items sorted by publication date
2006
Business as a partner in strengthening public health systems in developing countries: an agenda for action 
By Jane Nelson, International Business Leaders Forum [Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum], November 21, 2006
This report reviews the potential for business to contribute to public health systems in developing countries. The paper argues that while governments clearly have the overall responsibility for ensuring that health systems serve their populations more effectively, other partners, including the business community, can play a role.
>> More Details | created on: 11/21/2006
Economic Empowerment through Mobile 
Vodafone, November 10, 2006
The new report by Vodafone includes three case studies: "Mobile phone banking and low-income customers: Evidence from South Africa", "A sense of balance: A socio-economic analysis of airtime transfer services in Egypt" and "Mobile-enabled transactions for the base of the economic pyramid: A brief review of the 2006 ‘state-of-play".
>> More Details | created on: 11/10/2006
The Development Impact of Remittances in Latin America
By Pablo Fajnzylber and J. Humberto López, World Bank, November 2, 2006
The report analyzes the characteristics of households that are remittance recipients and how these characteristics affect the poverty-reducing impact of observed remittances flows. It also devotes significant attention to the macroeconomic impact of these flows, and explores policies and interventions aimed at enhancing the development impact of remittances in the region.
>> More Details | created on: 11/02/2006
Measuring the contribution of the private sector to achieving the Millennium Development Goals
bidnetwork.org, November 1, 2006
A generic framework to measure the contribution and impact of the private sector on the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) has been developed and will be made available as a web-based tool to companies that wish to measure their own contributions to the MDGs.
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2007
Make Poverty Business
By Craig Wilson & Peter Wilson , Greenleaf Publishing, October 31, 2006
The co-authors provide a blueprint for on-the-ground managers of multinational corporations to create sustainable profits and reduce country risk by helping alleviate poverty.
>> More Details | created on: 01/19/2007
Sending Money Home. Leveraging the Development Impact of Remittances
Inter-American Development Bank, October 18, 2006
Remittances sent to Latin America and the Caribbean from all parts of the world are expected to be more than $60 billion in 2006, surpassing both the amount of official development assistance and foreign direct investment to the region. Money transfer costs have been reduced by over 50 percent. Remittances constitute one of the broadest and most effective poverty alleviation programs in the world, reaching approximately 20 million households in the LAC region alone.
>> More Details | created on: 10/20/2006
Africa Emerges as China and India’s New Economic Frontier
By Harry G. Broadman, World Bank, September 16, 2006
Chinese and Indian firms are increasingly doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa, and their interest in the continent extends well beyond a hunt for natural resources, a new World Bank study says.
Exports from Africa to Asia tripled in the last five years, making Asia Africa's third largest trading partner (27 percent) after the European Union (32 percent) and the United States (29 percent), according to Africa's Silk Road: China and India's New Economic Frontier. Indian and Chinese foreign direct investment also grew, with China's amounting to $US1.18 billion by mid-2006, notes the study.
>> More Details | created on: 09/22/2006
Economic Freedom of the World
By James Gwartney and Robert Lawson with William Easterly , CATO Institute, September 8, 2006
This year's report notes that economic freedom remains on the rise. The average economic freedom score rose from 5.1 (out of 10) in 1980 to 6.5 in the most recent year for which data are available. Of the 102 nations with scores in 1980 and in the most recent index, 98 recorded improvements in their economic freedom score, four saw a decline. In this year's index, Hong Kong retains the highest rating for economic freedom, 8.7 out of 10, followed by Singapore at 8.5. New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States tied for third with ratings of 8.2. Ireland and the United Kingdom are tied for 6th at 8.1. Canada ranked 8th with a rating of 8.0. Iceland and Luxembourg are tied for 9th at 7.9.
>> More Details | created on: 09/08/2006
In the Public Interest: Health, Education, and Water and Sanitation for All
Oxfam, September 1, 2006
Classrooms with teachers, clinics with nurses, running taps and working toilets: these basic public services are key to ending global poverty, according to a new report from Oxfam and WaterAid. And, the agencies say, only governments are in a position to deliver them on the scale needed to transform the lives of millions living in poverty.
