Featured Partners
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.
Three leading impact investors joined the IDB as co-lenders to an innovative savings and loan cooperative in rural Ecuador. Get the behind-the-scenes story on how the deal came together.
The Jardín Azuayo cooperative of the Paute region in southern Ecuador is an amazing example of success coming out of tragedy. In 1993, a landslide and flood devastated the area and the rural people were left to rebuild their homes and their lives. Three years later, in 1996, community leaders formed a savings and loan cooperative designed to let each village manage its own reconstruction, according to its needs and priorities.
An innovative program, Salud a su Alcance ("Health Within Your Reach") is bringing affordable medical services to communities across Guatemala. Now, the program is preparing to expand into El Salvador.
The Guatemalan Health Promotion Enterprise (in Spanish, Empresa Promotora de Servicios de Salud, or EPSS)’s “Salud a su Alcance” (Health within Your Reach) program has created a network of 1,130 doctors to treat more than 770,158 members in Guatemala. These doctors include general practitioners, gynecologists, pediatricians, and other specialists.
Guest blogger Heather Esper of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan offers advice on measuring and understanding the impact of BOP business projects on poverty.
Hearing the Voices of the Poor through Impact Assessment
When developing business models that engage with the base of the pyramid, companies are, of course, looking for sustainability and profitability, but they also want to know what effect their work will really have on people’s lives. We invited Heather Esper, a research associate at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, to tell us about the institute’s Impact Assessment Workshops, which are designed to help answer that very question.
Information about the conference to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil on September 14, 2010 on the Potential of Private Sector Solutions in Nutrition
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.
A look at megaretailer Walmart's approach to expanding into underserved areas in Mexico -- not in its familiar "big box" format but as a chain of smaller stores offering products geared toward low-income customers.
Not too long ago, a colleague wrote a blog post titled “Supermarkets for Majority Markets,” which highlights both domestic and international efforts to create jobs and improve community health by opening supermarkets in low income areas.
On April 20, Jaime Elizondo, President of CEMEX Mexico, and Luiz Ros, Manager of the Opportunities for the Majority initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank, signed a partial credit guarantee agreement that will enable CEMEX to significantly increase the scope of its Mejora Tu Calle (“Improve Your Street”) program.
On April 20, Jaime Elizondo, President of CEMEX Mexico, and Luiz Ros, Manager of the Opportunities for the Majority initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank, signed a partial credit guarantee agreement that will enable CEMEX to significantly increase the scope of its Mejora Tu Calle (“Improve Your Street”) program.
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.
