The devastating impact of rising energy and food prices on the world’s poor has sparked alarm about this group’s vulnerability as global markets shift, often suddenly and deeply. The burdens of poverty, already heavy, become crushing as family incomes fail to cover basic needs for food and shelter. For a growing number of development thinkers and innovative entrepreneurs, ending this poverty - and the vulnerability that goes with it - is best approached by focusing on the potential of the poor as the world’s largest market of producers, workers and consumers.
But how can the private sector help transform the lives of the poor? Can poor producers and consumers in turn transform business models and shape new opportunities for companies? The World Bank's publication Development Outreach examines the realities of private sector operations involving low-income communities and the potential risks and benefits for local development.
The focus lies upon the market made up of those living at the “base of the economic pyramid” (BoP), that is, the four billion people with incomes below $3,000 per year in local purchasing power. While this BoP group lives in relative or absolute poverty, it constitutes about two-thirds of the world’s people and a market of $5 trillion.
Forward-looking companies are reaching out to this group, providing both products and opportunities that benefit the poor, as well as their own bottom lines. By investing in sustainable development now, businesses are building markets that will grow from today’s promise to flourish in the future. Companies that focus on the BoP market make a concerted effort to include the poor in their business strategies. They go beyond philanthropy and traditional concepts of corporate social responsibility, to invest in the poor as producers and consumers.
The contributors outline, in 13 articles that cover a wide range of case studies, market-based approaches to reducing poverty.
Articles featured in this issue:
The Next 4 Billion: Characterizing BOP Markets
Nestle’s Milk District Model
The Shakti Revolution—How the world’s largest home-to-home operation is changing lives and stimulating economic activity in rural India
Social Issue-Oriented BOP Business and Japanese Companies
Lighting Africa with modern off-grid lighting
Developing the Local Supply Chain for the Contract of the Century!
Patrimonio Hoy: Low-income Housing that Improves Quality of Life
ZMQ Enabling Bottom-up Development
Business and Malnutrition – Opportunities and Challenges for the Food Industry to Address the Poor
Bridging Gaps in Reproductive Health Care in Egypt through Private Sector Involvement
Improving Health Improves Economic Well-Being—One Company’s Experience
Access to Markets as a Strategy to Address Poverty
Bringing Bangladesh into the Digital Age
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