excellent introduction to the field of Microfinance and brings together advice and best practices from a variety of successful practitioners around the world, creating a forum to learn about current challenges, debates, and innovations.

Featured Speakers:
-Kurt Koenigsfest – CEO, BancoSol
-Maya Chorengal – Managing Director, Elevar Equity
-Kendall Mau – CFO & COO, Prisma Microfinance
-Premal Shah – President, KIVA
-Tracey Pettingill Turner – Founder, Silicon Valley Microfinance Network and Microplace

Questions for session 7

Video on water privatization

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTKn17uZRAE&feature=PlayList&p=397C7215C0DAA609&index=6

Sanitation

Ashoka Honors the Work of Leading Social Entrepreneurs Addressing Water Issues Worldwide (http://www.ashoka.org/worldwater)
Restructuring the Field of Sanitation Worldwide (http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/4333)
World Toilet Organization (WTO) (http://www.worldtoilet.org/)

Enjoy!

Water privatization

Submitted by Jackson Hewett

A great article from way back when water privatization was a hot button issue "leasing the rain"
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/04/08/020408fa_FACT1

another example of making headlines because it's high tech?

http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/14/twitter-pushes-into-the-developing-world-with-airtel-deal/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter-publisher-main&utm_campaign=twitter

Twitter pushes into the developing world with Airtel deal

October 14, 2009 | Kim-Mai Cutler | View commentsComments |

With a service that was designed to work with older SMS technology, Twitter's microblogging network is an ideal match for developing markets like India.

So it makes sense that the company, which is just fresh off launching a translation program, is hungry to break into countries where the only web connection a user may ever know is through their phone.

Twitter just closed a deal with India's largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, to let people send tweets at standard rates and receive them for free. Bharti says it connects more than 110 million people.

"Bharti Airtel is offering people in every city, every village, every remote taluk and even the smallest panchayat the opportunity to connect to Twitter and enjoy the open exchange of information with no added fees," wrote co-founder Biz Stone in a blog post.

There are a lot of fascinating projects that already harness SMS technology to create real value in the developing world from services that update local producers on commodity prices to ones that help deliver health care. And if Twitter can execute a successful strategy in places that are more reliant on cellphones, it could become the backbone for a number of e-commerce opportunities or a mobile payments network. They've already made the sign-up process super simple — it doesn't require Internet access, just a text message to the company's shortcode at '53000′ on an Airtel phone.

Stone certainly has lofty ambitions for the project: "There are over one billion people with internet access on the planet but there are more than four billion people with mobile phones and Twitter can work on all of them…"

 

Nicole C. Wong

Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business & Economics, 2009-10
Coumbia University
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
Email: nwong10@gsb.columbia.edu
Twitter:  @nicolecwong
Website: www.nicolecwong.com

 

Gates Foundation Competition

As anticipated in class, the Gates Foundation approached SEC with a competition focused on providing financial instruments for emerging markets. Thehe timeline is very short: the applications are due November 15th.

Guidelines and more information are available on the website.
www.fininnov.org

Questions for session 6

Pension funds turn to the low-risk area of microfinance (Financial Times, Friday, October 9, 2009)

Pension funds turn to the low-risk area of microfinance

By Kate Burgess

 

Published: October 9 2009 03:00 | Last updated: October 9 2009 03:00

 

Microfinance, where financial institutions back start-ups and would-be entrepreneurs in the poorest parts of the world, is little more than a gleam in the eye of most of the biggest banks.

 

But it is one area of subprime lending that still has a reputation for being relatively low risk in spite of the financial crisis, and it is attracting new investment.

 

Some of the biggest pension funds have increased their investments in microfinance this year and expect to raise it further in the near future.

 

Analysts estimate that the microfinance industry has lent anywhere between $25bn and $60bn compared with, say, Royal Bank of Scotland, which alone has assets of $3,500bn.

 

Pension funds have so far invested about $3bn, according to a report by the World Microfinance Forum in Geneva. But investment is rising. The latest fund to lift its commitment is PGGM, manager of the €70bn ($103bn) Dutch healthcare industry pension fund, which is committing €200m to microfinance, making it one of the largest allocations to the sector.

 

ABP, one of Europe's biggest pension funds with €180bn in assets, has invested $180m in microfinance and says it has raised its commitment by $40m this year. It expects this commitment to rise again in the next few years.

 

The draw for retirement schemes is that microfinance has paid out returns as high as 20 per cent a year while fulfilling an aim to lift households out of poverty.

 

Alex van der Velden, PGGM's head of responsible equity strategies, says the MFIs of today will be the emerging market banks of tomorrow. Microfinance started nearly 40 years ago when Muhammad Yunus lent $27 to a group of women in Bangladesh making furniture. Banks had been loath to fund such tiny operations, fearing risk.

