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

The nexus between information and communications technologies and social inclusion

A new World Economic Forum report titled Scaling Opportunity:  Information and Communications Technology for Social Inclusion analyzes how ICT is evolving to address the social and economic needs of the poor. The study notes that, as 4 billion people have access to the global communications infrastructure, the opportunity to create innovative and inclusively tailored solutions for connecting the unconnected is extraordinary.

The report notes that a primary catalyst of change in closing the connectivity gap is the accelerated adoption of mobile phones within emerging economies. Robust market competition, affordable pricing, liberalized regulation and bottom-up innovation have coalesced to create a vibrant multistakeholder ecosystem.

Best of inclusivebusiness.org in 2009

Happy New Year to our readers! We appreciate your continued interest in our work. A warm thanks also to those readers that provide comments and send through suggestions for topics. Keep them coming! To kick off the year, here is the “best of” list of the most popular articles posted on inclusivebusiness.org in 2009 in both English and Spanish.

Negocios Inclusivos en Chile: un reto a la creatividad

El pasado 4 de junio, Acción RSE, el capítulo chileno del Consejo Mundial Empresarial para el Desarrollo Sustentable (WBCSD), organizó una charla temática sobre negocios inclusivos, convocando a más de un centenar de personas que se dieron cita para conocer las experiencias de BancoEstado Microempresas, Masisa y VTR en la gestión y desarrollo de este modelo de negocios.

Según Rafael Quiroga, Gerente General de Acción RSE, “los negocios inclusivos se están constituyendo en una contribución efectiva, creativa y novedosa de las empresas para superar la exclusión y la pobreza, transformándose poco a poco en ingresos relevantes para las compañías que tienen emprendimientos en esta área. Un efecto adicional es que las compañías se transforman en verdaderos impulsores del desarrollo social de los países donde operan, demostrando que el rol empresarial va mucho más allá de generar valor económico.”

Telefonía móvil y acceso a servicios financieros: el trabajo de Telefónica

Los Servicios Financieros Móviles (SFM) han reducido la pobreza en América Latina según un estudio publicado por Telefónica, una de las mayores compañías de telecomunicaciones del mundo. Intitulado Telefonía móvil y desarrollo financiero en América Latina (resumen ejecutivo, pdf, 15 páginas), el estudio analiza el potencial de la telefonía móvil para extender el acceso a los servicios financieros en la región.

La inclusión financiera tiene un efecto positivo sobre la desigualdad, la pobreza y el crecimiento económico. En particular, se estima que un incremento del 10% en el acceso a servicios financieros repercute en 0,6 puntos de reducción del coeficiente de desigualdad y un incremento del 10% en el crédito privado reduce la pobreza en cerca del 3%.

The socio-economic impact of mobile phones in India

In one of our recent postings, we discussed the findings of a report 

surveying the 20 top studies on the impact mobile phones have on developing countries based on content, relevance, originality and credibility. Last week, Vodafone added an interesting new piece of research to this body of literature with the release of their latest addition to their series of studies on the socio-economic impact of mobile phones. Entitled India: The impact of mobile phones, the report demonstrates that mobiles aid the process by which disadvantaged groups, including the low-skilled labor force, enjoy the fruits of economic growth.

The economic and social impact of mobile communications in developing countries

Most of the developed world has reached high penetration levels of mobile phones. However, current growth patterns and future projections suggest that virtually all of the mobile industries new customers in the coming years will come from developing countries. In fact, as of 2007, there were more mobile customers in developing countries than in the entire developed world.

The GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association representing more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators, has recently issued a report (pdf, 36 pages) surveying the 20 top studies on the impact mobile phones have on developing countries based on content, relevance, originality and credibility.

The report underlines that the developing world is in fact leap-frogging the developed world when it comes to mobile communication and its many uses. The implications of this technology on daily life in developing countries appear to be more far-reaching than they were ever in the earlier developed country rollouts.