Housing, education and banking, increasingly through mobile technology, are three of the fastest growing areas for private companies doing business with the Base of the Pyramid. Thanks to creative and also profitable new business models, low-income Colombians living outside the formal banking system are buying homes and appliances like fridges and washing machines on credit, and Brazilians with few early education options are giving their preschoolers a head start with targeted educational materials.

Colombia leads the way in Latin America with an active and aggressive private sector serving BoP markets.  Utility company Empresas Públicas de Medellin analyzes the payment history of its 1.7 million customers and offers credit to those with a track record of paying on time.  Thanks to this ingenious way of establishing credit histories, EPM customers can afford to buy household appliances while EPM expands its presence in underserved markets.

The poor spend a disproportionate amount of their incomes on housing, yet homeownership is often beyond their reach.  Credifamilia is a creative partnership between a financial institution and homebuilders in Colombia that analyzes the creditworthiness of low-income and self-employed workers with little credit history and offers them mortgages to buy new and affordable homes.

Preschools are rare in low-income neighborhoods in Brazil and many young children start their formal education at a disadvantage. PUPA is the first company in Brazil to offer an installment delivery and payment plan so parents can buy educational toys and books specifically targeted to growing and developing young children and caregivers without much education.

EPM’s General Manager Juan Esteban Calle, Credifamilia’s CEO Juan Sebastian Pardo and PUPA’s founder and CEO Mary Anne Amorim will discuss the nuts and bolts of successfully reaching these large and largely untapped markets.  The three top executives will be among many other BoP experts discussing their companies’ successful models at the Inter-American Development Bank’s II BASE Forum International in Medellin, Colombia on June 6-7, 2013.

How to effectively deploy models into BoP markets using existing platforms and proven strategies will be the focus of the two-day discussion.

Register at www.forobase2013.com

For more information, email linasa@iadb.org

Cape Town, 10 May – Involving low-income communities in markets and businesses across Africa is essential for economic growth to translate into sustainable development, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released today.

“Realizing Africa’s Wealth – Building Inclusive Businesses for Shared Prosperity” draws upon 43 in-depth case studies and a database of 600 institutions to portray the state of inclusive business in Africa, looking at a wide spectrum of sectors from banking to agribusiness.

Commissioned by Growing Inclusive Markets initiative and prepared by UNDP’s African Facility for Inclusive Markets, the report examines the approaches and conditions required to bring economic growth closer to low-income communities in Africa, focusing on how businesses can more readily include them as consumers, entrepreneurs and employees. It describes the status of inclusive business in sub-Saharan Africa and the environment needed to support the enterprises and entrepreneurs. It identifies promising opportunities in enabling enterprises and entrepreneurs to build more – and stronger – inclusive businesses. The report calls for more efforts to support inclusive businesses with incentives and investment schemes as well as knowledge sharing about market information and implementation.

By working together to increase information, incentives, implementation support and investments required to make businesses more inclusive, the report makes the case that policy-makers, business owners and development practitioners in Africa will be in a position to make dramatic advances across the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Africa has seen some strong economic growth over the past decade. Nonetheless, rapid economic progress has not brought prosperity to all, and inclusive business represents a promising approach by bringing the benefits of economic growth directly to the poor by including them in value chains,” the Deputy Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa, Babacar Cissé, said. “We need young entrepreneurs and innovators as drivers of inclusive businesses. We need organizations that are willing to take the roles of catalysts, supporters and funders of inclusive businesses.”

Making sure all African citizens can become entrepreneurs, consumers, employees or producers, requires business environments that provide opportunities for all. Market information, policies and legal frameworks that reduce transaction costs, financing and logistical assistance are key to ensuring businesses that are inclusive of the poor can succeed. Facilitating business and market creation not only generates income, but also basic goods, services and choices, with important implications for each of the MDGs, the eight internationally-agreed targets which aim to reduce poverty by 2015.

The report illustrates the impact that businesses and markets have had on the lives of the poor. In Burkina Faso, the French organic cosmetics company L’Occitane invested in the capacities of local women’s cooperatives, helping 15,000 employees to produce and export quality shea butter, and generate US$1.2 million in profits.

In Tanzania, a factory operated by local company A to Z, together with Japanese chemical company Sumitomo, produced 30 million long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and employed 7,500 people.

