This week’s Acumen Fund Pakistan Quarterly Tea event at the Sheraton Hotel - Karachi opened up with a spectacular light show – or lack thereof. Actually, the power went out in the entire hotel for 15 minutes as the event was to begin. Not so surprising when you consider that Pakistan faces an electricity shortage of 3000 to 4000 megawatts at peak times. But what was surprising and impressive was that everyone in attendance, from Acumen Fund Pakistan partners to advisors to entrepreneurs, all 50 people strong, carried right on with their conversations in the pitch black and did not miss a beat, even with the air conditioning out. Some even used their cell phones as a light source, which showed their resourcefulness and also how common these power outages are becoming in Karachi.

When the power came back on, Brian Trelstad gave an overview of the Acumen model, highlighting the importance of providing ‘patient capital for impatient people’ – those unwilling to sit on the sidelines and watch the problems of poverty. He also spoke specifically about our investment in A to Z Textiles and Water Health International (WHI) – both of which have shown an impressive ability to scale: A to Z is producing millions of bednets a year and has created more than 6,000 jobs; and WHI has 85 water systems serving 250,000 Base of the Pyramid customers, with plans to grow to hundreds of systems serving millions of people in the next 2-3 years.

When it comes to the lessons we are learning, it is within the context of how to best solve the problems of poverty. While increasing aid is important, Acumen Fund is looking at different ways to utilize philanthropic capital. Acumen Fund’s investment philosophy tests market-based mechanisms, and invests in the ingenuity of entrepreneurs and their teams.

After the brief presentation, Brian opened up the floor to questions and for me personally (as well as the Acumen Fund Pakistan team), it was incredibly exciting to see how engaged the audience members were as they asked very specific, focused questions.

(more…)

Editor’s note: Fareed Zakaria will be hosting an online discussion about his new book, The Post American World, on Monday May 12 at 3:00 PM EST.  Visit the Washington Post web site for details.

This is a powerful article (The Rise of the Rest; Newsweek - May 3) by Acumen advisor Fareed Zakaria, who argues there is a case for real optimism in the world. In fact, he believes – as do I – that we are living in one of the most important moments in history. There is less violence today, more resources, and more interdependence than ever before. The key challenge for the United States will be to recognize the changing nature of a world where there are many players – and the wonderful benefits that can come of that.

For Acumen, our challenge is to help “push the inevitable”, as John Gardner used to say, and identify and scale those innovations that help all people on earth gain access to the goods and services they need to solve their own problems. Through our work, we can be a further reminder that we are a single world, each of us dependent on the action – and inaction – of players all across the globe; and that we have the collective opportunity to solve those problems of poverty that most vex our ability to leave peacefully and prosperously.

I urge you to take a few minutes and read this article.

Editor’s Note: We received this appeal from Acumen Fund ally Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder and executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization which seeks architecture and design solutions to humanitarian crises and provides design services to communities in need. We have re-posted his appeal in an effort to spread the word about this latest disaster.

It has been less than 24 hours since Cyclone Nargis hit the heart of Myanmar (Burma). Government figures have reported 15,000 dead but reports claim it is now 22,000 and in the coming days it may move closer to 50,000. While the media will focus its attention on the loss of life there will be millions displaced in the coming weeks and like most natural disasters no plan for long term sustainable reconstruction. Large aid agencies like Oxfam and Care will be knee deep in immediate delivery of aid however how will the country respond to the long term strategy need to rebuild the country.

We are currently reaching out to our community. We will need to raise a minimum of $10,000 to provide design services to communities affected by the disaster. This is a small start, but could affect tens of thousands of those displaced.

Find out more and donate at the Architecture for Humanity web site.

Pangea Day is an international event that will bring the world together through film.

In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that - to help people see themselves in others - through the power of film. (Watch Pangea Day organizer Jehane Noujaim’s TED Talk about the concept; Noujaim is a 2006 TED Prize winner.)

Live events in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers including Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova. Pangea Day is a live broadcast - in seven languages - featuring powerful films, visionary speakers and inspiring music that will reach millions of people worldwide through public and private gathering places and through the Internet, television, digital cinemas and mobile phones.

Join members of the Acumen Fund team at The Paley Center for Media – a great venue for Pangea Day. Starting on Saturday, May 10 from 2:00 to 6:00 pm, the entire Pangea Day will be broadcast live. Don’t miss this opportunity to gather together locally and connect with the international community (through media) globally.

The Paley Center for Media is located on 52nd Street between 6th and 5th Avenue. Pangea Day is a free event - typical admission charges to the Paley Center do not apply, just remember to mention ‘Friends of Pangea Day’ when you arrive. We hope to see you there on Saturday! And if you’re not based in New York (or if you won’t be here on Saturday), please be sure to check out the Pangea Day web site, where information on thousands of venues can be found with just a few clicks.

As I turned the corner, it appeared almost out of nowhere - a monument to the successes (and failures) of capitalism - the New York Stock Exchange. I had ventured downtown to attend the premiere of Carol Pineau’s new documentary, Africa Investment Horizons, which was being screened inside the Exchange. As first impressions go, you could do no better: it’s impossible not to take Africa’s investment potential seriously when you’re talking about it inside the center of the financial universe.

Even the security line was interesting: long but vibrant, an impromptu salon of Africanists, investors, expatriates and activists, all of whom share a passion for the business of Africa. Not surprisingly, I saw a number of base of the pyramid allies: Liz Wald, of EDI Imports; Emeka Okafor, of TED and Timbuktu Chronicles fame; Joy Sun, COO of Market for Change. This was going to be a good event.

