Stanford Social Innovation Review

Market solutions to poverty, which include services and products targeting consumers at the “bottom of the pyramid,” portray poor people as creative entrepreneurs and discerning consumers. Yet this rosy view of poverty-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful. It allows corporations, governments, and nonprofits to deny this vulnerable population the protections it needs. Romanticizing the poor also hobbles realistic interventions for alleviating poverty.

Two new players in the world’s social investing scene seek financial returns along with social impact. 

Serving more than 110 million people per year, BRAC is the largest nonprofit in the world. Yet it doesn’t receive the most charitable donations. Instead, BRAC’s social enterprises generate 80 percent of the organizations’ annual budget.  These revenues have allowed the organization to develop, test, and replicate some of the world’s most innovative antipoverty programs.

Mathematical tool helps countries weigh the pros and cons of using biofuel. 

The world’s neediest people are using mobile phones in ways that were never intended, and with great success. With wireless technologies, Indian farmers are finding out the latest crop prices, Nigerian youth are learning how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, and Peruvian citizens are reporting criminal activity in their neighborhoods. Yet dialing into these powerful tools is not always straightforward. The author explains how to make the wireless revolution ring in economic growth and prosperity for people living at the bottom of the pyramid.

THE SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE by Tracy Kidder

THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD by Fareed Zakaria

Commercial microfinance institutions (MFIs) must calculate two bottom lines: alleviating poverty for clients and also generating profits for investors. To achieve the latter goal, some MFIs charge their impoverished clients exorbitant interest rates. The recent Banco Compartamos IPO in Mexico raises a red flag, demonstrating how easily well-intentioned MFIs and their investors can shift from microlending to microloan-sharking.

World of Good connects female artisans in poor countries with retailers (including Whole Foods Market, pictured) in the West. 

Managing Editor Eric Nee spoke with Self-Help’s founder and CEO, Martin Eakes, about the subprime loan crisis and its impact on the poor.

Critics of microfinance institutions (MFIs) ask them to choose between helping the poor or making money for investors, but this is a false choice. MFIs can have their impact and profit, too, says the author, the CEO of the Grameen Foundation. He sketches a new vision of microfinance as a platform, not a product; one that relies on high volumes, not high margins, and that uses limits on private benefit, holistic performance standards, and third-party certification to help MFIs meet both their bottom lines.

Financial aid discourages innovative solutions to poverty. 

In new democracies, right-leaning elections attract foreign investors.

Polak offers entrepreneurial solutions to poverty in Asia and Africa.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus aims for a more just society for all.