Sarah Murray at the Financial times reports on the growing sector of social businesses, designed to address social challenges such as affordable housing while receiving financing from investors expecting returns rather than grant-makers.

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"Providing affordable housing for the poor has always presented a challenge: how to prevent the more affluent from taking advantage of cheap accommodation.

"In Pakistan, Tasneem Siddiqui, a social entrepreneur, is taking an innovative approach to the problem. Potential buyers must camp out on the building site during construction. To fund the development, Siddiqui sells about 75 per cent of the plots at cost to families earning $2-$4 a day. The rest are developed as prime residential plots and sold at market prices.

"Many believe these kinds of innovations have greater potential to solve some of the world's big problems than traditional philanthropy or aid-based approaches. A growing number of philanthropists are beginning to put their funds behind organisations and individuals using market-based models to tackle everything from rural poverty to lack of access to clean water. 'Business becomes a tool to solve problems and not just to make money,' says Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and chief executive of Acumen Fund, a US-based non-profit global venture capital fund."

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