Fulbright

In an effort to add to my ridiculousness of my scattered, peicemeal life these days, I've decided to apply for a Fulbright research grant in Peru. This has been something that I've wanted to do ever since my junior year of college. And I feel that I'm pretty qualified right now and am in a good position to apply for this particular grant doing this particular research in this particular field. So why not?

Without writing out the entire proposal here, I'll just give you the start of my proposal:

Title: BoP Approaches in Peru: Inclusive Capitalism as Poverty Alleviation

The term "Base of the Pyramid" (BoP) is used for two interrelated concepts:
1. A socio-economic designation for the 4-5 billion individuals that live primarily in developing countries and whose annual per capita incomes fall below $1,500 per year (in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms); and
2. An emerging field of business strategy that focuses on products and services to serve people throughout the base of the world's income pyramid.
Proposal Summary
Recently, in the wake of the waning welfare state, many private sector initiatives have begun to pull the world's poorest people – The BoP – from the fringes of globalization and out of poverty through an unlikely means: profits. By intimately understanding the consumer needs of BoP populations, private sector firms have been tailoring the packaging, unit size and supply chains of products and services to efficiently provide equitable and viable solutions that allow the poor to enjoy the products and services that the developed world enjoys. These equitable solutions mitigate the "poverty penalty" – the premium put on basic goods due to BoP consumers' lack of credit, inability to buy goods in bulk, and distance from product origination and distribution channels. The lowering of this premium by these innovative approaches frees up disposable income, increases quality of life and is executed in an environmentally sound manner.
I propose to study current and historical private sector initiatives aimed at alleviating poverty in Peru's BoP populations through inclusive capitalism. By studying these initiatives in Peru, I will gain an understanding of the extent of this paradigm in Peru and will be able to benchmark my findings to analogous BoP research in other Latin American countries, thereby contributing to a much needed consensus on fundamental characteristics of successful BoP initiatives. It is my hope that this consensus will help guide future BoP efforts to alleviate poverty successfully.


This proposed project has a lot to do with my current position at Ashoka, the non-profit for which I work. On top of that, since I majored essentially in Spanish business, it makes a lot of sense that my major and post graduate plans would be a leveraging factor.

The grant is for an academic year starting in August of 2011, although many Israelis here tell me that I'll never come back. It's tough to hear that since my heart tells me that I will - that I'll still have this special place and special feeling for Israel after so much time. I simply feel that I have to live and to see things, and to progress professionally at the same time. A Fulbright is exactly the vehicle through which I can accomplish all of these things at once.

I just submitted the application that took up a month of my life writing to all sorts of organizations in Peru, professors from Boulder, social sector workers in Israel and many many people that corrected, critiqued and really improved my essays.

I'm terribly happy that this is behind me, but am very excited of the prospect of getting this coveted award. Wish me luck with this endeavor as well. I'll need it, as Fulbright scholarships are about as competitive as they come. And of course, I'll keep you updated.