Publications by Tag: Economic Development
Blog
Quality Development Driven by Green Development
Joshua Lanshe, Intern, Guangzhou, BSR
In the recent China 2030 World Bank report, China looks to shift from relying heavily on fossil fuels and dated management methods to embracing green technologies and innovative solutions in an effort to improve the quality of future growth. The report indicates that for the next 18 years, China will aim to develop into a more “modern, harmonious, and creative high-tech society.” Fittingly, this phrase also is used in China’s current five-year plan, and perfectly captures the commitment of the country’s government to improve the balance and quality of its growth. Read more
Conflict Minerals and Local Development Concerns
Marshall Chase, Manager, Advisory Services
Note: This is the second of three blogs highlighting the critical issues that risk getting lost in the rush to implement due diligence on conflict minerals. Our first blog discussed the local impacts of supply chain policies, and the next will explore the connection with global responsible sourcing issues. Read more
Conflict Minerals: The Impacts of the Regulations
Marshall Chase, Manager, Advisory Services
Once the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issues its final conflict minerals reporting regulations—due soon—we expect many companies to focus on the due diligence required to ensure “conflict-free” products. But a narrow focus on the rules neglects a point BSR has regularly emphasized in our years working on conflict minerals: Companies must take action with a real understanding of how that activity will affect local communities, and how it will fit into global supply chain sustainability trends. Read more
Chinoptimists: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Aron Cramer, President and CEO
At 12 hours, the flight from San Francisco to Beijing is quite long enough. There’s time to work, sleep, and watch movies that are appealing only with less oxygen than usual nourishing the brain. And while I have made the trip dozens of times, it still amazes me to be deposited on the opposite side of the Pacific. Read more
Ten Years Later: Human Rights in a Post-9/11 World
At the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, I was in Montreal attending the CIVICUS World Assembly, an annual gathering of more than 900 civil society organizations (CSOs), including NGOs, trade unions, and faith-based organizations. Looking at various U.S. newspapers and my Facebook feed that morning, the reporting centered on the senseless deaths of that tragic day, people discussing where they were at that exact moment, and those that they had lost. All the coverage made me realize that the wounds remain fresh 10 years and two difficult wars later. Read more
Collaborative-Consumption Markets Create New Opportunities for Economic Inclusion
Cody Sisco, Manager, Advisory Services
The rise of technology platforms is creating business opportunities for new producers and micro-entrepreneurs. Read more
Empowering Women Through Mobile Technology
Cammie Erickson, Associate, Partnership Development
Google’s announcement this week to buy Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion signals its move into the telecommunications hardware business and provides further evidence that mobile technology is on the rise—and here to stay. Read more
Embedding the Millennium Development Goals into Business Strategy: the World’s Women Can Help
Racheal Yeager, Manager, HERproject
During the CERES conference earlier this month, Levi Strauss CEO John Anderson made an important announcement: Levi Strauss will begin to require their suppliers to go beyond compliance and support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through workplace policies and programs and community outreach. Using the MDGs as a measurement for impact, Anderson said, will help apparel companies and apparel manufacturing businesses create positive benefits for local communities—such as improved health and nutrition, or access to bank accounts and financial literacy. Support for local communities and economic growth can lead to industry stability and ensure a sustainable supply of quality products. Plus, it’s the right thing to do. Read more
Streamlining the Millennium Development Goals for More Impact
Aron Cramer, President and CEO
In New York last week, government, civil society, and business leaders converged to assess progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and raise additional funds at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in order to meet them. Despite a still sluggish economy, CGI managed to generate an impressive US$2.5 billion in pledges from its participants. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon added to this with a pledge of US$40 billion over the next five years to catapult progress toward the 2015 finish line, particularly targeting aid for women and girls. Great work, Bill! Read more
Rewarding the Right Performance
Peder Michael Pruzan-Jorgensen, Managing Director, Europe, Middle East, and Africa
A French weekly magazine recently reported on its front page, “They are doing it again.” And by “it” they were referring to yet another banker’s feast of exorbitant bonuses as reward for the sector’s “terrific year.” Read more
ESG in the Mainstream
Laura Commike Gitman, Managing Director, Advisory Services
With Bloomberg launching a new environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data service for its stock data service subscribers, ESG data are becoming increasingly visible and available to mainstream investors and analysts, even if they're not specifically looking for it. Read more
