News & Views

One of the authors of a book presenting a new framework for fighting poverty based on entrepreneurship and market-creating innovation will give an Oct. 11 talk co-sponsored by WDI and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan.  The talk by Efosa Ojomo, an author of “The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation…

Since its founding, WDI has played an important role in providing University of Michigan graduate students with international experiences by funding summer internships, sponsoring student MBA teams and organizing travel-study courses abroad. Over the years, some students have participated in multiple WDI programs and projects. To recognize this commitment by…

Q & A with Michael Krautmann Research Manager in WDI's Healthcare sector 1. What is the goal or focus of the supply chain work performed by WDI's Healthcare sector? Our team works to improve the quality and accessibility of financially sustainable healthcare for people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs),…

WDI is partnering with the Ross School of Business and Finance Professor Gautam Kaul to establish a curriculum-based, student-run international investment fund at the University of Michigan, believed to be the first of its kind at a U.S. university. The fund, called the International Investment Fund (IIF), will target small-…

Note: The following post was originally published on NextBillion.net, which is managed by WDI. By Amy Gillett and Kristin Babbie Kelter There are currently 25.9 million refugees worldwide, as the world experiences the highest levels of displacement on record. These refugees fled their countries due to war, natural disaster or persecution, and were often…

Note: The following post was originally published on NextBillion.net, which is managed by WDI. By Rebecca Baylor In emerging economies, businesses and other organizations engage in work that can be really messy and staggeringly complex. They know it’s important to measure the social impact of their work, but they often struggle…

In winter 2019, WDI sponsored 11 Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) teams that worked for organizations around the world. Each team was comprised of four MBA students from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. One team—Lauren Baum, Nadia Kapper, Paul Mancheski, Jason Yu—spent three weeks in Rwanda working for…

WDI has produced a new video that highlights its work on the successful M²GATE program that connected more than 400 students from five Michigan college campuses and their peers in four  Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries through virtual exchange. The video, titled “WDI's M²GATE Program: Virtual Learning, Real…

Q & A with Ari Shwayder 1. What are your favorite types of projects to work on? There are a bunch of different things I look for in a project, and so my favorite ones are those that combine at least some element from a few of these categories: Learning…

Studying for her master’s degree in public health, Alison Granger was interested in a course at the University of Michigan that would let her take the lessons from her textbooks and classroom lectures and put it into practice. That’s why she enrolled in BA685: Healthcare Delivery in Emerging Markets, a…