In Kenya, Equity Bank and K-Rep Bank funded the country’s national agricultural commodities exchange, which has successfully helped increase the income of thousands of small-scale farmers.

“Businesses are key to achieving these advances, but we certainly need more capacity-building entities, such as civil society organizations, governments, developing partners and research institutions, with demonstrated abilities to assist businesses in building inclusive models,” the Chief Executive Officer of Equity Bank in Kenya, James Mwangi, said.

The report calls for the development of new inclusive business ecosystem-building initiatives, at national and regional levels, with the support of finance mechanisms to provide resources for coordination, information and funding. It also calls for the creation of centres of excellence to undertake research, document successful approached and share knowledge.

The report was launched today by the President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, and the Manager of the UNDP Regional Service Centre in Johannesburg, Gerd Trogemann, at a side event of the World Economic Forum for Africa. BCtA served as a co-sponsor.  For a copy of the report go to http://on.undp.org/kS0mx

Recognizing that poverty and poor health are often linked, Novartis has developed the Arogya Parivar (“healthy family”) programme, which aims to empower communities to make better healthcare decisions and expand access to health education and affordable drugs.

Over six years, Arogya Parivar has helped create more than 500 jobs and has built skills and capacity among hundreds of business partners, suppliers, and customers, including healthcare professionals in India. Its impact translates to providing 42 million people with improved access to healthcare across an estimated 33,000 villages. According to the company, 50,000 doctors and pharmacies have also received medical knowledge transfer.

All products and health information are translated into seven languages. The programme currently focuses on four pillars: awareness, acceptability, availability, and adaptability.

Arogya Parivar and social business are a key part of the Novartis commitment to access to healthcare. The company is pioneering new business approaches to sustainably deliver healthcare to more people, particularly in the developing world. Beyond social business initiatives, Novartis focuses on finding new treatments and eliminating diseases including leprosy and malaria.

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As we approach 2015, the target date for the internationally-agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there is growing awareness of the importance of a vibrant private sector in driving long-term growth and development in Africa.

As the world starts to explore what framework might replace the MDGs, it is important to integrate the views of those investing and doing business in Africa, and to understand how best to harness business as an engine for economic development.

You are invited to participate in a high-profile, lunchtime event on 8 May in Cape Town, timed to coincide with the WEF Africa Summit.

The event is being convened by Business Fights Poverty and the Overseas Development Institute.  Business Action for Africa, the International Business Leaders Forum and the Business Call to Action are supporting partners.

The event will see the launch of a research report by ODI and Business Fights Poverty.

Speakers:

• Mthuli Ncube, Chief Economist, African Development Bank
• Andy Wales, SVP, Sustainable Development, SABMiller
• Fathima Dada, President, Schools International Business Unit, Pearson
• Amina Mohammed, Assistant Secretary-General; Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, United Nations

Moderator:

Tashmia Ismail, Faculty and BOP Hub Manager, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria

This event is by application only.  To apply for a place, please email Natasha Ncube.

As we approach 2015, the target date for the internationally-agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there is growing awareness of the importance of a vibrant private sector in driving long-term growth and development in Africa.

As the world starts to explore what framework might replace the MDGs, it is important to integrate the views of those investing and doing business in Africa, and to understand how best to harness business as an engine for economic development.

You are invited to participate in a high-profile, lunchtime event on 8 May in Cape Town, timed to coincide with the WEF Africa Summit.

The event is being convened by Business Fights Poverty and the Overseas Development Institute.  Business Action for Africa, the International Business Leaders Forum and the Business Call to Action are supporting partners.

The event will see the launch of a research report by ODI and Business Fights Poverty.

Speakers:

• Mthuli Ncube, Chief Economist, African Development Bank
• Andy Wales, SVP, Sustainable Development, SABMiller
• Fathima Dada, President, Schools International Business Unit, Pearson
• Amina Mohammed, Assistant Secretary-General; Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning, United Nations

Moderator:

Tashmia Ismail, Faculty and BOP Hub Manager, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria

This event is by application only.  To apply for a place, please email Natasha Ncube.

Recognizing that poverty and poor health are often linked, Novartis has developed the Arogya Parivar (“healthy family”) programme, which aims to empower communities to make better healthcare decisions and expand access to health education and affordable drugs.