Performance Indicators in the Reset World
Peder Michael Pruzan-Jorgensen, Managing Director, Europe, Middle East, and Africa
GDP is out and sustainability is in—at least according to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who in addition to capping bankers’ bonuses also wants to cap their hallowed success indicator: GDP growth. While so far the G20 in Pittsburgh has only picked up the ball on the former, the latter warrants consideration. Read more
BSR Insight Articles
CSR in Saudi Arabia: Q&A With BSR Partner Nailah Attar
Cammie Erickson, Associate, Partnership Development
With support from a multiyear grant from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, BSR has worked to introduce CSR strategies to companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Through this initiative, we partnered with Nailah Attar, a Saudi Arabian businesswoman and activist, to expand the CSR offerings of her ECO Consulting business, which serves both Saudi and international companies operating in the country. Read more
How Business Can Support Access to Energy
The first report in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) new Access to Energy initiative highlights how business can help expand and transform national energy systems to deliver clean, reliable, and affordable energy to poor countries—a critical development challenge. Read more
Innovative Solutions to Improving Women and Children’s Health
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
A new UN report explores how to improve women and children’s health globally. The report details what’s needed for successful development programs, outlines critical health needs, and highlights 10 innovative business models (including BSR’s HERproject) for delivering health services and products. Read more
Walmart CEO: ‘Holding Women Back Holds Economies Back’
Racheal Yeager, Manager, HERproject
Last week, Walmart made a US$20 billion commitment to increase sourcing from female-owned U.S. businesses and to double the amount it sources from female-owned businesses globally by 2016. Through a broader initiative, the company will also offer women on farms and in factories training, market access, and career opportunities; provide low-income women with job-skills training and access to higher education; increase the gender diversity among its major suppliers; and grant US$100 million to organizations supporting women’s economic empowerment. Read more
How Freedom of Association Supports Economic Development
The International Labour Organization’s new report outlines how freedom of association—the right to create and join organizations without fear of reprisal—supports sustainable economic development. The report explores the challenges to freedom of association; provides case studies on the positive effects it can have when governments, employers’ organizations, and trade unions work together; and shares how these actors can promote respect for freedom of association. Read more
New BSR Tool Helps Business Identify Strategic Social Investments
Alison Colwell, Manager, Advisory Services
BSR’s new tool helps companies make strategic social investments in communities where they operate, which is a critical aspect of building sustainable local economies. Strategic social investments allow companies to maximize the impact of their resource allocations, increase the long-term sustainability of their efforts, develop productive and mutually beneficial relationships with local stakeholders, and mitigate operational disruptions by strengthening their social license to operate. Read more
Explore Our Impact: Videos
Take a deeper dive into the BSR Report 2010 and core areas of our work in video clips that provide personal perspective from BSR staff members. Read more
The Human Face of Water-Related Risk Assessments
Linda Hwang, Manager, Research
At the CEO Water Mandate meeting in Copenhagen last week—which focused on corporate water disclosure—one participant reminded us of the connections between water, healthy populations, and corporate performance. Despite the growing number of tools to help investors and companies assess water-related risks, companies will miss a critical factor when evaluating their long-term risks if the tools do not link physical-, regulatory-, and reputational-risk frameworks to people’s ability to participate in the growth of healthy economies. Read more
Building Effective Local Content Strategies
Jessica Davis Pluess, Manager, Advisory Services
BSR's new report highlights some of the challenges and opportunities extractives companies face in building local content programs that drive commercial value and deliver sustainable local development benefits in countries where they operate. Read more
Operating Locally: BSR’s Three-Step Approach to Delivering Lasting Value
Michael Oxman, Director, Advisory Services
Leading energy and extractive companies continue to develop new approaches to ensuring benefits to local communities and other key stakeholders from large capital projects and ongoing operations. These benefits include economic opportunities such as employment and the procurement of goods and services from local suppliers as well as benefits from social investments in education, health, and other community areas of need. Read more
Stories From the Field
Interview with Richard Feinberg, Professor, University of California, San Diego, by Terry Nelidov, Manager, Advisory Services, BSR