 

But Mr Yunus, who founded Grameen Bank, and economists found these groups were mostly good credit risks, paying back loans fast and often borrowing more to expand.

 

Lending institutions - non-governmental organisations, local co-operatives and banks - found lending to these people was good, repeat business.

 

MFIs helped improve living standards, transforming and empowering marginalised groups, particularly women, in some of the worst slums and ghettoes.

 

By 2006 it was estimated that 90m people were borrowing from MFIs to fund cottage industries.

 

Now funds have been set up to fund the MFIs.

 

There are sceptics. The WMF in Geneva reported that European pension funds worried the industry was too small to make a difference to returns while being expensive and time-consuming to manage.

 

But Mr van der Velden says: "Microfinance institutions are seen as an antidote to loan sharks. They introduce competition to loan sharks, driving down interest rates. It will be an asset class of significance in the years to come. If we wait to invest, by the time it is mainstream, we will have lost most of the opportunity."

 

 

 

Michael Tillman

Columbia Business School

MBA Class of 2011

email:  MTillman11@gsb.columbia.edu

mobile:  646-420-1930

 

"analog blogger" video on youtube

Here's a New York Times video about the "analog blogger" whom we learned about last week!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP_K2kRXz-k

Nicole C. Wong

Life Explorer. Multimedia Storyteller. Experience Architect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone:       347.448.3569  
Email:        newsgirl@gmail.com
Twitter:       @nicolecwong
Website     www.nicolecwong.com

ICT4D

Use of information and communication technologies for international development is moving to its next phase. This will require new technologies, new approaches to innovation, new intellectual integration, and, above all, a new view of the world's poor.

http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MC.2008.192

http://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/ict4d-2-0-where-next-for-icts-and-development/

VisionSpring Featured at Clinton Global Initiative

VisionSpring Conference Spotlight: Commitment Success Featured at 2009 CGI

On September 23rd, VisionSpring was one of three organizations featured during the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative session “Economic Empowerment and Cross-Cutting Approaches.” Chairman and Co-founder Dr. Jordan Kassalow spoke about the pioneering partnership with BRAC that enabled VisionSpring to complete a three-year commitment one year ahead of schedule. After the event, Dr. Kassalow and the head of BRAC, Mr. Fazle Abad, agreed to make a commitment in 2010 to extend the reach of the partnership tenfold, providing over 3 million pairs of high impact reading glasses to those in need and empowering more than 30,000 women to start a business. VisionSpring and BRAC are seeking partners to join in this landmark venture.

Watch Dr. Kassalow Speak at the Clinton Global Initiative <http://cts.vresp.com/c/?VisionSpring/3660feb4fc/2501ac8acf/6e00f90c2b/id=841>

VisionSpring Eyeglasses "Selling Like Hotcakes!" in South AfricaFinal

Last July, VisionSpring launched its first partnership in South Africa, with Women’s Development Business (WDB) Group. Just two months into the pilot, WDB’s pilot group of Vision Entrepreneurs has broken the record for the highest first month of sales in any partnership, and WDB reports that VisionSpring glasses are “selling like hotcakes!” At the close of the first Vision Entrepreneur training, inspired by the arrival of the glasses and a new business opportunity, the women of WDB broke into an impromptu song and dance, caught on video by VisionSpring’s Carrie Magnuson.

To learn more about why the WDB launch has flourished, check out the latest blog post on “Business in a Bag <http://cts.vresp.com/c/VisionSpring/3660feb4fc/2501ac8acf/80e72da31e> .”

Join WDB's celebration by watching this video <http://cts.vresp.com/c/?VisionSpring/3660feb4fc/2501ac8acf/c58cbed8cc>

Questions for session 5

Microfinance as distribution networks

We have discussed the necessity to reduce costs in serving BOP customers and the need to sell to a fragmented client base through efficient distribution networks. The idea of partnering with microfinance institutions to distribute goods has come a few times. I therefore thought you would find the attached article from an interesting new Indian business magazine, Outlook, interesting. This is a cover story on microfinance as distribution networks from a July, 2009 issue.

Prof. Bugg-Levine

http://business.outlookindia.com/newolb/article.aspx?240795

Helpful web sites to prepare the midterm

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (http://www.gemconsortium.org/)

The Microfinance Association (http://www.microfinanceassociation.org/page.aspx)

Japenese firms getting interested in BOP

Daily Yomiuri Online – Japan

Naoto Azuma / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
An increasing number of Japanese companies have begun to target the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), the world's poorest socioeconomic group, aiming to eradicate poverty and improve sanitary conditions in developing countries--and reap a...
..."social entrepreneurs" also are engaging in the same field. Microfinance International Corp., set up by former Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi employee...

