WASHINGTON, DC – The poor comprise the world’s largest untapped market for business innovation, partnership, and profits. To illustrate how the private sector can successfully engage the poor and do well while doing good, the World Resources Institute (WRI) is convening a conference on Eradicating Poverty through Profit
to explore private-sector solutions to poverty with keynote addresses and other presentations, panel discussions, live “laboratories,” sector- or interest-specific workshops, and exhibits.
Featured plenary speakers will include renowned author and thought leader C.K. Prahalad; Carly Fiorina, chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard; Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone; Peter J. Robertson, vice chairman of the board of ChevronTexaco; Craig Mundie, senior vice president and CTO of Advanced Strategies and Policy at Microsoft; J. Erik Fyrwald, group vice president, DuPont Agriculture & Nutrition; Herman Mulder, senior executive vice president and co-head of Group Risk anagement, ABN AMRO; and Stanley Fischer, vice chairman, Citigroup.
The conference will feature a number of thought-provoking issues including:
Financial Services
South Africa’s Financial Sector Charter: How the Private Sector is Organizing to Bank the Unbanked
India’s Banks & Microfinance: Public and Private Financial Institutions Joining Up to Reach Rural Customers
A Public Bank Goes Private: Lessons from the AgBank Mongolia Experience
Credit Bureau Development in Latin America: New Financial Services for the Poor
Remittances: The Poor Financing the Poor – Maximizing the Power of the World’s Most Consistent and Untapped Financial Flows
Connectivity
Innovative Business Service Models with Cellular Platforms
Extending the Grid: Innovative Business and Service Models with an off-grid platform (including handhelds, POS terminals, stand-alone kiosks, smart cards)
Innovative Business Services with IT Platforms
Partnering Strategies
Reconstructing Partnerships: Consumer Good Experiences in Latin America
Deconstructing Partnerships: Case Analysis of Extractive Industries in Africa
Making Partnerships Work in the 21st Century
Research
Learning What We Don’t Know: Researching the Base of the Pyramid (BOP)
BOP Protocols
Generating Sustainable Livelihoods
Recipes for Success: Lessons from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Sustainable Livelihoods Project
Cross-cutting issues
Energy for Economic Vitality
Scaling Out: Growing the market for energy at the base of the pyramid. The role of large companies and the policy environment needed to promote entrepreneurship in the energy sector.
Scaling Up: Incentives needed to scale up the manufacturing of technology to satisfy the energy needs of consumers
The Policy Dimension
How to Integrate Public and Private Initiatives
Public Capital and the BOP
Capital
Public-Private Partnerships and the BOP
Private Capital and the BOP – The Theory & Practice of Commodity Securitization
Consumer Goods
Technology and Business Model Solutions for Consumer Products
Performance Metrics: Business, Social, and Environmental
Planning for Success and Measuring It – Using Shell Global “Game Changers” tools in two case studies: “Sustainable Transportation in Mexico City” and “Sustainable Irrigation in Ethiopia”
Harnessing Non-financial Corporate Resources to Deliver BOP Value
Additional Sessions on:
Governments as Enablers of Private Sector Solutions
A Protocol for Strategic Initiatives at the Base of the Pyramid: A Working Breakfast with Participants in the Cornell-UNC-WRI-Johnson Foundation Process
Social Entrepreneurship, the BOP, and Economic Development
Strategies and Solutions for BOP Success: A Workshop with MNCs
Attendees will include:
Business leaders from multinational companies in finance, technology, consumer products, agriculture, energy, natural resources and other sectors.
Entrepreneurs and executives from start-ups and large companies in emerging markets with hands-on experience of proven, profitable, innovative approaches.
Senior policy makers who can foster the conditions for a more active and beneficial business presence at the bottom of the pyramid.
Full registration information, preliminary program, and additional information on the BOP can be found at: http://povertyprofit.wri.org.
The World Resources Institute (www.wri.org) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to create practical ways to protect the Earth and improve people’s lives.