>> More Details | created on: 09/08/2006
Show me the money
UNEP Finance Initiative Asset Management Working Group, July 18, 2006
"Show Me the Money" is a 47-page summary report synthesizing more than 1,000 pages of research from the mainstream financial analyst community. The report draws on work by a group of leading financial institutions and covers the impact of qualitative and new risk issues on company value. Industries covered include the auto-industry, aerospace and defense, the media, and the food and beverage industries.
>> More Details | created on: 07/20/2006
The Department for International Development (DFID) and Private Sector Development
The Department for International Development (DFID), July 17, 2006
The report, released in late July, argues that the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) should work with companies to influence the way they trade, invest, employ staff and address their social and environmental impacts. Whilst acknowledging that DFID is increasingly prioritizing private sector development, the IDC cautions that its structure has not "caught up" with this new emphasis and that a "cultural divide" may exist between DFID and the private sector. The report also emphasizes the need to tackle corruption.
>> More Details | created on: 07/31/2006
The Market of the Majority: the BoP Opportunity Map of Latin America and the Caribbean
World Resources Institute, July 5, 2006
The majority of the world ’s people subsist on incomes which do not fully meet basic human needs. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the majority comprise 70%of the region ’s population, around 360 million people; they are the base of the economic pyramid (BOP). The BOP is far too large to be ignored —as a market, as a matter of equity,and as a potential threat to social stability.
>> More Details | created on: 07/05/2006
Deepening Rural Financial Markets: Macroeconomic, Policy and Political Dimensions
By Claudio Gonzalez-Vega, June 30, 2006
This paper examines key features of a macroeconomic environment, policy framework, and government and donor interventions conducive to rural financial deepening. The paper also explores typical difficulties, encountered in political arenas, in the adoption of the required macroeconomic and policy framework. In particular, the paper addresses specific consequences for rural financial market development of the programs for macroeconomic stabilization, structural adjustment,
financial liberalization, and improvements in the framework of prudential regulation and supervision implemented by many developing countries in the past two decades.
>> More Details | created on: 06/30/2006
Business for Development: Business solutions in support of the Millennium Development Goals
By World Business Council for Sustainable Development, June 6, 2006
This publication shows how each individual business initiative can contribute towards achieving a number of MDG targets. It provides fourteen examples of business models that deliver development benefits, companies describe the particular obstacles to growth they have encountered. In addition to that the report identifies more general issues relating to the contribution of businesses to achieving the MDGs. It also identifies a number of steps which governments should take to facilitate this process.
>> More Details | created on: 06/06/2006
The Triple Bottom Line - How Today’s Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success – And How You Can Too
By Andrew Savitz & Karl Weber , June 2, 2006
General Electric is acting on a huge opportunity. It’s called climate change. Since 2002 the company’s wind energy business, acquired from Enron, has quadrupled in revenue. Its fuel-efficient jet and locomotive engines, and natural gas turbines are becoming essential to customers in search of ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2003, GE has sold over USD 1 billion worth of wind and natural gas turbines to China. It’s a movement that’s only just beginning.
>> More Details | created on: 06/02/2006
Improving health, connecting people: the role of ICTs in the health sector of developing countries
By Edited by Andrew Chetley; with contributions by Jackie Davies, Bernard Trude, Harry McConnell, Roberto Ramirez, T Shields, Peter Drury, J Kumekawa, J Louw, G Fereday, Caroline Nyamai-Kisia, BiD Network, May 31, 2006
This framework paper is aimed at policy makers who are involved in the development or management of programmes in the health sector in developing countries. It provides a ‘snapshot’ of the type of information and communication technology (ICT) interventions that are being used in the health sector, and the policy debates around ICTs and health. It draws from the experience of use in both the North and South, but with a focus on applicability in the South to identify the most effective and relevant uses of ICTs.
>> More Details | created on: 11/02/2006
Building Opportunity for the Majority
By Inter-American Development Bank, May 30, 2006
The IDB's Building Opportunity for the Majority initiative focuses on improving conditions for low-income population in Latin America and the Caribbean by looking at that vast majority through a new lens. People living and working at the base of the region’s economic pyramid need to be seen as what they really are —consumers, producers, partners, creators of wealth.
