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WRI Conference on Eradicating Poverty through Profit in San Francisco to Cover Novel Private-Sector Approaches to Development

WRI Conference on Eradicating Poverty through Profit in San Francisco to Cover Novel Private-Sector Approaches to Development

Published 10-14-04

Submitted by World Resources Institute

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.

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    World Resources Institute

    World Resources Institute

    The World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. Our mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. Because people are inspired by ideas, empowered by knowledge, and moved to change by greater understanding, WRI provides—and helps other institutions provide—objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development. WRI organizes its work around four key goals:

  • People & Ecosystems: Reverse rapid degradation of ecosystems and assure their capacity to provide humans with needed goods and services.
  • Access: Guarantee public access to information and decisions regarding natural resources and the environment.
  • Climate Protection: Protect the global climate system from further harm due to emissions of greenhouse gases and help humanity and the natural world adapt to unavoidable climate change.
  • Markets & Enterprise: Harness markets and enterprise to expand economic opportunity and protect the environment.
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