On September 22nd, several passionate individuals shared the results of their experiences working in Kenya, India, and Pakistan for the past year with the Acumen Fund Fellows Program. The Acumen fellowship is a three-year program that recruits young professionals interested in gaining a better understanding of global poverty issues, and gathers social entrepreneurs who want to learn about managing organizations in the most demanding settings.

The interests of the groups were diverse. For example, Jawad Alsam worked at Saiban on low-income housing in Pakistan. There, he considered how well Peruvian’s Hernando de Soto’s assertions about the significance of a formal property system fit the Pakistani context. Two other fellows, Catherine Casey, based at the Sustainable Healthcare Foundation in Kenya, and Tricia Morente, who worked with LifeSpring Hospitals in India, interviewed patients to learn how they prepared for health spending and where the money for health emergencies was found. They are producing a video that will teach students the importance of including the consumer perspective in designing payment schemes. Jon Yates worked with Advanced Bio-Extracts, and developed a management tool that can help large companies determine whether it would be feasible (and profitable) to use small farm-holders as suppliers for their inputs.

Acumen Fund is a social venture capital group that invests in entrepreneurs with ideas that they believe can have a significant impact on global poverty. In addition to valuing social impact, they look carefully at a start-up’s ability to achieve financial sustainability and go to scale. The Acumen Fund seeks to build on the methods used in the private sector, help create a cadre of well-trained, socially minded entrepreneurs, and codify and disseminate knowledge. Brian Trelstad, Acumen’s Chief Investment Officer, recently wrote an article on measures for social enterprise for MIT’s Innovations journal.

GHD is putting the final touches to a case on Acumen investee A to Z Textile Mill Ltd., a manufacturer that produces bed nets impregnated with long-lasting insecticide that are effective in preventing malaria infection for up to five years (compared to the standard nets which require re-treatment every six months). The case explores the use of incentive-based supply chain development for commodities and the way in which health care delivery can act as a driver of sustainable economic development. Check the GHD Blog for a future post with excerpts of interviews taken right out from the making of this case.

The Acumen Fund is currently recruiting for its 2010 class of fellows (applications due October 20th). For more information about the program and past fellows’ experiences, visit the Acumen website.