Many people are aware of the excellent work done by the Grameen bank. They have pioneered micro loans as a way to fuel economic development. A new twist to this is http://kiva.org which is attempting to link donors to the people who are taking the loans. They describe their system as P2P micro loans.

Over the last few years there have been a number of people who have suggested (rightly I think) that the most effective tool against poverty are jobs, and one of the best creator of jobs are for-profit companies?! A couple hundred years ago this wouldn’t be a suprise. But in our age of corporate greed people seem to have forgotten this. C. K. Prahalad has written widely about how business can eradicate rather than promote poverty. A nice introduction to some of his work can be found in the article The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid which appeared in Booz, Allen, Hamilton’s strategy+business newsletter, issues 26, published in 1st quarter 2002. For significantly more details check out his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. The world bank hosts a private sector development blog which periodically has interesting information posted to it.

There has been a growing interest in the Christian community in considering how business folks can live out their faith in their work, and turn their jobs into a real vocation. Global Spectrum has been sponsoring the yearly Intersection Conference which brings together pastors, missions thinker, and people from the “secular” world to discuss how their faith can make a positive impact.

I was encouraged by a discussion with a mission organization working in Africa. The did a deep dive into what was affecting peoples lives and asked the question. “How can we be a force for good?” They found many interconnected issues. After much analysis they determined that the single most impactful thing they could do was address unemployment. That if the young men had meaningful work many of the problems plaguing the village would be impacted. They started several businesses. Within 4 years the township was thriving. Many social ills that seemed intractable stopped being an issue. The church membership more than doubled with many coming to faith. Useful work is a gift from God.