WBCSD-SNV Alliance: Creating inclusive business opportunities by linking local communities with big business

Investing in local enterprise development in South Africa: Anglo American

Anglo American plc, one of the world’s largest mining groups, recently unveiled a new enterprise development venture that will help to generate more jobs, support entrepreneurship and strengthen local economies in South Africa. This commitment is a pledge to the Business Call to Action – a global initiative that challenges companies to apply their core business expertise, technology and innovative spirit to tackle poverty and contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

Anglo American seeks to establish 12 enterprise development hubs in high unemployment areas in South Africa, within the ongoing Anglo Zimele initiative, Anglo American’s enterprise development and investment fund in South Africa, which has created numerous sustainable, commercially viable enterprises and empowered entrepreneurs to operate in the mainstream economy. The new venture is expected to create 25,000 new jobs in up to 1,500 new businesses across South Africa over the next seven years.

Low-income markets as an opportunity for business growth

V. Kasturi Rangan of Harvard Business School and Djordjija Petkoski of the World Bank Institute argue long-term global prosperity and stability need to be supported by expanding growth, especially among the low-income segments. In their view, the financial crisis creates unique opportunities for companies to reassess their strategies and identify innovative and inclusive business solutions.

According to their article published in “Development Outreach”, “hyper competition will speed the declining growth and fast commoditization of high-income market segments, thus putting an additional pressure on companies to expand their markets in developing countries. Furthermore, pressure on companies to create jobs and do business with low-income groups will increase.”

Understanding the business contribution to development: Oxfam Poverty Footprint

Companies around the world are increasingly concerned about the impacts that their businesses have on societies in their home countries as well as abroad. For many companies operating in developing countries, impacts on society are related to the effects of their operations on development and poverty reduction, and in turn play an important role in determining the success of the business itself. Understanding the links between business and development can highlight real opportunities for enlightened businesses to make a positive difference.

In a recent paper (pdf, 14 pages), Oxfam set out to explain its Poverty Footprint Methodology, which helps companies to comprehensively understand how their operations affect the people in their value chains and the communities and countries where they operate. The methodology combines local assessments of livelihood impacts, value chain analysis, and an assessment of economic contributions into one comprehensive approach.

The Coca-Cola Company, Technoserve and the Gates Foundation partner to boost incomes of 50,000 small-scale fruit farmers in east Africa

The Coca-Cola Company, nonprofit TechnoServe, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have launched a four-year, US$ 11.5 million inclusive business partnership (see the press release) to enable over 50,000 small-scale mango and passion fruit farmers in Uganda and Kenya to double their incomes by 2014 and empower them to supply Coca-Cola’s growing local fruit juice business.

With a $7.5 million grant provided by the Gates Foundation to TechnoServe, $3 million provided by The Coca-Cola Company, and $1 million by bottling partner Coca-Cola Sabco, the project aims to create new market opportunities for local farmers whose fruit will be used for Coca-Cola's locally-produced and sold fruit juices. As the implementing partner, Technoserve will train participating farmers in improving quality, increasing production, getting organized into farmer groups, and will facilitate access to credit.

The nexus between information and communications technologies and social inclusion

A new World Economic Forum report titled Scaling Opportunity:  Information and Communications Technology for Social Inclusion analyzes how ICT is evolving to address the social and economic needs of the poor. The study notes that, as 4 billion people have access to the global communications infrastructure, the opportunity to create innovative and inclusively tailored solutions for connecting the unconnected is extraordinary.

The report notes that a primary catalyst of change in closing the connectivity gap is the accelerated adoption of mobile phones within emerging economies. Robust market competition, affordable pricing, liberalized regulation and bottom-up innovation have coalesced to create a vibrant multistakeholder ecosystem.