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/20090928TDY07306.htm

Video interview with Alvaro Rodriguez - IGNIA

Hi All,

Please take a look at Alvaro Rodriguez’s interview with Matthew Bishop, New York Bureau Chief for The Economist at the Clinton Global Initiative 2009.

http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_chl=e47af75afdb36a7a772156054235a8dfbfa5964f&rf=bm&source=hptextfeature

Mara

Please Join Us: ACCION USA Microfinance Council Annual Meeting Picnic

All,

 

I came across the below volunteer opportunity.  To be honest, I don’t much about it, however, I am certainly going to look into it further as I think working with a microfinance company in this capacity would be a great opportunity.  Please feel free to let me know if you’re interested or to reach out to the firm directly.

 

Thanks,

Mike

 

Microfinance Council

> Events<https://app.icontact.com/icp/loadimage.php/mogile/35854/f961752be

> e52f7e2f9a7feba0a7fbff8/image/jpeg>

> 

> 

> Please Join Us: ACCION USA Microfinance Council Annual Meeting Picnic

> 

> 

> 

> 

> Food, Drinks and Discussion of the 2009 Milestones and 2010 Goals.

> 

> 

> 

> Date: Sunday, October 4th

> Time:  1 - 5pm

> Location: The Peristyle, Prospect Park, Brooklyn (Rain or shine, the 

> Peristyle is a covered space! Take the Q to the Parkside Avenue stop 

> and walk SW on Parkside Avenue to Parade Place) Who is invited: All 

> Paid Microfinance Council Members!

> 

> Not Yet A Paid Member? JOIN NOW! www.accionusa.org/microfinancecouncil

> <http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=1049414265&msgid=5387892&act=

> XBMW&c=35854&admin=0&destination=http://www.accionusa.org/microfinanceco

> uncil>

> R.S.V.P to rsvp.any@gmail.com <mailto:rsvp.any@gmail.com>  by 

> September 22nd

> 

> 

> We look forward to seeing you there!

> 

> 

> 

> 

> This message was sent from ACCION USA Microfinance Council to msforni@hotmail.com

> . It was sent from: ACCION USA, 115 East 23rd St. 7th Floor, New 

> York, NY 10010. You can modify/update your subscription via the link 

> below.

> 

> Email Marketing by <http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/144186>

> iContact - Try It Free! <http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/144186>

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> on.png> To be removed click here

> <http://app.icontact.com/icp/mmail-mprofile.pl?r=1049414265&l=694&s=XBMW

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> 4265&c=35854>

 

 

Michael Tillman

Columbia Business School

MBA Class of 2011

email:  MTillman11@gsb.columbia.edu

mobile:  646-420-1930

 

Hi everyone!

Few updates:

1)Please visit the Monitor Inclusive Markets (http://www.mim.monitor.com/), where you can find the “Emerging markets, emerging models” report for downloading. I have posted it on Angel too under Session 3.

2)Check out the Development Marketplace website (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEVMARKETPLACE/4416738-1196093766795/21583185/DM.htm): Development Marketplace (DM) is a competitive grant program administered by the World Bank and supported by various partners that identifies and funds innovative, early-stage projects with high potential for development impact. DM competitions – held at the global, regional and country level – attract ideas from a range of innovators, including civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, academia and businesses.

3)Check out couple of new websites under “Blogs on Intl Development” session
-Beyond Profit (http://beyondprofitmag.com/) is a new print/online magazine focused on social enterprise, ideas and people in emerging and developing markets
-Microfinance Insights (https://www.microfinanceinsights.com/index.asp) offers in-depth analyses and commentary on the microfinance sector, updates on the latest trends, and profiles of global sector players

4)Questions for the forth class (due by midnight on Wednesday, September 30th) have been posted

Let me know if you have any questions.
Have a nice weekend

Best,
Mara

Questions for session 4

Gates Foundation Presents MIF Competition

Gates Foundation Presents the International Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development (MIF) Competition

Date: Thursday, September 24 from 6-7pm
Location: 207 Warren, Columbia University

Orin Hasson, Associate Program Officer, Development Finance and Economic Policy at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will discuss the Gates Foundation's initiatives in development finance and discuss the upcoming International Marketplace on Innovative Financial Solutions for Development (MIF), to be held in Paris on March 4-5, 2010. The 2010 MIF, co-sponsored by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the World Bank, will be dedicated to innovative, smart, fine-tuned financial mechanisms for mobilizing, channeling, and spending funds dedicated to development.
A key feature of the MIF will be a competition to garner fresh ideas for financial solutions aimed at reducing poverty and sustainably improving livelihoods through addressing market or government failures. Grants will be awarded for up to five proposals in a two step selection process entrusted to a special jury. In the first phase, approximately 20 finalists will be selected to present at the MIF Conference in Paris, and the MIF will award up to five grants of up to $100,000 each.

Third set of questions!

