Energy, Innovation, and Impact in the Global South

Catalog description

Over the past decade, a new type of social enterprise has emerged, which aims to deliver goods and services to the huge market of off-grid, low-income households in developing countries. These social enterprises, known as ‘Base of the Pyramid’ (BoP) ventures, seek to simultaneously achieve profits, scale, and social impact. This course will focus on a sector that has been radically transformed by BoP ventures over the last decade – clean energy. Not only has this sector been catalytic to delivering energy access across the developing world, it also directly aims to combat climate change, the existential issue of our age. This is a course for those who are interested in becoming social entrepreneurs, particularly in developing countries. It will reveal the nuances of operationalizing these ventures and provide a business toolkit for designing and launching a social venture. The course will equally be topical for those who are simply interested in better understanding the inner-workings and implications of this fast-growing and alluring model of alleviating poverty and disease.