Kiva Introduces Lending Team Feature
Kiva, the world's first person-to-person microlending Web site, has facilitated nearly $40 million in loans to entrepreneurs worldwide.
Poverty
Latest
Podcast
Alejandro Toledo - Lifting Latin America Out of Poverty
Latin America may be poised to become a much bigger player on the world economic stage, yet 54 percent of its citizens would choose an autocratic regime over a democratically elected government if it meant more jobs. Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo reflects on the challenge of democratic development and consolidation in Latin America in this audio interview sponsored by the Stanford School of Education and moderated by Stanford sociology and political science professor, Larry Diamond.
How I Became a Social Entrepreneur
Strategies for following one's social entrepreneurial bliss.
LivingGoods Calling
LivingGoods sends its version of Avon ladies—white-uniformed "health promoters"—knocking on doors in hundreds of Ugandan communities.
Bad ’Hoods, Naughty Kids
The violence, noise, and crowding of poor neighborhoods stress kids and parents, bringing out their bad sides and breeding psychopathology.
Most Popular
Design Thinking for Social Innovation
By working closely with the clients and consumers, design thinking allows high-impact solutions to social problems to bubble up from below rather than being imposed from the top.
The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee
Fair Trade-certified coffee is growing in sales, but strict certification requirements are resulting in uneven economic advantages for coffee growers and lower quality coffee for consumers.
Microfinance Misses Its Mark
Despite the hoopla over microfinance, it doesn't cure poverty. But stable jobs do. If societies are serious about helping the poorest of the poor, they should stop investing in microfinance and start supporting large, labor-intensive industries.
In Microfinance, Clients Must Come First
Few microfinance institutions articulate what, exactly, their ultimate goals are and how to achieve them. If the goal of microfinance is to alleviate poverty, the authors say, then MFIs should focus on helping their clients build successful enterprises, rather than on making more and bigger loans.
Romanticizing the Poor
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.