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.

Oxfam intends to publish the Poverty Footprint Methodology via its website in early 2010, providing companies with comprehensive information about how a study is designed and conducted, and how results are analyzed and communicated. The website will also provide useful links and tools for carrying out research and analysis, as well as examples of study materials that have been developed and used during other Poverty Footprint Studies. Contact point at Oxfam: Jo Zaremba.

For its part, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is currently producing a document which surveys the various measuring impact approaches available to business, with the aim of helping companies identify the measuring impact approaches that best suit their needs. The document will provide an overview of the landscape of approaches to measure impact on socio-economic development relevant to large companies – categorizing them by their purpose and explaining some of their key features. As a very general approach, the WBCSD Measuring Impact Framework will be profiled as the basic foundation for any company wishing to measure, understand and manage their impacts on development. The other approaches will be seen as complementary to the Framework. It will also incorporate some of the lessons learned from the Measuring Impact case studies and the advancement in the measuring socio-economic impact field over the last two years.