Working and Poor
Some families lack the purchasing power to eat well.
Poverty
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Debunking Empowerment
Contrary to common belief, giving people living in public housing a sense of 'empowerment' has little to do with whether they are then involved in activities to improve their community.
Cirque du Soleil Thinks Globally
Cirque du Soleil devotes 1 percent of ticket sale revenue -- or about $6.2 million -- to outreach programs for at-risk kids, many of whom struggle with poverty, drug addiction, or homelessness.
Bank on It
Individual development accounts, special savings accounts for the poor that provide matching dollars, are helping people escape from poverty.
Bridging the Cultures of Business and Poverty
More than 500 welfare recipients have participated in Cascade Engineering, Inc.'s welfare-to-career program that provides jobs and training.
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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.