Creating employment in the emerging world

This foreignpolicy.com page has an interesting info graphic showing the relationship between the hourly access cost at Internet cafés and the proportion of a country's population living on one US dollar per day.

I think it still shows that the Internet is a very cost efficient tool in the emerging world—certainly compared to traditional alternatives—but when you have less than 1 USD to play with each day, it's going to be tough to get any business inertia going.

That's why I think micro-enterprise or micro-finance provided by groups like Opportunity International are so important and so much more valuable in the long term than simple handouts.

While i'm on the topic ... ;) Opportunity International was co-founded by Australian David Bussau and provides small loans to help people start businesses. The loans are eventually repaid from profits (with no interest) and used to fund further loans. The first loan David made was $AUS 50 (in 1976) to a struggling Indonesian farmer to buy a sewing machine. That farmer now runs an import/export business and owns a fleet of taxi's—providing employment in his village as well as financial security for his family. David's achievements since that time have netted him an Ernst & Young Australian Entrepreneur of the year award (and thus finalist to World Entrprenur of the Year)—the first social entrepreneur to be awarded one.

According to the blurb on the E&Y site, Opportunity International has funded startup businesses that have created 2.4 million new jobs and currently creates new employment at the rate of one job a minute in 28 developing countries!

The challenge to the IT industry is to take part in this and use the Internet and Open Source to help bring poverty stricken people groups more in line with western nations.