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In Sao Paulo, Brazil on June 27-28, 2011, the IDB's Opportunities for the Majority Initiative held its first international conference, the BASE Forum for the Development of the Base of the Pyramid in Latin America and the Caribbean. Highlights from the event, links to speaker presentations and more follow.
On June 27 and 28, the IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority Initiative held its first major international conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The BASE Forum drew an overflow crowd of almost 800 registrants from a variety of backgrounds, including business, international development, government, and nonprofits, all eager to learn about the concepts behind base of the pyramid business models and how they are playing out at companies throughout Latin America.
For companies without prior experience with Base of the Pyramid business models, an effective strategy can be partnering with a business, nonprofit or other organization that has an existing network in the targeted low-income community. At a recent IDB event, executives from several companies explained how they are successfully using this "platform" approach.
We know that one of the biggest barriers to working effectively with Base of the Pyramid (BOP) communities is that in many cases, existing distribution systems simply do not reach them. These are real, physical gaps. For instance, a lack of paved roads makes it difficult for companies to deliver goods and services to rural villages or poor city neighborhoods, and make access to affordable or reliable transportation scarce. Such communities are also often literally disconnected from many basic services, including electrical grids, plumbing and waste water treatment or telephone wires.
Eight companies have been selected to take part in the Corporate Leaders Program for Success in Majority Markets and will now receive expert advice on developing their BOP business concepts into detailed business plans.
Companies in the food and agro-industry sectors are uniquely positioned to improve lives through their base of the pyramid business projects. At a recent conference on "The Potential of Private Sector Solutions in Nutrition," executives learned about a mapping study and about opportunities for them to get involved.
Last year, Opportunities for the Majority joined forces with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition [GAIN] and the FEMSA Foundation to carry out a regional mapping study of private sector involvement in meeting the nutritional needs of the base of the pyramid in Latin America.
Nicaraguan bean farmers now have the chance to access credit, improve their agricultural methods and sell their crops directly to food distributors. Read how a new project is helping traditional small farmers increase their profits and become part of national supply chains.
Large areas of highly fertile volcanic soil have made bean production a centuries-old staple of the Nicaraguan economy and food supply. Although small bean producers have inherited a rich and important legacy, they have often struggled to earn a fair profit due to low productivity rates, lack of credit access and difficulty in organizing cooperative farming mechanisms.
An interview with Pedro Bulcão, executive director of Brazil's SINAF Group, about his company's innovative approach to selling life insurance to low-income customers.
There are many ways private companies can serve base of the pyramid (BOP) populations. These underserved communities represent a large untapped market and, as such, offer a number of opportunities to organizations willing to address their basic needs in a responsible and profitable way.
Only 13% of lower and middle-income Mexicans use the Internet, in many cases because computer access in rural areas is limited or nonexistent. Learn about a pilot project that is helping connect villagers in the Yucatan region to the rest of the world through affordable, high quality Internet service.
At about 2:00 pm on Thursday, July 9, I received an e-mail saying, “we are at a store and it works!” I knew exactly what this cryptic message meant and where it was coming from: a remote rural village in Yucatan, Mexico, where many houses do not have electricity and, until that moment, access to Internet was limited only to the very few who could afford a thirty minute walk and a ME$200 taxi ride to the nearest town.
Making high-tech, low-complexity products affordable to majority markets is at the core of Conversion Sound high social impact venture. Read more about how the company’s innovative ‘business in a bag’ distribution model makes better hearing possible for populations at the base of the pyramid.
Worldwide, about 280 million people suffer from debilitating hearing loss, yet globally only 7 million hearing aids are sold annually. In the case of low-income populations, hearing problems affect two thirds of the population, because they face many problems in treating hearing deficiencies, which is reflected by the fact that less than a million hearing aids are sold in these majority markets.
Eighty percent of construction activities in Brazil are self-managed ventures, carried out by insufficiently or non-trained workers. See here how the innovative learning program Doutores da Construção has turned more than 230 hardware stores into interactive multimedia learning hubs to successfully train Brazilian construction workers all over the country and leverage the potential of majority markets.
The Brazilian housing sector has expanded significantly in recent years – so quickly that the supply of trained construction workers has not been able to keep pace.
Eighty percent of construction activities in Brazil are self-managed ventures, carried out by workers with little or no training. Most of Brazil’s estimated 4 million construction workers are not adequately prepared to deliver quality work, and are vulnerable to avoidable construction site risks.