Over six years, Arogya Parivar has helped create more than 500 jobs and has built skills and capacity among hundreds of business partners, suppliers, and customers, including healthcare professionals in India. Its impact translates to providing 42 million people with improved access to healthcare across an estimated 33,000 villages. According to the company, 50,000 doctors and pharmacies have also received medical knowledge transfer.

“Novartis’s commitment to the Business Call to Action reinforces the inclusive business model with its focus on strong linkages with distribution networks, addressing the evolving needs of consumers and partnering with local health workers to connect with communities,” Sahba Sobhani, BCtA Acting Programme Manager, said. “It ensures a greater awareness of healthcare products and services to address hurdles and misperceptions in education and provision of healthcare.

BCtA is supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and other international organizations.

Photo credit: Novartis

“We are pleased to become a member of Business Call to Action and look forward to expanding our work to enhance access to healthcare and health education for people living at the bottom of the economic pyramid,” said Anuj Pasrija, Head of Social Business at Novartis.

All products and health information are translated into seven languages. The programme currently focuses on four pillars: awareness, acceptability, availability, and adaptability.

Arogya Parivar and social business are a key part of the Novartis commitment to access to healthcare. The company is pioneering new business approaches to sustainably deliver healthcare to more people, particularly in the developing world. Beyond social business initiatives, Novartis focuses on finding new treatments and eliminating diseases including leprosy and malaria.

For More Information:

BCtA: Karen Newman, karen.newman@undp.org +1 212 906 5194

Novartis: corporate.responsibility@novartis.com, www.novartis.com/corporate-responsibility

Business Call to Action is a global initiative that challenges companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for development impact along with commercial success. The initiative is the result of a partnership between the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), UK Department for International Development (DFID), US Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Global Compact, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the International Business Leaders Forum to meet the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Companies report on progress toward commitments on an annual basis. For more information, please visit www.businesscalltoaction.org or join the conversation on Twitter at @BCtAInitiative.

Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines and diagnostic tools, over-the-counter and animal health products. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2012, the Group achieved net sales of USD 56.7 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.3 billion (USD 9.1 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 128,000 full-time-equivalent associates and operate in more than 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.novartis.com or join the conversation on Twitter at @Novartis.

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Follow the link to apply.

Dear Members and Friends,

As you may know, UN Development Programme and Business Call to Action are proud partners of the Social Innovation Summit 2013 at the United Nations on May 29-30^th and are delighted to extend you this special invitation! To register online as our guest, please use VIP Code: UN30 (special 30% discount).

Social Innovation Summit is a premier invitation-only conference connecting and inspiring a unique network of the top Business, Philanthropy, Media, Technology & Community leaders passionate about creating positive social change. Balancing significant networking opportunities with a roster of high-profile speakers, the Social Innovation Summit offers a unique framework to discuss global challenges, analyze innovative approaches for problem-solving, and build lasting partnerships that maximize social impact.

Hosted in partnership with Landmark Ventures and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, we would be delighted if you would accept our invitation with details as follows:

May 29-30, 2013
United Nations Headquarters
First Avenue at 46^th Street
New York, NY 10017

ONLINE REGISTRATION

Summit Website:  www.socinnovation.com

VIP Code: UN30 (special 30% discount)

