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Edited by Lloyd Timberlake. WBCSD, 90 pages. Electronic. Free.
Business for development is the latest online publication from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, timed to coincide with the UN Summit in New York to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals. Its release reflects the upsurge of interest in the role of business in poor communities, following the popularization of the Bottom of the Pyramid model by the Indian academic and business strategist C.K. Prahalad. The central message is that business has a significant contribution to make in tackling poverty through initiatives that support development, and that ‘Business is good for development and development is good for business’.
Drawing on 14 case studies from among WBCSD’s corporate membership, the report is organized around three areas of business contribution: investing in core infrastructure, building the capabilities of local enterprises, and helping to create a strong regulatory and legal framework. While the first two are well illustrated with examples, the third amounts to little more than a restatement of the general case for good governance. Anybody hoping for a critical review of business and development will be disappointed. There is little discussion of the downsides of business involvement in development and despite claiming the need to go beyond philanthropy, little evidence is produced. As a result, it reads like a showcase for all the good things WBCSD members are doing, with the underlying leitmotif that the best way to tackle poverty is to open up free trade and promote an investor-friendly climate.
Those engaged in corporate responsibility in developing countries will find confirmation of what they probably already know, rather than new ideas. For instance, there is no indication of systematic performance measuring and reporting of company impacts on the Millennium Development Goals. In this sense, the report is a fair reflection of the immaturity of the business and development debate.
Nevertheless, this is a timely publication that contains many good examples and useful arguments – and as such is a welcome contribution on a rapidly expanding subject.
Wayne Visser, International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, author, speaker and consultant on corporate responsibility.
Business for development is the latest online publication from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, timed to coincide with the UN Summit in New York to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals. Its release reflects the upsurge of interest in the role of business in poor communities, following the popularization of the Bottom of the Pyramid model by the Indian academic and business strategist C.K. Prahalad. The central message is that business has a significant contribution to make in tackling poverty through initiatives that support development, and that ‘Business is good for development and development is good for business’.
Drawing on 14 case studies from among WBCSD’s corporate membership, the report is organized around three areas of business contribution: investing in core infrastructure, building the capabilities of local enterprises, and helping to create a strong regulatory and legal framework. While the first two are well illustrated with examples, the third amounts to little more than a restatement of the general case for good governance. Anybody hoping for a critical review of business and development will be disappointed. There is little discussion of the downsides of business involvement in development and despite claiming the need to go beyond philanthropy, little evidence is produced. As a result, it reads like a showcase for all the good things WBCSD members are doing, with the underlying leitmotif that the best way to tackle poverty is to open up free trade and promote an investor-friendly climate.
Those engaged in corporate responsibility in developing countries will find confirmation of what they probably already know, rather than new ideas. For instance, there is no indication of systematic performance measuring and reporting of company impacts on the Millennium Development Goals. In this sense, the report is a fair reflection of the immaturity of the business and development debate.
Nevertheless, this is a timely publication that contains many good examples and useful arguments – and as such is a welcome contribution on a rapidly expanding subject.
Wayne Visser, International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, author, speaker and consultant on corporate responsibility.
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