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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.
Development experts and companies that are seeking to engage with the base of the pyramid are seeing great potential in mobile phones, the Internet and other technologies. Staff blogger Valentina Echeverry Perez talks about how a recent presentation from Microsoft's Akhtar Badshah got her thinking about the possibilities.
A few months ago, as part of Opportunities for the Majority’s lecture series, we had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Akhtar Badshah, Senior director of Global Community Affairs at Microsoft Corporation and co-author of the recent book Technology at the Margins: How IT Meets the Needs of Emerging Markets. An architect by training, Mr.
Luiz Ros, manager of the IDB's Opportunities for the Majority Initiative, talks about his roots in Brazil and his hopes for the upcoming BASE Forum in Sao Paulo.
Luiz Ros has been manager of the IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority Initiative since 2008. Before coming to the IDB, he worked on sustainable enterprise investments at the World Resources Institute and directed community projects at Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment.
A blogger shares links to several recent stories that caught her eye, on topics ranging from microfinance to impact investment to financial services for low-income customers.
This summer, I got into the habit of posting some of the most interesting articles I come across on my Facebook page -- in the last two months I reposted over 100 links that I thought were worth reading. These stories ranged from interesting developments in microfinance, to new debates about international aid and the role of financial markets. In this blog, I share a selection of some of those posts from September and October.
CSRAmericas (Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility) has become an important contributor to the awareness and implementation of CSR in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to how CSR impacts society and the economy in the promotion of more equitable development. As in previous years, the event focuses on how to achieve better responsibility in private companies and public entities in terms of the environment and social performance, in the generation of employment and quality jobs, and of wealth.
Asuncion, Paraguay
Dr. Ashraf Ghani of The Institute for State Effectiveness discusses the important role the private sector plays on creating stability in a country, shares an interesting story from his time as Afghan finance minister about the perils of underestimating the BOP market, and more.
Recently, Dr. Ashraf Ghani visited the Inter-American Development Bank to give a presentation entitled “State-Building as Market-Building.” Dr. Ghani has a unique and wide-ranging perspective on what makes a state effective. A native of Afghanistan, he served as the Afghan finance minister from 2002 to 2004. Previously, he worked as a university professor, spent a decade at the World Bank, and was a special advisor to the United Nations in 2001 for matters related to the transfer of power from the Taliban to the Afghan people.
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.
Information about the conference to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil on September 14, 2010 on the Potential of Private Sector Solutions in Nutrition
Opportunities for the Majority manager Luiz Ros announces the launch of the Corporate Leaders Program for Success in Majority Markets. Through a workshop and a competitive application process, the program seeks to identify and nurture innovative new business models for the BOP in Latin America and the Caribbean.
I’m very excited to announce the launch of the Corporate Leaders Program for Success in Majority Markets. This is an idea we’ve been developing for some time at the IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority initiative. Over the last several years we’ve worked with a range of companies on projects that engage with the base of the pyramid in Latin America and the Caribbean.
