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Social Capital Index

  • The Social Capital Index (SCI) tracks investments in the social capital market, including social enterprise, fair trade, digital inclusion, and selected clean tech and microfinance investments.

  • The SCI DealSpace

    dealspace As the triple-bottom line approach to doing business gains traction, we've added more than $164 million worth of new social sector investments to the most recent edition of the Social Capital Index. $46.8 million of these investments were made in the month of May.  The rest of the investments were made as far back as April 2007 and were reported to us as people learned that we are building out the index of social capital investments. This edition of the SCI showcases grants and investments made by the Omidyar Network in a digital copyright registry system, emerging market microfinance and rural development. Also highlighted is Adventure Capital Fund?s investment in BANG Edutainment, a youth development organization in the UK.
    Lastly, we are glad to cover a pioneering financial engineering initiative that won the ?Sustainable Deal of the Year? award on June 3 2008: Morgan Stanley and Blue Orchard?s Loan for Development or BOLD 2. BOLD brings microfinance closer to international capital markets as a source of medium-term money in local currency at competitive rates. For a full listing of recent and historical deals in social enterprise, digital inclusion, fair trade, and selected microfinance and clean tech companies, please see the Social Capital Index.

  • SCI Deals in Play

    deals in playAre you looking for an investment opportunity that provides both financial and social returns? Or are you an entrepreneur looking for funding for your business that delivers a return on investment but also leaves a lasting social impact? Either way, you have come to the right place. Last month we debuted a new feature of the Social Capital Index called Deals in Play. Deals in Play lists social enterprises that are actively looking for capital. Here we present the June edition, which showcases some innovative and very interesting business plans. From organic food importers and personal credit providers to national ATM payment networks, these entrepreneurs bring forward insightful ideas and cutting edge solutions. For a full listing of these budding social enterprises, please click here. If you are an entrepreneur in need for financing and would like to be listed, please write to us at socapindex@goodcap.net and we will speak with you regarding our requirements.

  • SCI Landscaping Documents

    Below is the SCI asset class fan, which shows a spectrum of the asset classes included in the SCI, from equity to debt and including grants. Eventually we will categorize the entire Index using this fan. The full fan is available here. Also available is the fund matrix, where various social funds are described in more detail. Like all the rest of the resources in the SCI, it is a work in progress, and will become fuller and more complete over time.

    sci fan

Social Capital Markets 08

  • socap 08 advert

NextBillion

  • Before Taking Off, A Sneak at Next Week's NextBillion.net Content

    Although I will miss my first 4th of July weekend living in the United States, I?m thrilled to be able to join my country?s own national celebration this weekend. I?m sitting right now at a gate at Dulles waiting for my flight to Bogota to start boarding, and I cannot wait to get over there and talk to my taxi driver to feel the optimism that must be ramping up all over the country because of yesterday?s extraordinary news. I wanted to share this feeling with you before leaving and invite you to follow the coverage through your network of preference -- CNN, BBC, Economist, Globovision or El Tiempo, just to name a few. Today a country is feeling that extraordinary things are achievable, which is something always worth sharing and celebrating.

    So farewell until next Monday, when I?ll be back in Washington and rejoin the NextBillion conversation. Next week will be an exciting one for us at WRI and here at NextBillion. Our New Ventures Country Directors (from Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and our new partner in Colombia) will be in Washington for a week-long meeting to shape the program?s future and share experiences about the landscape for investment in sustainable SMEs in their countries.

    Those of you in the east coast are welcome to join us next Wednesday in an open panel with our directors, so make sure to check for all the details here first thing Monday. In addition, NextBillion Staff Writers will feature a series commenting on Just Another Emperor?, Michael Edwards? thought provoking book, and we will tackle the Compartamos debate featured in the latest Economist as well as the bank?s letter to its peers concerning its commercial strategy.

    Well, last call for my flight, so off I go. Have a great weekend!

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  • Growing Inclusive Markets and Creative Capitalism

    Two quick notes: First, the Growing Inclusive Markets Initiative at the UN Development Program formally launched their report called Creating Value for All.  In it, you'll find some policy prescriptions, case studies, a strategy matrix and - perhaps most interesting - heat maps.  Hat tip to PSD Blog's Ryan Hahn for finding and posting one of these heat maps (in this case, of cell phone penetration in South Africa.)

    Of course, the data on this particular heat map are from 2000, which means they are likely from surveys conducted in 1998 or 1999.  When looking at cell phone penetration - which has grown at breakneck rates over the past 10 years in developing countries like South Africa - the heat map is basically useless because it's so out of date.  Not so with other basic infrastructure - running water, electricity, transportation, etc. - but don't expect these heat maps to solve all your market research needs.

    Second, also via PSD Blog (this time, in an e-mail from PSD emeritus Pablo Halkyard) a blog called Creative Capitalism.  Here you will find a number of notable economists debating Bill Gates' call for more socially responsible business practices.  Reading it, you can't help but wonder where Milton Friedman would side in the debate.  Actually, we probably already know, but still...

    Anyway, big thanks to PSD Blog and to Sahba at UNDP for sending this solid content over.

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  • Roundup: Expo Zaragoza '08 and Other Reasons to Join the Water Conversation

    If there was ever a good summer to be in Spain, 2008 was it. Not only because of the great celebrations that surely followed Torres' match-winning goal last Sunday, but also because of the remarkable Expo Zaragoza 08.

