Nancy Wimmer

The Marketmakers Nancy Wimmer

In less than a decade, Bangladesh has achieved something extraordinary in the developing world: solar power for its off-grid rural population.
Bangladesh is now home to the world's largest rural market for solar home systems.
This is a market like no other. It owes its success to unique public-private partnerships, outstanding leadership, rural entrepreneurs-and a little bit of luck.
Read the amazing story about the making of a solar market in a place it was least expected to thrive-told by the people who made it happen: THE MARKETMAKERS. Look to Bangladesh
Here is a market like no other. Not in the megacity, Dhaka, but in village markets and bazars, in tribal hamlets in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, on islands in the Brahmaputra River and in the fishing villages along the Bay of Bengal. This is rural Bangladesh, where 70% of the population lives. And in this respect Bangladesh is no different from other developing countries in Asia and Africa.
But Bangladesh stands out: It is home to a thriving rural market for solar home systems?a market based on private enterprise, competition and innovation.
No doubt, rural business is tough. How do you create demand for solar power given limited household incomes and a technology no one has ever heard of? And how do you ensure quality service to remote households scattered across a river delta? Many see the answer in subsidizing the solar systems. Bangladesh showed that subsidies alone won't create a market. Developing a solar market takes more?much more: rural entrepreneurs, finance, innovative business models and leadership.
If you envision rural business to be a driving force for progress in developing countries, then look to Bangladesh and hear from the very different players who joined forces to make it happen: The Marketmakers.