Over the coming months, a range of events will discuss the business contribution to development. Below follows a brief overview.
The WBCSD-SNV Alliance will be present at some of these events, with a view to sharing its experiences in brokering inclusive business opportunities in Latin America.
The Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN), founded by a group of leading Latin American business schools and the Harvard Business School in partnership with the AVINA Foundation, is organizing a colloquium on Socially Inclusive Business In Iberoamerica: Challenges and Opportunities on 4-5 August in Boston. The main goal of this colloquium will be to share the findings obtained from SEKN’s three-year research focused on the study of inclusive business models.
On 25 September, a High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will take place at the United Nations headquarters. It will be jointly convened by the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly to review progress, identify gaps and motivate commitments to bridge the gaps to ensure that the MDGs are achieved by 2015. It will be a special informal event bringing together Heads of State or Government, as well as leaders of the private sector and civil society. Partnership events by a variety of constituencies are expected to take place in the margins of the High-level Event over the week of 22-26 September. These events will aim to share success stories and lessons learned, provide opportunities to forge new partnerships and generate commitments to concrete next steps to fill in gaps and scale up efforts.
Meanwhile, on 26-27 September, the Helsinki School of Economics is organizing a conference titled Alleviating Poverty through Innovation - Sustainable Innovations at the Base of the Pyramid. It will address the topic of innovations in the underprivileged markets within the context of economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable development.
On 1-2 October, an international symposium on the topic of microfinance will take place in Geneva. Titled Building Fair Financial Markets for All - Profitable Investment Opportunities in Micro and Small Businesses, the event aims at addressing profitable investment opportunities in inclusive finance.
On 24 October, Melbourne will host the Business for Millennium Development Summit. The event will bring together some of the world’s leading thinkers and captains of industry to challenge current business models and practices, and how Australian businesses can create new opportunities by aligning themselves with the MDGs.
From 29 November to 2 December, the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus will take place in Doha, Qatar.
Finally, on 4-5 December, the Colombian city of Cartagena will host the Inter-American Development Bank’s annual meeting on CSR, which this year will focus on “The Business of Inclusion”. The focus will be on the role of the private sector in fostering a more equitable and sustainable development by including the low-income segment in its value chain.
For a continuously updated list of events, check out this events database. If you would like to have an event included in this list, please feel free to let us know.
This is a really helpful list. Thank you! Not sure if you've heard, but the Social Capital Markets 2008 conference - http://socialcapitalmarkets.net/ - will also fit in this business-in-development space. It will be taking place October 13-15. I know some of my colleagues from Acumen Fund and NextBillion.net plan to be there, as do others from the funding/enterprise sub-niches of the BoP community.
Posted by: Rob Katz | July 29, 2008 at 03:34 PM