Before screening the movie, we heard from Carol Pineau, its director. Pineau’s previous film, Africa: Open for Business, came out in 2006 and served to shine a spotlight on the quantity and quality of business opportunities in Africa. (Both high, by her estimation, and underexploited.) That conclusion was a natural starting point for Africa Investment Horizons: if there were high-quality, under-exploited business opportunities in Africa, wouldn’t that be a recipe for solid returns?
(more…)

Congratulations to Acumen Fund friend and ally Martin Fisher, who today was named the winner of the Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability.  Fisher - who co-founded KickStart - will be awarded $100,000 for his work developing a low-cost irrigation pump and the business ecosystem to design, produce, sell and repair them in base of the pyramid communities.

Media coverage of Fisher’s award is widespread; the Boston Globe has a good article on the announcement, and PopSci makes a mention as well.

To celebrate, be sure to watch “Don’t Wait for the Rain,” a social marketing rap video produced about KickStart’s signature MoneyMaker pump.

Editor’s note: Batool Hassan recently joined Acumen Fund’s Pakistan office as a Knowledge & Communications Consultant. She recently completed her Masters of International Affairs from SIPA, Columbia University, and moved to Karachi late last year. Batool has microfinance consulting experience and has worked in the US consumer banking sector.

A recent article published in the World Bank’s Development Outreach, “Microfinance: Climate Change Connections,” discusses the potential relationship between microfinance and climate change. It highlights an interesting link between innovations in environment-friendly products and how microfinance can facilitate access to these products for the base of the pyramid (BoP).

The article points out that many members of the microfinance community have often viewed environmental concerns as a ‘luxury’ their low-income clients can ill-afford to consider.

But recent partnerships between renewable energy companies and microfinance institutions point to possible collaborations that will allow low-income households to gain access to cleaner/renewable energy technologies.
(more…)

Grameen and BRAC are brilliant examples of innovation, operational excellence, and communication. They were able to develop financial products and management techniques addressing a tough business issue: how to deliver millions of tiny loans to poor people lacking conventional collateral – profitably; and they were also able to explain their work and capture the imagination of the public, culminating in founder Muhammad Yunus’ Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

This is why I was particularly excited last week to read about Grameen’s latest venture: Grameen Bank and the French group Veolia Environment are partnering to provide clean water to poor rural communities in Bangladesh.

The scale of the initiative will be limited at first: The project represents an initial investment of 790,000 dollars, its goal is to bring clean water to 100,000 people. But like our work in the water sector, this initiative aims to demonstrate a model that can scale: through funding, management expertise and entrepreneurship, the water crisis can be solved. Muhammad Yunus’ powerful voice will be key in getting this message out.

It is always humbling to have Acumen Fund featured in the mainstream media.  Today’s interview - published in Red Herring - is no different.  We hope that these kinds of stories will help us create momentum around building transformative businesses to solve the problems of poverty.  A big thank-you to Joel Dreyfuss, Red Herring’s Editor-in-Chief, for making the time to come and speak with us in New York.

(With Helen Ng and Misbah Naqvi)

Nicole Wallace’s recent article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Social Entrepreneurs Seek New Investments to Reach a ‘Tipping Point’, prompted some e-mail discussion here in the Acumen New York office as well as in our Karachi office.  Naturally, we were pleased to see one of our investees – Kashf Foundation’s Roshaneh Zafar – quoted.  We were also glad to see mainstream coverage of the challenges facing our sector.

In her article, Wallace focuses in on the need for social entrepreneurs to reach a tipping point, and to begin scaling up their operations and, as such, their impact.  This is something we think about nearly every day at Acumen Fund: does this company have the potential to reach 1 million BoP customers?  Money is an issue, as KickStart’s Martin Fisher points out in the article.  So too is finding the right corporate partner.  We also see talent – recruiting, training and retaining good employees – as a key bottleneck.

Will social entrepreneurship reach a tipping point?  It depends on the money, the partners and the people – among other things.  We applaud Nicole Wallace for focusing on some of the real challenges facing our sector, and hope that this article will prompt even more discussion of how we can move ahead using business strategies to address poverty.

I like late March. Here in New York - and in Washington, where I used to live - late March is when spring starts to take hold, bringing longer, warmer days. It’s also when the annual Skoll World Forum takes place, bringing a breath of fresh air to cloudy, rainy England (apologies for the weather metaphor). For a review of Forums past, check out Jacqueline’s blog post from 2006 and Kevin Jones’ guest post on NextBillion from 2007.

I sincerely hope for good weather in Oxford this week, since a number of my Acumen Fund colleagues (and numerous allies from throughout the ‘base of the pyramid’ community) will be attending the Forum. Then again, rain might be for the best - that way, no one is tempted to spend time outside, away from the excellent sessions. I am particularly impressed with this year’s lineup, and its theme: social entrepreneurship: culture, context and social change.

If I had to choose, here are some of the sessions I would mark on my planner as “must-see.” Unfortunately, some of them are being held simultaneously…so be sure to check out posted synopses online (see below for more info on blogging at the Skoll World Forum.)

(more…)

When talking with people inside the “base of the pyramid” (BoP) community, I often hear strong opinions about how BoP ventures should be set up. Some people strongly support registering these ventures as for-profit entities, while others maintain that BoP activities can start out as non-profits and transition into formal businesses later.

There is no one answer, and this is not a straightforward discussion. The legal and financial implications of a for-profit vs. non-profit organization are myriad, and I don’t claim to understand them all by any means.

Thankfully, a new article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review explores the tension between for-profit, non-profit and hybrid structures. The Funding Gap - written by Jeff Hammaoui, Eliot Jamison and Michael Chertok - explores the social enterprise capital market and how the BoP community can address recurring legal, financial and funding issues associated with it. (more…)