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

WBCSD-SNV Alliance launches video on "Inclusive Business - profitable business for successful development"

The Alliance between the WBCSD and SNV Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) has published a 10-minute video on its work in brokering new and inclusive business opportunities, i.e. sustainable business opportunities that are good business and benefit low-income communities, across Latin America.

The video introduces the Alliance's vision, presents two inclusive business initiatives being implemented in Peru and Ecuador, and features the advocacy work being pursued to improve framework conditions for this type of business. A Spanish version of this video will be available by mid-May 2008.

Watch the video by clicking on the image below or by clicking here. If you want more information on the Alliance's work, donwnload our brochure (pdf, 20 pages).

Business Answers Call to Action on Millennium Development Goals

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Presidents of Rwanda and Ghana, chief executives and board chairs from some of the world's largest and most prestigious companies, high-level UK ministers and United Nations representatives came together today in London to discuss how business can use its core activities to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Representing the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), President Bjorn Stigson signed the Business Call to Action Declaration.

In July 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched the Call to Action, a global effort to accelerate progress on achieving the MDGs. With the target year for meeting them only seven years away, faster progress is needed now. As part of the Call to Action, the Business Call to Action is focused on getting big business to support economic growth in developing countries and help put the world on track for achieving the MDGs.

Premios Mundiales Empresariales y de Desarrollo 2008: candidaturas abiertas

La Cámara de Comercio Internacional (CCI), el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) y el Foro Internacional de Líderes Empresariales (FILE) invitan a presentar postulaciones a los Premios Mundiales Empresariales y de Desarrollo 2008, en apoyo de los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio (ODM). Los premios reconocen la contribución del sector privado a la hora de ayudar a lograr los ODM por medio de sus negocios principales.

Los ODM, que fueron aprobados por 189 países, son ocho objetivos que promueven la reducción de la pobreza, la educación, la salud de las madres y la igualdad de género, y tienen como meta combatir la mortalidad infantil, el VIH/SIDA y otras enfermedades. La ONU decidió dedicar el año 2008 a dar nuevos bríos al logro de los ODM, lo que incluye prestar especial atención al papel que tiene el mundo empresarial en el desarrollo, a través de una iniciativa llamada Llamamiento a las empresas: pasemos a la acción!

What can companies in Latin America do to help minimize the risk of corruption?

A recent survey of 900 senior executives worldwide found that, out of all regions, companies operating in Latin America saw themselves as most vulnerable to fraud and corruption (72 percent), but Latin America also showed the least investment in means of addressing fraud and corruption.

Why the gap between perceived risk and efforts to address it? What specifically can companies in Latin America do to help minimize such risk?

In this article, 3 experts argue that in order to fight corruption in Latin America, companies can ratchet up internal compliance programs, conduct due diligence on third parties (who also create liability), and train employees on applicable laws.

Alianza WBCSD-SNV presentó su trabajo en Negocios Inclusivos en el marco de la Reunión Anual del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo en Miami

Ministros de finanzas, empresarios, banqueros, dirigentes de la sociedad civil, académicos, periodistas y destacados artistas latinoamericanos y caribeños participaron en la reunión anual del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), que en esta ocasión se celebró en Miami del 4 al 8 de abril.

La Reunión Anual en Miami ofreció una serie de seminarios sobre temas económicos de la mayor relevancia, tales como energía, comercio y competitividad, pequeñas y medianas empresas y acceso al crédito, y crecimiento e inclusión social.

La Alianza WBCSD-SNV para Negocios Inclusivos presentó (descargue aquí la presentación en formato pdf) su trabajo en América Latina en el marco de un seminario el sábado 5 de abril. El mismo día, junto a la iniciativa del BID Oportunidades para la Mayoría, la Alianza fue el anfitrión de un almuerzo de trabajo alrededor del tema “Liderazgo y éxito en el próximo frente empresarial: Cómo satisfacer las necesidades desatendidas de 360 millones de personas”.

The Role of the Financial Services Sector in Expanding Economic Opportunity

This report (pdf, 45 pages) by Harvard University focuses primarily on large domestic and multinational commercial banks. These large firms are using increasingly deliberate strategies to expand economic opportunity through business models that serve poor individuals and SME clients. They are also developing initiatives to build human and institutional capacity and using their experience and influence to shape policy frameworks in the regions in which they work.