In recent years, countries throughout the region have made significant advances in nurturing democracy, macro-economic stability, and legal and regulatory reform. Yet some 360 million people –70 percent of the region's population-- live on less than $300 a month, measured in purchasing power parity dollars. The benefits of growth need to reach the majority if the region is to progress on a stable and sustainable path.
>> More Details | created on: 06/16/2006
Untapped : Creating Value in Underserved Markets
By John Weiser, Michele Kahane, Steve Rochlin, Jessica Landis , May 28, 2006
This book is a practical guide for managers on how to buy from, hire from, and sell to underserved markets in ways that create benefits for corporations and communities alike. Based on rigorous research spanning seven years and fifty cases, Untapped clearly outlines how to establish the kinds of win-win partnerships that are vital to succeeding in these complex but potentially rewarding markets. Combining practical tools, case studies, and careful analysis, Untapped provides concrete, grounded guidance for investing in and partnering with underserved communities to create not only significant competitive advantages but also vibrant communities in which to live, work, and do business.
>> More Details | created on: 06/28/2006
A business guide to development actors
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, May 25, 2006
One year ago, two of the world’s leading responsible business specialists joined forces and launched "A business guide to development actors", a guide for business managers interested in working with development organizations, but unsure where to begin in their search for effective partners.
>> More Details | created on: 05/25/2006
Pathways Out of Poverty: Innovations in Microfinance for the Poorest Families
By Sam Daley-Harris, May 23, 2006
Compiled and edited by Sam Daley-Harris (Founder and President of RESULTS Education Fund), Pathways Out Of Poverty: Innovations In Microfinance For The Poorest Families is a study of how to best help the 1.2 billion people worldwide who subsist on less than $1 a day. Pathways Out Of Poverty is a detailed survey and analysis of microfinance as a means of loaning very small amounts of money to help families become self-sufficient. Individual chapters cogently address the special concerns of HIV/AIDS prevention among the poorest fifth of the entrepreneurial world; how microfinance can empower women and how microfinance can improve reproductive health. Pathways Out Of Poverty is a very highly recommended reading for anyone concerned with creating tangible, effective solutions to the age-old problem of endemic poverty.
>> More Details | created on: 05/23/2006
Taxation and Mobile Communications in Bangladesh
By GSM Association, May 12, 2006
Bangladesh's booming mobile phone industry has emerged as a key driver of the cash-strapped nation's economy, creating nearly 240,000 jobs and adding 650 million dollars to gross domestic product.
"The mobile phone industry in Bangladesh employs 237,900 people directly and indirectly. These are well-paid jobs with salaries many times the national average," said the study by the international consultancy firm Ovum.
The study commissioned by the GSM Association (GSMA), a global industry body of 690 operators, found that the mobile services industry contributed 650 million dollars to Bangladesh's GDP annually.
>> More Details | created on: 05/12/2006
Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid
By USAID, May 4, 2006
Chapter 8 of USAID's Report on the Global Development Alliance focuses on base of the pyramid initiatives.
In partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and nongovernmental organizations, leading companies are finding ways to provide vital goods and services to millions of underserved people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. The alliances in this section of the report cover health, microfinance, enterprise development, and agriculture. They represent diverse business models, some intricate (with many participants across a continent), others compact and focused.
>> More Details | created on: 05/04/2006
Information and Communications for Development 2006: Global Trends and Policies
World Bank, March 9, 2006
Information and Communications for Development 2006: Global Trends and Policies is a World Bank flagship publication addressing the critical role being played by information and communication technologies (ICT) in economic development. It provides a global overview of ICT trends and policies in developing countries, covering issues such as financing infrastructure, the importance of public-private partnerships and effective competition to extending access, using ICT in doing business and formulating national e-strategies. The ICT At-a-Glance tables for 144 economies show the most recent national data on key indicators of ICT development. The data enable assessment and comparison both over time and across economies to assess ICT capacity, performance, progress and opportunities.
