The recent Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City was of a grand scale, with more than 10,000 participants from around the world, ranging from NGO’s and government agencies to large corporations and academics. Some common themes around the sustainability of water solutions were apparent. There was an increased focus on the need for complete and reliable management of water and sanitation projects, including both education and marketing to end consumers and ongoing maintenance and water quality testing. Many of the sessions and Acumen Fund’s own discussions revolved around the current shortfalls in these areas that result from the current “build and move on” model that many governments and NGOs have adopted. (more…)

How to protect themselves from unforeseen circumstances is a major challenge to the poor in building assets and wealth. Acumen Fund has been exploring health insurance products, which are critical given that health costs can eat up more than 30% of an average person’s income in the developing world. Our investee, Kashf already provides – indeed, insists that its borrowers take life and disaster insurance as part of their lending contracts. The UN World Food Program (WFP) has announced an insurance program for humanitarian emergencies that would enable poor farmers some degree of protection in situations of drought and other natural disasters. Key to how the program functions is not only who pays and on what basis risk is calculated and priced, but also how quickly farmers can be reimbursed for losses. Quick response is one of the main concerns of relief organizations, which must move within the first 24 hours of disaster for maximum effectiveness. However, this is a separate need from reimbursing farmers themselves for longer-term rehabilitation of their farms and main sources of income.

Acumen Fund is very interested in identifying the best and most effective market-driven systems for insuring the very poor in large numbers and over a significant period of time.

As we become a single world, how all countries integrate diverse communities becomes vital to our collective success. It is heartbreaking to see negative perceptions of Muslims rising in the U.S. as we also see negative perceptions of Americans in the Muslim world. Leadership is needed on all sides to point to what unites us rather than what divides us. In Pakistan, Acumen Fund’s work illuminates the potential to work across borders and get concrete, measurable things accomplished together. Supporting effective solutions to poverty, focusing on stronger media communications that highlight what is working in the Muslim world, and insisting on greater partnership – and dialogue – are small but necessary steps toward knowing one another. And that is where change – and dignity – must start.