Simon Maxwell, Senior Research Associate at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and Chair of the 2009 Event Series,"Harnessing the Power of Business for Development Impact", shares his reflections on the series, which was organized by the ODI, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and Business Action for Africa.
Some excerpts are provided below – the full paper (pdf, 8 pages) can be accessed on the site of Business Fights Poverty, an online platform for professionals passionate about fighting world poverty through good business.
Maxwell argues that the event series has made an inspiring and convincing case
- First, that there are strong synergies between business and development – in other words, that there are ways of doing business that benefit local communities and national economies, that are also good for business profitability and sustainability.
- Second, that such benefits can be measured, using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative measures.
- Third, that governments and donors have a role to play in kick-starting and incentivizing best practice.
According to Maxwell, however, the meetings have also shown that scaling up remains a major challenge, and that the debate could benefit from stronger connections to other development topics.
"Can we, collectively, do more? As a thought experiment, I would suggest starting not with business and what it can or should do differently, but with development needs and how business can meet them. This leads me to suggest that business will be judged by how well it contributes to innovation and transformational change."
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