Creating Shared Value in the World’sToughest Places
Over the past few years, for-profit and non-profit partners have been experimenting with new ways of working together, creating what’s often now referred to as ‘shared value’. At its heart this concept is about bringing companies and NGOs together and leveraging the expertise of both, in order to achieve the greatest possible social and economic […]
Kourage: The Power of Sport to Fight Poverty
I’m Chris Markl an economics professor and an expert on foreign investment and job creation. I’m also the founder of Kourage Athletics. Kourage Athletics is Kenya’s running brand. Our mission is to leverage the tradition of Kenyan runners to create authentically kenyan running apparel. In addition Kourage seeks to become the first African brand that […]
Why Is Digital Communication Increasingly Important For Marketing At The Bop?
Prahalad’s BoP concept has become well known by now among scholars and practitioners. Co-creation with poor people as active consumers, producers, and innovators are central to the concept. It envisions social development through market growth. In order to discuss why digital communication is increasingly important for marketing at the BoP, two perspectives are key: Firstly, […]
Paul Polak – At Least a Million
For many years I have been a vocal advocate for what I call the “Don’t Bother Trilogy” in the practice of design, which states: 1. If you haven’t had good conversations with at least 25 customers before you start 2. If the product or service you design doesn’t pay for itself three times in the […]
Access to Food and Improved Nutrition at the BoP: Five business interventions to achieve social impact, financial sustainability and scale
Improving food and nutrition security through better availability, accessibility, and utilization of food and food products is a complex challenge. It involves a sector where key activities – such as the production, distribution and consumption of food and the identification of food markets – are largely in the hands of private enterprises. Interventions by the […]
Sharing Lessons on Inclusive Business – The Practitioner Hub
“Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes.” Peter Senge, Center for Organizational Learning, MIT Sloan School of Management Collaborating, […]
Announcing the winners of the G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation
The 15 winners of the G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation were announced on June 18, 2012 at the G20 Leaders Summit in Los Cabos Mexico. Ambassador Mr. Rogelio Granguillhome, Executive Secretary of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation and Chair of the G20 Development Working Group presented the awards. Business Fights Poverty first […]
Call for Support: Participate in a UNDP Survey on Support for Inclusive Businesses in Africa!
Photo: Kim Eun Yeul / World Bank Call for Support: Participate in a UNDP survey on support for Inclusive Businesses in Africa! Inclusive Business Models, which integrate the poor on the supply side as well as the demand side, have the best chance for success when they are implemented within a strong ecosystem of actors […]
Rio+20: Business Opportunities at the BoP
The private sector has a critical role to play in engendering sustainable economic development. Business investments can stimulate job creation, promote entrepreneurship, and improve living conditions for those living in poverty. At the same time, there is growing recognition among private sector companies of the untapped market potential among the several billion people living on […]
Is it Immoral to Earn Attractive Profits from Poor Customers?
There are at least 7 billion different perspectives on morality, but the viewpoint I like best defines sin as the failure to reach your potential. By this definition we have at least 2.6 billion deep sinners – the 37% of people in the world who live on less than $2 a day. They are the […]
The business of sanitation – taking toilets to scale
Water & Sanitation Programme, iDE UK In a context where almost 40% of the population of the developing world – 2.5 billion people – lack access to improved sanitation facilities (WHO/UNICEF), there is in need of a practical and scalable solution that can stop one of the world’s biggest killers of children. Diaorrheal disease claims […]
Generating Evidence of Impact at the Bottom of the Pyramid
The May 3 debate on Bottom of the Pyramid: Responsible Capitalism or Business as Usual ended with a rousing call for more evidence on what works. But how do we generate that evidence? There are a number of methodologies (BCtA, INSEAD Economic Footprint, Oxfam Poverty Footprint, BIF, IRIS,WBCSD and so on) and a few well-known […]
Sharing knowledge and experiences to deliver effective nutrition solutions to the base of the pyramid
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has been partnering with public and private sector organizations to deliver nutrition solutions to populations in need for 10 years. GAIN is now reaching more than 600 million people with nutritious foods which help them reach their full potential. Today GAIN is […]
Mobile Services for Women Entrepreneurs
In Indonesia, Amisha makes and sells made-to-measure wedding dresses. In Lagos, Elizabeth and three other employees make traditional Nigerian children’s toys. A world apart, both Amisha and Elizabeth are examples of thriving and enterprising women entrepreneurs who make their living producing valued local goods. They both also face limitations to their business growth due to […]
Expand the Evidence Base at the Bottom of the Pyramid
Photo credit: CARE/Kathryn Richards If we want to differentiate between responsible capitalism and business as usual in market based approaches to international development we need to expand the evidence base at the bottom of the pyramid. This was one of the conclusions drawn by seven panelists from the world of business, strategic management and development […]
The ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ Approach: Responsible Capitalism or Business as Usual?
Yesterday evening I took part in a Public Debate at Saïd Business School, organised by the Centre for New Economies of Development – a collaboration between the Universities of Oxford, Sussex and Edinburgh. The event also saw the launch of a new website to encourage academic discussion and knowledge sharing on the BoP: responsiblebop.com Below […]
Creating a sales force of solar entrepreneurs
Which continents have the highest number of mobile phone subscribers? The answer isn’t Europe or the Americas, where mobile phones first took off, but Asia and, as of 2011, Africa. By the end of last year there were over 600m mobile phones subscribers from Cairo to Cape Town, according to research by the GSMA. This […]
The BoP Approach: Sinner or Savior?
Today several of the world’s largest corporations – including Hewlett Packard, SK Johnson and Unilever – are engaging with the so-called ‘bottom of the pyramid’, becoming key players in global development by selling products to improve health, nutrition and overall well-being in the rural markets of developing countries. Meanwhile development donors like DfID champion large […]
Barend van Bergen: Sustainability Fundamental to Long-Term Business Performance
Almost four years ago, while being seconded from KPMG to the WBCSD, I was involved in a series of workshops aimed at involving the capital markets in sustainability. Reflecting now on the lively conversations that took place, I genuinely believe we have made some progress. Although I never predicted events would unfold as they have, […]
Empowering Poor Women at the Base of the Pyramid?
Base of the pyramid (BoP) approaches have been attracting a lot of attention in business and development circles lately. Although typically associated with highly publicised schemes such as Grameen’s “village phone ladies” and Hindustan Unilever’s “Project Shakti”, a number of BoP initiatives have sprung up across Africa and Asia to address a range of development […]