>> More Details | created on: 02/23/2007
The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working
By Robert Calderisi, Palgrave Macmillan , 2006
Calderisi's aim is to move beyond the hand-wringing and finger-pointing which dominates most discussions of Africa. Instead, he suggests concrete steps which Africans and the world can take to liberate talent and enterprise on the continent.
>> More Details | created on: 03/13/2006
From Challenge to Opportunity. The role of business in tomorrow's society
By World Business Council for Sustainable Development, February 20, 2006
Companies able to tackle issues such as poverty, climate change and population shifts are those most likely to succeed in the future. This is a view shared by eight global business leaders in a major new publication from the WBCSD. From Challenge to Opportunity sets out a "manifesto for tomorrow's global business" as defined by the Tomorrow's Leaders group of the WBCSD. It also discusses why and how four key areas of business and sustainable development need to be profitable in order to be effective.
>> More Details | created on: 06/15/2006
A Billion to Gain? A Study on Global Financial Institutions and Microfinance
By EIBE - Institute of Business Ethics, Netherlands, February, 2006
Microfinance is on the rise. Since the mid-1990s domestic commercial banks have had a significant and positive influence on the access to financial services through microfinance. Only recently have international commercial banks come more to the foreground. In the past year, the UN International Year of Microcredit 2005, various major international banks announced that they will initiate or expand their activities related to microfinance. The purpose of this study, commissioned by ING Microfinance Support and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is to study the initiative international banks are taking, and how this relates to the activities of domestic banks.
>> More Details | created on: 05/31/2006
Multinational Corporations: A Key to Global Poverty Reduction
Global Envision, 2006
MNCs have the unmatched power and competence to reduce global poverty. Increasingly, world opinion, as well as the inclinations of their own managers and staff, urges MNCs to use that power more effectively. But MNCs lack a vehicle to make that transition in a sustainable and legitimate way.
>> More Details | created on: 02/02/2006
The 86% Solution: How to Succeed in the Biggest Market Opportunity of the Next 50 Years
By Vijay Mahajan & Kamini Banga, Wharton School Publishing, 2006
“The 86 percent” here is an estimate of people living in countries with per capita gross national product of less than $10,000. Of the world’s six billion-plus inhabitants, only 14 percent live in countries where this measure is over $10,000. According to Vijay Mahajan and Kamini Banga, companies can no longer afford to not pay attention to emerging economies.
>> More Details | created on: 02/07/2006
Migration, Unemployment and Net Benefits of Inbound Tourism in a Developing Country
By Mondher Sahli & Jean-Jacques Nowak, FEEM Working Paper No. 148.05 , December, 2005
International tourism is increasingly viewed as one of the best opportunities for a sustainable economic and social development of developing countries. There is also an increasing concern from public policy makers as to whether mass tourism coastal resorts can play a catalytic role in the overall economic development and improve the real income of their community. In this paper, we present a general equilibrium model which explicitly takes into consideration specific features of some developing countries (e.g. coastal tourism, dual labour market, unemployment, migrations, competition between agriculture and tourism for land) to analyse the ways by which an inbound tourism boom affects this kind of country, in particular its real income. We define the conditions under which an inbound tourism boom makes developing countries residents worse off.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
MicroFranchises as a Solution to Global Poverty
By Kirk Magleby, December, 2005
Most successful sustainable development projects in recent years utilize some variation of the MicroFranchise business model. The paper analyzes the strengths of the MicroFranchise business model as an innovative solution to global poverty. Through a thorough discussion on the causes and effects of poverty, the paper positions the worldwide MicroFranchise movement in its global context.
>> More Details | created on: 02/06/2006
Inequality and Poverty in Africa in an Era of Globalization: Looking Beyond Income to Health and Education
By David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program Working Paper No. 194 , November 25, 2005
This paper describes changes over the past 15-20 years in non-income measures of wellbeing - education and health - in Africa.
>> More Details | created on: 03/20/2006
Private Sector Strategies for Providing Healthcare at the Base of the Pyramid
By John Paul, World Resources Institute, November, 2005
The report highlights a number of innovative enterprises that leverage cross-sector partnerships to provide affordable healthcare to the poor.
