20 case studies illustrate each chapter in part I and II. Cases include well-known examples from the literature as well as lesser known cases based on Emergia’s own research, including the SAFO initiative (Strategic Alliance for the Fortification of Oil and Other Staple Foods), a public-private partnership between BASF and the GTZ aimed at providing low-income population groups in currently six selected emerging and developing countries at low cost with staple foods fortified with vitamin A (Bolivia, Brazil, Tanzania, Indonesia, Cambodia and Uzbekistan).

Links to further information and contacts to support organizations make it easy for users to take the next step.

You can download or order a copy of "Entwicklungsgeschäfte - Geschäfte machen gegen Armut" here. The launch event takes place on 3 November 2009 as of 6 p.m. at the GTZ House in Berlin. For more information and to RSVP click here.

1.6 billion people do not have access to electricity. 3 billion people still use traditional biomass for cooking. This has serious consequences on the affected populations in terms of health, education, well-being, or development.

A recent report (pdf, 2.2 MB) highlights different projects allowing energy access to poor sections of the population from developing countries. The study, produced by Ashoka, the world’s largest association of social entrepreneurs, and Hystra, a global consulting firm focused on addressing social and environmental problems, highlights that “market-based solutions for access to energy are powerful, necessary, and are ready to scale up. Entrepreneurs are in urban and rural areas, serving the needs of low-income people for cooking, lighting, communications, and income generation.”

The study, which was supported by GDF SUEZ, Total, and Schneider Electric, also underlines that the adequate response to the needs of underprivileged sections of the population can be elaborated not only by developing products and services that are cost and need efficient, but also through the optimization of the "human capital" of the above-mentioned sections, i.e. their organization skills, the existing solidarities between them, and their social networks.

See this brief video on youtube introducing the report.

He argues that Western companies have yet to figure out how to turn the billions of people living in poverty into customers. In Simanis' view, when selling to poor consumers, companies need to begin by doing something basic: create markets among poor consumers. "They must make the idea of paying money for the products seem natural, and they must induce consumers to fit those goods into their long-held routines.”

According to him, the billions of people with a low income have a lot in common, but they are “not actually a market”, as they lack “two of the vital characteristics you need to have a consumer market. They haven't been conditioned to think that the products being offered are something one would even buy. And they haven't adapted their behaviors and budgets to fit the products into their lives. A consumer market is nothing less than a lifestyle built around a product.”

In his article, Simanis analyzes a.o. the reasons for the commercial failure of Procter & Gamble’s PUR water treatment product, for which three years of test marketing in four countries returned mostly low penetration rates as well as a weak return on investment. And he advises companies to overcome consumer inertia by getting the community involved in creating, implementing and shaping the business itself. “The sense of ownership this brings will help ensure that interest in the company's product will be widespread and sustained.”

More information:

Este Programa – dictado en idioma español y durante el cual los participantes accederán a papers y casos traducidos sobre la temática – posee un carácter teórico-práctico. El tiempo de duración estimado para concluir el Programa, el cual comienza en diciembre de 2009, es de aproximadamente 90 días de los cuales 7 días corresponden a la primera etapa, 7 a la segunda y 76 días para la tercera.

El Programa está dividido en 3 partes, que se mencionan a continuación con sus respectivos contenidos.

Parte I – Desarrollo Sustentable y Sustentabilidad Empresarial

1. Desarrollo Sustentable (conceptualización, evolución y su impacto en la estrategia de negocios)
2. Modelo de Valor Sustentable
3. Mercados del Mañana: tendencias globales y sus implicancias para los negocios

Parte II – Stakeholders y Stakeholders Periféricos

1. Sustentabilidad y el valor para los negocios de la relación con los stakeholders
2. Los stakeholders periféricos como fuente de innovación e imaginación competitiva
3. Diálogo e innovación: claves de la empresa sustentable
4. Alianzas estratégicas y para el aprendizaje

Parte III – Negocios en la Base de la Pirámide

1. Base de la Pirámide
2. Capacidades organizacionales para la base de la pirámide
3. Innovación tecnológica y base de la pirámide
4. Diferentes estrategias para la base de la pirámide
5. Los Impactos de las estrategias empresariales en la base de la Pirámide (identificación y medición)

Costo del Programa

US$ 780 para el público general. Las empresas miembras del World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) y de sus contrapartes nacionales de la Red Regional en América latina reciben un 12% de descuento (US$ 686).

Mayor información:

Descargue el flyer (pdf, 1 página) o contacte a Miguel Angel Gardetti, Director del Instituto de Estudios para la Sustentabilidad Corporativa y coordinador del Laboratorio de Aprendizaje de la Base de la Pirámide en la Argentina.

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."