Expanding Possibilities at the Base of the Pyramid

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a seismic shift in our understanding of and approach to poverty alleviation.Driven in large part by the emergence of empowerment-based forms of development practice-most notably, Participatory Rural Appraisal 1 -and the success of the Grameen Bank and the microfinance movement it catalyzed, it is now well accepted that sustainable poverty alleviation must recognize the poor as central agents in that process.Indeed, in place of the image of the poor as helpless dependants waiting on Western largesse to extricate them from their predicament, the poor are increasingly recognized as highly resourceful entrepreneurs who possess valuable knowledge, resources and capabilities.In turn, business development and enterprise creation driven by the poor has emerged as a powerful philosophy and tool for addressing poverty and marginality.Significantly, this shift has simultaneously altered the role of the development practitioner-from that of a "development doctor," who diagnoses the poor's problem and prescribes the solution, to that of "enterprise facilitator", who assists the poor in acting on their self-defined aspirations.KickStart and its founders demonstrate the power of this enterprise-driven approach to poverty alleviation, as their MoneyMaker™ pump has empowered over 30,000 income-poor people to start or expand their own income-generating businesses on their own terms.Much as microfinance loans make possible a wide variety of businesses, so, too, do KickStart technologies.By simply making KickStart technologies accessible to the poor through local market outlets, KickStart provides an enabling tool that expands the poor's opportunity set and, Erik Simanis and Stuart Hart Expanding Possibilities at the Base of the PyramidInnovations Case Discussion: KickStart

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