    Titled "Water and Sustainable Development", the Expo will be a three-month long venue --already underway through mid-September-- full of movies, shows, live performances, talks, and discussions among experts from all over the globe to celebrate water and raise awareness about its role in our planet.

    The venue is timely in its purpose of "radically changing the way human beings think about and relate to this resource". Hence the following roundup of upcoming events at the Expo and recent discussions that tend to affect the way we relate to and talk about water, regardless of where in the economic pyramid we happen to live.

    (This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)

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  • NextBillion.net - A Request for Proposal

    NextBillion.net and its sponsors - World Resources Institute and Acumen Fund - have released a request for proposal to overhaul the site.

    Since its founding in 2005, NextBillion.net has grown to become one of the more prominent websites and blogs discussing base of the pyramid (BoP) approaches to poverty and environmental degradation. As part of NextBillion.net's recently-signed partnership between WRI and Acumen Fund, we are funding a round of upgrades to the site that are aimed at improving user experience and making the information on-site easier to find, use and share.

    As we noted on May 15, WRI and Acumen Fund have committed resources to re-design and re-launch NextBillion.net later this year. We hope this re-design will make the site more user-friendly, enabling smoother subscription, sharing, commenting, story suggestion and a range of other features. That time has come.

    If you are a web developer, or know one, please forward this RFP along. We are particularly interested in working with socially-minded firms and/or firms based in low-income countries.

    Questions? Check out the RFP or contact Francisco or me directly.


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  • Job: Business Development Analyst, Acumen Fund

    Position: Business Development Associate/Analyst

    Location: New York City

    Organization: Acumen Fund is a global non-profit venture capital fund serving the four billion people living on less than $4 a day. Its objective is to create a blueprint for building financially sustainable and scalable organizations that deliver affordable, critical goods and services that elevate the lives of the poor. Acumen Fund invests debt and equity in enterprises delivering critical goods and services to the poor in South Asia and East Africa.

    Description: Acumen Fund's Business Development team is responsible for all Partner (donor) relationships (individual, foundation, corporate) at Acumen Fund, as well as relationships with Advisors, Board Members and our broader community. Increasingly, the role of the Business Development team is to build and empower this network of Acumen Fund supporters to broaden the impact of our work.

    The Business Development Analyst is an evolving role that will focus most specifically on database management and database administration for the Business Development team.

    (This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)

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PSD

  • What is corporate social responsibility for?

    Yesterday in a post on the UNDP's growing inclusive markets initiative, I mentioned a debate taking place on Creative Capitalism. Here's what the debate is all about: Creative Capitalism: A Conversation is a web experiment designed to produce a book -- a collection of essays and commentary on capitalism, philanthropy and global development -- to be edited by us and published by Simon and Schuster in the fall of 2008. The book takes as its starting point a speech Bill Gates delivered this January at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In it, he said that many of the world's problems are too big for philanthropy--even on the scale of the Gates Foundation. And he said that the free-market capitalist system itself would have to solve them. It sounds like an interesting experiment (although the fall 2008 date for a book sounds a bit, eh hem, ambitious). So far, they've...

  • PSD Stories of Note: Weekly Roundup for June 30 to July 3

    Kazakhstan: Nazarbayev celebrates ?Starry Decade of Astana,? politely declines to rename city in his honor. A Difficult Road: India faces a struggle to upgrade its roads, railways, and ports. Emerging Markets: Not the haven investors hoped they?d be. Hot Money: Who isn?t putting their money into China? Private Equity: It?s taking off in Africa.

  • PayPal (not) in Africa

    Collins Mbalo, resident blogger at A Nairobian's Perspective, complains about the lack of access to PayPal services in Kenya and Africa generally. While anyone can set up a PayPal account, Africans have no way to transfer this money into a bank account. PayPal has a list of the services it provides in countries around the world here. It looks like there's not a single country in Africa under the "Send. Receive. Withdraw" heading. At best, residents in Africa only have access to the 'send' function. Africans don't even have access to a functionality that allows users in some countries to withdraw funds to a debit card. I'm not sure why this is the case, but at least in South Africa it looks like the tax authorities are afraid they're going to miss out on tax revenues. You can read more speculations about why this is the case on the blog...

  • UNDP discovers the private sector

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) just launched its growing inclusive markets initiative, part of its work to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (Hat tip: NextBillion.net). I have to say that this is a welcome, although perhaps overdue, development. The UNDP has released a report called Creating Value for All along with a series of case studies and (although not yet up on their website) heat maps that provide data on basic infrastructure and services among the poor. (One of the heat maps from the report is pictured below. It shows the share of poor households in South Africa with access to a cell phone.)

  • A simple solution to inflation

    An increasing number of commentators have pointed worryingly at growing inflation in many emerging markets. Inflation is around 8 percent in China and 11 percent in India. Part of the problem is the rising cost of energy resources, but that's not the whole story since inflation is afflicting both net energy importers and exporters. Russia, for example, is facing an inflation rate of around 15 percent. According to an article today in the Financial Times: A weighted average of consumer price inflation in the 20 largest emerging markets rose from 4.5 per cent in March 2007 to 6.9 per cent in March 2008... What can be done about this worrying trend? Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, proposes a simple solution for the transition economies: let their currencies float.

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