PARTIAL LIST OF PAST SPEAKERS

• Adam Brotman, Chief Digital Officer – Starbucks
• Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs – Microsoft
• Alan Hassenfeld, Chairman of the Executive Committee – Hasbro
• Alicia Keys, Multi-Platinum Grammy award-winning Musician, Actress
• Barbara Bush, Executive Director – Global Health Corps
• Bill Draper, Legendary VC; Chairman – Draper Richards Foundation
• Bill Gross, Chairman & CEO – Idealab
• Bryan Clay, Olympic Decathlete, Gold Medalist – 2008 Beijing Olympics
• Charles Best, Founder & CEO – DonorsChoose.org
• Charles Moore, Executive Director – Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy
• Craig Newmark, Chairman & Founder – Craigslist
• Cynthia Germanotta, Co-founder and President – Born This Way Foundation (Lady Gaga’s Mother)
• Dan Warmenhoven, Chairman – NetApp
• Daniel Epstein, CEO – Unreasonable Institute
• Dan’l Lewin, EVP, Strategic & Emerging Business Development – Microsoft
• Dikembe Mutombo, Philanthropist, former NBA All-Star
• Eric Benhamou, Former Chairman & CEO – Palm, 3Com
• Gerald Chertavian, Founder & CEO – Year Up
• Howard W. Buffett, Executive Director – Howard G. Buffett Foundation
• Hunter Walk, Head of Social Good Initiatives – YouTube
• Jacquelline Fuller, Director, Charitable Giving & Advocacy – Google
• James Gowen, Chief Sustainability Officer – Verizon
• Jean-Pierre Rosso, Chairman – World Economic Forum USA
• Jeff Seabright, Chief Environmental Officer – Coca-Cola
• Jeff Swartz, Former CEO & President – Timberland
• John Abele, Founder – Boston Scientific Corporation
• John Wood, Founder & Co-Chairman – Room to Read
• Jonathan Greenblatt, Head, Office of Social Innovation – White House
• Kathy Pickus, VP, Abbott Fund & Global Citizenship and Policy – Abbott Labs
• Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, President – Marc & Laura Andreessen Foundation
• Mallory Weggemann, Paralympic Swimmer, Gold Medalist – 2012 London Olympics
• Marc Pollick, President and Founder, The Giving Back Fund
• Marika McCauley Sine, Director of International Public Affairs – Coca-Cola
• Maura O’Neil, Chief Innovation Officer – USAID
• Mitchell Kapor, Founder – Mitchell Kapor Foundation
• Nick Beim, General Partner – Matrix Partners
• Nirvan Mullick, Founder, Imagination Foundation; Director – Caine’s Arcade
• Padma Lakshmi, Author, Actress, Model, Television Host; Co-Founder – Endometriosis Foundation
• Peter Bloom, Chairman – DonorsChoose.org
• Rahul Raj, Director of Sustainability and E-Commerce – Walmart.com
• Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Chairman – LinkedIn
• Rhonda Mims, President – ING Foundation
• Richard Hall, Director, Global Strategic Alliances – Intel Corporation
• Robert Torres, Senior Program Officer – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Sal Khan, CEO & Founder – Khan Academy
• Seth Farbman, Global Chief Marketing Officer – Gap
• Shannon Schuyler, Senior Managing Director, Corporate Responsibility – PwC
• Shelly Esque, President – Intel Foundation
• Soon-Hong Choi, Chief Information Technology Officer – United Nations
• Steve Gleason, Former NFL Player; Founder – Team Gleason Foundation
• Ted Danson, Actor, Activist; Board Member – Oceana
• Tim Draper, Founder & Managing Director – Draper Fisher Juvertson
• Tim Koogle, Former CEO/Chairman – Yahoo!
• Timothy McClimon, President – American Express Foundation
• Tom Shadyac, Director, Screenwriter, and Producer – Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, I Am
• Tony Bates, President – Skype Division, Microsoft
• Wyclef Jean, Musician, Record Producer, Politician

CONFIRMED ATTENDEES

Participants include an elite invitation-only gathering of top Fortune 500 Corporate Executives, Venture Capitalists, Government Leaders, Heads of CSR, Foundation Presidents, Changemakers and Social Entrepreneurs with firms such as Abbott, American Express, AOL, Bain Capital, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boston Scientific, BP, Cantor Fitzgerald, CBS, CDW, Clinton Global Initiative, Cisco, Citi, CVS Caremark, Deutsche Telekom, Devex, Discovery Communications,  DonorsChoose.org, eBay, ESPN, F5 Networks, Facebook,  Ford Foundation, Gap, General Electric, Genzyme, Goldman Sachs, Google, Grameen Foundation, Groupon, Hasbro, HBO, HP, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, ING, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, MasterCard, McKesson, McKinsey, Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Merck, Microsoft, MTV Networks, National Geographic, NBC Universal, NetHope, NYU, ONE Campaign, Palm Ventures, Pencils of Promise, Pfizer, PwC, Robin Hood, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Salesforce.com, Samsung, Siemens, Skoll Foundation, Sony, Stanford University, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Target, Time Warner, Twitter, United Nations, Verizon, Viacom, Virgin, VMware, Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney, Western Union, White House, World Bank, Yahoo!, Year Up, YouTube, etc.

Registration also includes your access to the 1×1 networking tool which is a great way to browse, connect and schedule meetings with the literally hundreds of global leaders and innovators converging for the conference.