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Home  Help the Poor Best Practices & Successes
Best Practices & Successes This section features promising ideas and approaches that have delivered positive results in various scenarios. If you know of any documents that would be appropriate for this section, please send us an email with the link. Thanks.
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Opening the Schoolhouse: Undoing the World Bank's Dam |
by Robert Weissman -- April 24, 2008 -- For 30 years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have remade much of the developing world according to a market fundamentalist ideology. The results — measured by lost wealth, stunted social indicators, depletion of natural resources and trashing of the environment, rising inequality and concentration of income, damage to indigenous communities, or many other standards — have been catastrophic. Can the harm be undone? Yes. (Full Article)
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Paul Polak, Tackling Global Poverty His Own Way |
NPR -- April 23, 2008 -- Paul Polak, founder of the nonprofit International Development Enterprises, has spent 25 years working to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and other countries in the developing world. His perhaps-surprising conclusion: Government subsidies for the rural poor often make things worse. (Full Article and Audio Interview)
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Social innovation: Good for You, Good for Me |
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Ethical Corporation -- April 10, 2008 -- Big firms are joining the queue to follow in Muhammad Yunus's footsteps by developing businesses designed to fix social ills. The Nobel Peace Prize winner's latest book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism explores how big companies can invest in external partners to develop products and services that will benefit the poor. (Full Article) |
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Prescriptions for Helping Poor People Help Themselves |
by Paul Polak -- March 20, 2008 -- Paul Polak has spent the last 25 years helping "the bottom billion". He describes his experiences and the lessons learned in his book, Out of Poverty, as well as prescribing his formula for ending poverty, which boils down to helping poor people to help themselves, with design playing an important supporting role in their self-improvement. (Full Article)
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Microplace -- Invest Wisely. End poverty. |
You purchase investments on MicroPlace from security issuers, who are responsible for making interest and principal payments to you. Security issuers use your funds to support loans to lending organizations, who then use those funds to provide loans to borrowers. As loans are repaid, security issuers are able to provide you with a financial return. Borrowers use their loans to start or expand small businesses. (Website)
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Kiva -- Loans that Change Lives |
Kiva lets individuals connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a business" and help the world's working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back. (Website)
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UNESCO report paints mixed picture on progress towards "education for all" goal |
UNESCO -- Nov. 29, 2007 -- The number of children enrolled in primary school, the percentage of girls attending classes and the amount of money spent on education have all soared in the past decade, according to a United Nations report released today, but adult illiteracy levels remain stubbornly high and the cost of schooling in much of the world continues to limit access for millions of children. (Full Article)
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Fair Trade Labels Ensure Returns For Farmers |
by Feizal Samath -- Nov. 27, 2007 -- Organic farmers in this hilly, central region of Sri Lanka are convinced that they have a simple fair trade model that could be replicated in other parts of the world.”What we have created is the most sustainable model of fair trade and organic food in the world,” insists Sarath Ranaweera, founder of the Small Organic Farmers Association (SOFA). (Full Article)
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The TERI knowledge centre is an ICT-enabled portal that contains information related to energy, agriculture, water management, health and sanitation, and certain agricultural commodities. (Full Article)
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MIT's One Laptop per Child Program |
 The proposed is Linux-based, with a 7.5 inch screen, 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it will not have a hard disk, but it will have four USB ports. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Initial discussions have been held with China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand. (FAQ) (Negroponte Talk)
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“The value of an idea lies in the using of it. ” Thomas A. Edison
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