The List of Books

We will keep track of the books and web resources that Professor Bugg-Levine mentions in class. For those that are curious to learn more, you can find the list under “Links”

The Next 4 Billion

During Thursday class Professor Bugg-Levine presented data to measure market opportunity at the BOP. You can find downloadable full text, charts and ppt presentations here:
http://www.wri.org/publication/the-next-4-billion.
Enjoy!

AngelAfrica's "Africa Enterprise Conference" - Sept 25 & 26, NYC

The 2009 conference will gather 250 people over two full days to jointly showcase leadership and innovation in Africa's private and social sectors: http://cts.vresp.com/c/?AngelAfrica/2b288d3bb2/54320d4ab8/0e92fcfc79

Lecture from Hans Rosling

Hi all,

a few days ago I came across this lecture from Hans Rosling (http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_at_state.html)

It is closely related to what we discussed in the first session of the course and I found it very interesting.

 

I hope you enjoy it as well.

 

Ciao,

Vincenzo  

 

 

Vincenzo Fantasia

MBA class of 2010

(917) 545-5284

vfantasia10@gsb.columbia.edu

 

Second set of questions!

The Gapminder software online

You can find it at www.gapminder.org. Enjoy!

Child Mortality Rate Declines Globally

During today class Professor Bugg-Levine has discussed child mortality as a proxy for development.
You can find an interesting article on the topic http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/world/10child.html?_r=4.
Enjoy the reading!

Questionnaire for our First Class!

Business Innovations in International Development course introduction

Hello everyone!

As Professor Bugg-Levine said below, I will be the TA of this course. That means I will be in charge of making sure the blog is ready to receive your posts and comments, as well as the answers to the questionnaires. For any technical question, please refer to me. But before that, let me go quickly over some basics.

First, whenever you feel the unstoppable urge to share something with the class, you should go ahead and email any text, links and pictures to the following address: marademonte.innovations@blogger.com (sorry, blogger wouldn’t let me choose a less personal one). Your email will be published immediately for everyone’s benefit.

Second, I will send everyone an email update after a post has been published. That way you’ll be able to go to the blog and provide your comments or answer the questionnaires.

Finally, I have added a blogroll with three blogs that are focused on international development. If anyone knows of a really good one that I may have missed, please let me know (email or comment!) so we can add it.

Thanks for your patience. I would kindly encourage you to provide any feedback you may have about this blog. We’ve been thinking hard about how to make the course interactive outside of the classroom and would love to know how to improve the results.

Cheers!
Mara

Welcome to Business Innovatoins...2009

Business Innovations students:

I look forward to meeting you all on Thursday afternoon and to kicking off what should be a great semester. We have provocative and inspiring ideas and examples to cover together in a topic that gets both more timely and more sophisticated all the time. I look forward to discussing these with you and for all of us to learn from your diverse and experiences.

As noted in the syllabus, the topic of business and development naturallly lends itself to provocative conversations about what we care most about and how we can apply our skills to achieve it. To facilitate this interaction, we have set up this blog. In addition to encouraging you to post interesting articles you see or ideas you have related to our coursework, we will also use the blog to post weekly questions on the required readings that I will use as the basis for navigating the following session. Your timely answer to these questions is both very helpful in setting up the class discussions and measured as part of your class participation grade. These questions will rarely take more than a few minutes to answer but offer an invaluable pulse of your perspective on the course material. We will post questions on the day after each session and need answers by Wednesday evening of the following week so that we have time to collate and analyze them before the Thursday afternoon session.

The first questions should be up soon. They do not require you to have completed the reading firstWe do have a few required readings for the first session. These are all relatively short but set the context for the course. In the event you are not able to get your coursebooks before Thursday, I have sent you an email to your Columbia address with the readings attached--please let Mara know if you did not receive this email. They are:
--Case study: this is a brief write-up on one business innovation to revive a domestic cashew processing industry in Mozambique. This is background to a role-play exercise we will conduct on Thursday
--UNDP report: Read Ch 1-2 (~20 pages) of this report (and more if you are particularly interested). This was a breakthrough report for one of the most important development agencies to acknowledge the potential in private sector and business-led development approaches and touches on many themes we will find later in the course
--Philanthrocapitalism--a counter-point to the "good news" you will read elsewhere about the role of the private sector in development. This attack on business-oriented charity and development work caused quite a stir when it came out last year
--Global Monitoring report: introduction--this is the World's Bank annual overview of the global economy. It provides important context for the beginning of our discussion about the relative gains and pains experienced by poor countries during the recent commodities boom and global economic crisis.

Mara De Monte, our TA, will be able to answer any any questions you have on course logistics. If you want to contact me directly, email me at antonybugglevine@gmail.com (rather than my Columbia address) though I am not always able to answer immediately.

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday,

Prof. Bugg-Levine