Sustainability Challenges and Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid: Business, Technology and the Poor

Around the turn of the millennium it had become painfully evident that development aid, charity or global business-as-usual were not going to be the mechanisms to alleviate global poverty. Today, there is little dispute that poverty remains the most pressing global problem calling for innovative solutions. One recent strategy is the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) concept developed by Prahalad and Hart, which relies on entrepreneurial activity tapping into the previously ignored markets of the economically most disadvantaged. It is a process requiring innovations in several disciplines: technological, social and business.