Despite their potential, to date the impact of large commercial banks on expanding economic opportunity has remained limited in the developing world, where a vicious circle of insufficient information, inappropriate products, inadequate infrastructure, and inflexible regulatory environments has kept costs and therefore process, high, limiting companies' markets to clients within the top tiers of the economic pyramid.

World Bank Institute organizes Executive Development Program on "Inclusive and Sustainable Business: Opening Markets to the Poor"

The World Bank Institute and its partners are launching this executive development program with a view to helping business executives and public sector leaders develop and implement sustainable corporate strategies that also provide opportunities for the world’s four billion poor people to raise themselves out of poverty.

The curriculum integrates both traditional and distance learning models, including face-to-face (9-13 June 2008 in Washington, D.C.) and e-learning (16-30 June 2008) components. Visit the program’s website for more information.

Corporate strategy and market creation in the context of deep poverty

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Financial Times (FT) recently published the results of their second annual essay contest about the role of the private sector in international development. Under the theme of “Private Sector Development: Creating Markets, Transforming Lives”, there were some 750 submissions from 90 countries.

This year’s top prize of US$ 20’000 goes to Christian Seelos, Director of the platform for strategy and sustainability at IESE business school for the essay titled Corporate Strategy and Market Creation in the Context of Deep Poverty.

The importance of infrastructure to enhance Latin America’s competitiveness

Economic prosperity cannot be achieved when individuals and whole economies lack basic infrastructure. Roads, ports, rail networks, telecommunications, access to energy and water for domestic and agricultural use are some of the basic services needed to facilitate mobility and trade.

While Latin America’s real GDP growth in the past few years has been strong (5.2% on average for the period 2004-07), o

ver half of Latin American businesses consider infrastructure a major obstacle to the operation and growth of their activities, and the region invests only 2 percent of its GDP in infrastructure, while China invests 9 percent.

In a recent speech on this topic, Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), argued that Latin America's governments recognize that infrastructure is as much a public responsibility as a private opportunity, and that it will require significant resources. In his view, policy-makers are moving to implement frameworks that provide incentives for private investments and public-private partnerships. He underlined that "far from rejecting all forms of private participation and foreign investment in infrastructure, the public sector has a renewed understanding that partnerships with the private sector are, in many cases, the only way to have the resources, know-how and skill for carrying out infrastructure projects."

Wal-Mart: linking up with Central American producers of fresh fruit, vegetables and cereals

With over 420 supermarkets and more than 23,000 employees in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Wal-Mart Central America is the leading regional retailer. Wal-Mart and its local affiliate, Hortifruti, have set up the Tierra Fértil (Fertile Land) program through which small producers supply fresh fruit, vegetables and cereals to the La Union and Pali supermarkets.

Through this initiative, Hortifruti aims to replace imported fruit and vegetables with increased local production, become one of the region’s top exporters, and become the principal supplier of vegetables to the Wal-Mart chain.

The Tierra Fértil program provides technical assistance and support to over 2,000 small fruit and vegetable producers in Central America to bolster their productivity and help them become more competitive. Moreover, it helps them to become suppliers and to sell their products through the Group’s supermarket chains. This scheme enables small producers to grow in a steady, stable manner into small or medium-sized entrepreneurs.

New WBCSD-SNV Alliance brochure: "Inclusive Business - profitable business for successful development"

The Alliance between the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and SNV Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) has published a brochure (pdf, 20 pages) on its work in brokering new and inclusive business opportunities, i.e. sustainable business opportunities that are good business and benefit low-income communities, across Latin America.

The emphasis lies on brokering inclusive business opportunities between WBCSD member companies, members of the WBCSD Regional Network, and SNV's client base of small and medium enterprises, small producers, producer associations, as well as governments and municipalities. The Alliance's work program includes advocacy work to improve framework conditions for this type of inclusive business.

The brochure introduces the concept of inclusive business and presents the Alliance's work program across the 8 focus countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru), including examples of the business initiatives being pursued.

Other WBCSD-SNV Alliance publications:

• Informe Negocios Inclusivos - Iniciativas Empresariales Rentables con Impacto en el Desarrollo
• Issue Brief on Promoting Small and Medium Enterprises for Sustainable Development
• Informe Promoción de Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas para el Desarrollo Sostenible