>> More Details | created on: 02/03/2006
Building Digital Bridges - Approaches and best practices
International Telecommunication Union, November, 2005
This report looks at efforts by stakeholders at the local, national and international level to bridge the digital divide. It reviews the role of new technologies, multi-stakeholder partnerships and ICT indices in reducing the gap, taking an in-depth look at the cases of Australia, Hong Kong, India, Korea (Rep. of) and Malaysia. The report also proposes a methodology for the development of a composite Digital Opportunity Index (DOI).
>> More Details | created on: 07/07/2006
The Economic Impact of Telecommunications on Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction: A study of rural communities in India (Gujarat), Mozambique and Tanzania
By Prof. David Souter, Dr Nigel Scott, Prof. Christopher Garforth, Prof. Rekha Jain, Prof. Ophelia Mascarenhas & Dr. Kevin McKemey, DFID - UK Department for International Development, October, 2005
Aimed at a policy audience this paper looks at the use of various communications technologies in villages in Gujarat, Mozambique and Tanzania.
>> More Details | created on: 06/06/2006
Exploring the Links Between International Business and Poverty Reduction: A Case Study of Unilever in Indonesia
By Jason Clay, Oxfam and CasePlace.org, October, 2005
In an attempt to evaluate the impacts of international business on people living in poverty, two organizations with very different aims and perspectives - Unilever and Oxfam - collaborated on an ambitious research project. The research considered the impacts of Unilever Indonesia across the entire business value chain, from producers and suppliers, through the company's core business operations, to its distributors, retailers, and consumers.
>> More Details | created on: 05/29/2007
Agricultural Growth for the Poor: An Agenda for Development
World Bank ISBN: 0-8213-6067-1 , June, 2005
This book seeks to articulate the World Bank's Rural Strategy on agriculture to the wider development community. It provides decision makers with the rationale for supporting agriculture by presenting the lessons learned on the policies, institutions, and priority investments that can sustain pro-poor agricultural growth.
>> More Details | created on: 03/13/2006
Agricultural Growth and the Poor: An Agenda for Development
World Bank, June 1, 2005
The majority of the world's poor depend directly or indirectly on agriculture. Despite the strong linkages between broad-based agricultural growth and poverty reduction, international support to agriculture sharply declined from the late 1980s. The need to raise agriculture's prominence in the development agenda has never been greater. This book seeks to articulate the World Bank's Rural Strategy on agriculture to the wider development community. It provides decision makers with the rationale for supporting agriculture by presenting the lessons learned on the policies, institutions, and priority investments that can sustain pro-poor agricultural growth.
>> View Article | created on: 11/30/2005
Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works
By Stephen C. Smith, Palgrave ISBN: 140396534x , May, 2005
Smith gives readers the tools they need to help people overcome poverty and to determine what approaches are most effective in fighting it.
>> More Details | created on: 03/13/2006
The Profile of Microfinance in Latin America in 10 Years: Vision and Characteristics
By María Otero and Beatriz Marulanda, Accion International, April, 2005
The study examines the state of the microfinance industry in Latin America today and looks at the challenges and opportunities in the coming decade. It also provides recommendations about the role of banks, specialized microfinance institutions, NGOs, regulators, donors and governments in assuring a healthy industry with an ever-broader outreach. These analyses are based on statistical data from approximately 100 MFIs and interviews with 28 microfinance players.
>> More Details | created on: 05/11/2006
Marrying Jekyll with Hyde? Transnational Enterprises, Pro-Poor Development and Sustainable Ethical Learning
By Linda Mayoux, Discussion Draft, April, 2005
Transnational Enterprises (TNEs) are an important source of direct and indirect employment creation in the global economy. Largely in response to external pressures by NGOs and consumers, there has been a growing number of Guidelines and Codes for Corporate Social Responsibility being adopted by such companies. Now, TNEs are beginning to understand that corporate social and environmental responsibility can also increase their profits and sustainability. This paper focuses on recent innovations which can contribute to a key element in seeking constructive ways forward towards this 'win-win' business case: the building of a participatory ethical learning process which can increase trust, transparency and mutual accountability.
>> More Details | created on: 02/06/2006