"Business innovation and development know-how are combining to become powerful drivers of growth and development" by Gavin Neath
Meeting the needs of consumers at the “bottom of the pyramid” with affordable products and services is one of the most direct and tangible ways that business can contribute to poverty alleviation and the MDGs.
For business, this is not about philanthropy. Rather it’s about finding new ways to harness our core business capabilities to deliver both economic growth and social impact. But the truth is that developing new business models in this segment remains a challenging and complex task. That is why public-private partnerships with local and international institutions, the donor community and NGOs are becoming increasingly important in shaping our commercial approach in developing countries.
Through these partnerships, which combine credible economic, social and environmental objectives, we increasingly see the potential for creating new business models and integrated value chains, which enable business to achieve scale and profit and our partners to deliver social impact and development objectives.
The recognition that we each possess insights, capabilities and infrastructure that the other needs has enabled us to see the extent to which we have now become a critical part of each other’s capacity to deliver value and successful outcomes. As we focus on our core competencies of product development, pricing, distribution and logistics, project management and scaling techniques, our partners, amongst other things, contribute the deep local cultural understanding, insights in to consumption habits, and local distribution networks and know-how.
This approach is enabling business to make a much more effective contribution to social and economic development – not just by making quality products affordable, but also through the supply chain by encouraging micro-enterprises and local bottom of the pyramid entrepreneurs, and through community education programmes.
For example, simple hygiene habits like washing hands with soap could halve the number of childhood deaths from diarrhoea. Making soap affordable and widely available is part of the solution. As part of Unilever’s involvement with the World Bank’s Global Public–Private Partnership for Handwashing, we help public sector organisations in Africa to promote hand washing with soap.
In Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria we are working with a range of partners to establish a locally owned supply chain for Allanblackia oil, a new type of oil that can be used to make margarines and spreads. Our goal is to assist local farmers, communities and small businesses to cultivate the crop commercially. To date there are 300 villages involved in the project, providing an additional income to about 10,000 farmers.
By 2050, it is estimated that 85 per cent of the world’s population of some 9 billion will be in developing countries. Partnerships, grounded in shared objectives and know-how, are showing us the way to unlocking this significant commercial and development opportunity.
Gavin Neath is Senior Vice-President, Global Communications, Unilever
For business, this is not about philanthropy. Rather it’s about finding new ways to harness our core business capabilities to deliver both economic growth and social impact. But the truth is that developing new business models in this segment remains a challenging and complex task. That is why public-private partnerships with local and international institutions, the donor community and NGOs are becoming increasingly important in shaping our commercial approach in developing countries.
Through these partnerships, which combine credible economic, social and environmental objectives, we increasingly see the potential for creating new business models and integrated value chains, which enable business to achieve scale and profit and our partners to deliver social impact and development objectives.
The recognition that we each possess insights, capabilities and infrastructure that the other needs has enabled us to see the extent to which we have now become a critical part of each other’s capacity to deliver value and successful outcomes. As we focus on our core competencies of product development, pricing, distribution and logistics, project management and scaling techniques, our partners, amongst other things, contribute the deep local cultural understanding, insights in to consumption habits, and local distribution networks and know-how.
This approach is enabling business to make a much more effective contribution to social and economic development – not just by making quality products affordable, but also through the supply chain by encouraging micro-enterprises and local bottom of the pyramid entrepreneurs, and through community education programmes.
For example, simple hygiene habits like washing hands with soap could halve the number of childhood deaths from diarrhoea. Making soap affordable and widely available is part of the solution. As part of Unilever’s involvement with the World Bank’s Global Public–Private Partnership for Handwashing, we help public sector organisations in Africa to promote hand washing with soap.
In Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria we are working with a range of partners to establish a locally owned supply chain for Allanblackia oil, a new type of oil that can be used to make margarines and spreads. Our goal is to assist local farmers, communities and small businesses to cultivate the crop commercially. To date there are 300 villages involved in the project, providing an additional income to about 10,000 farmers.
By 2050, it is estimated that 85 per cent of the world’s population of some 9 billion will be in developing countries. Partnerships, grounded in shared objectives and know-how, are showing us the way to unlocking this significant commercial and development opportunity.
Gavin Neath is Senior Vice-President, Global Communications, Unilever
© 2010 Created by Business Fights Poverty
