Working at the Base of the Pyramid

Despite efforts to the contrary, global poverty is still an issue, because almost two billion people still live in abject poverty, and another two billion live on the economic margins of survivability, even by local standards. This chapter describes three efforts to change these statistics: the work of Hindustan Lever in India to provide affordable products and jobs to the poorest villages, the well-known work of Mohammed Yunus in Bangladesh to take over six million families there out of-poverty, and E-Choupal, an ongoing effort to improve communication facilities between farmers in remote villages, allowing them to sell their products where they are needed rather than creating surpluses or shortages in various area.