Posted By Sidney on March 2, 2009

Are campaigns against major world poverty and health issues disproportionately focused on non-U.S. soil?  For example, such efforts as: the One Campaign (Poverty and AIDS); the Base of the Pyramid Protocol efforts (Poverty); Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Campaign (Inequality); and the NICE Campaign (Cancer), to name a few, address issues in regions outside of the U.S.  Don’t get me wrong – I am an equal opportunity social change advocate and I enthusiastically applaud all efforts to improve our world community.  Simultaneously, I have a keen interest in seeing well-funded, innovative big ideas that address poverty, health, and other issues right here in our own backyard.

If the definition of “emerging markets ” includes high poverty transitional or developing economies of the world, then there is ample opportunity to include areas in the U.S. that have a high concentration of poverty.  In fact, while presenting at the “Alleviating Poverty through Entrepreneurship Summit” at the Fisher College of Business (The Ohio State University),  Dr. Hippolyte Fofack, a senior economist at The World Bank Group, said his reaction to seeing the Mississippi Delta region in-person was, “Are we still in the United States?”  My answer is, yes you are still in the U.S. – welcome to my backyard.  Since the term used to describe local residents that oppose a new development in their vicinity is Not In My Back Yard, or NIMBY; I’ve decided to acronymize a plea for cultivating and supporting big ideas that address issues in our own backyard.  BIFOBY, anyone?

Categories: Changomily
Tags: Base of the Pyramid, BoP, domestic, health, poverty, social change, social innovation, The Ohio State University, The World Bank Group