Terry Nelidov, project manager of BSR's DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project, recently talked with University of California, San Diego Professor Richard Feinberg, a senior advisor to the project, about his insights gained from developing the case studies for it in BSR’s new compendium “Stories From the Field.” In excerpts below from the conversation, Professor Feinberg highlights both overall learnings from the three-year project and practical tools that companies anywhere in the world can apply to their labor and competitiveness strategies. Read more
Closing the Gender Gap in Agriculture
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization released a new report on the business case for addressing gender issues in agriculture and rural employment. According to the report, women in all regions face gender-related constraints that reduce their productivity and impose real costs on society. Read more
Women and Sustainability: Integrating Women Into Your Business and Sustainability Strategies
Racheal Yeager, Manager, HERproject
Growth in women’s income, education levels, and labor participation rates makes them essential participants in the global economy, and engagement with women and girls increasingly critical to sustainable growth for every industry. Women contribute to the private sector’s social license to operate; market, crop, and supply chain stability; a talented and stable employee base; and market growth and innovation. Additionally, investments in women have a multiplier effect, as women are more likely to reinvest in education, health, and economic activities at the community level. Read more
Global Government Affairs: The Importance of Strengthening Civil Society
Faris Natour, Director, Human Rights
At BSR’s roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C. last week, government affairs and CSR executives from business, along with representatives from civil society and government, discussed the convergence of the CSR and global government affairs agendas, the need for sustainability to be part of the DNA of a company, and the challenges of operating in countries where rule of law is compromised. Read more
The Role of Business in Linking Migration and Development
Guy Morgan, Director, Advisory Services
BSR participated as an expert observer at the Global Forum on Migration and Development earlier this month in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Together with representatives from academia, NGOs, development institutions, and nonprofits, we discussed the challenges of labor migration and development. BSR helped convene a panel on “Building Partnerships with the Private Sector” at the event, based on our white paper on the topic. Read more
Measuring Environmental Performance: The Business Case for New Tools
Linda Hwang, Manager, Research; Sissel Waage, Senior Advisor
For years, environment and natural resource managers have been tracking individual parameters linked to air pollution, water, and energy consumption. Specific indicators are identified, measured, and trends tracked. Private, public, and nonprofit organizations have been diligently measuring water used, greenhouse gases emitted, waste averted or recycled, and many other individual metrics. Yet, academic, nonprofit, and public sectors are now placing greater attention on ecological systems. A set of tools to help companies take a systems approach is evolving, but to achieve significant uptake, the business case for these tools needs to be clearly demonstrated. BSR’s Environmental Services, Tools & Markets (ESTM) Working Group is working with member companies to define and articulate this case. Read more
Building Inclusive Business Models to Support the MDGs
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
During the recent Millennium Development Goals summit in New York, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a new report highlighting the roles of business and other key actors—including policymakers, researchers, and advocates—in developing business models that include the poor in value chains as producers, employees, and consumers. Read more
Addressing Financial Inclusion: How ANZ is Using CSR to Access New Markets
Chhavi Ghuliani, Manager, Advisory Services
In much of the developing world, where less than half of the population is served by formal financial institutions and people must rely on their own funds or informal services that charge excessive rates, the lack of access to finance is leading to greater income inequality and slower economic growth. Financial institutions and mobile service providers around the world are addressing this problem by investing in financial products and services targeted specifically at underserved markets. India’s ICICI Bank, Brazil’s Bradesco, and South Africa’s Absa (which is majority owned by Barclays) have begun experimenting with innovative branchless banking models that address some of the barriers to financial access. Read more
Effective Informed Consent Policies for Indigenous Peoples
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
According to a new report commissioned by the Canadian oil and gas company Talisman, the long-term benefits of securing the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of indigenous peoples potentially impacted by operations outweigh challenges such as identifying relevant indigenous peoples, defining an appropriate negotiation process, and working inside countries with unsupportive governments. Read more
How Sustainability Can Transform the Travel and Tourism Sector
Kara Hurst, Vice President
In the past, social responsibility in the travel and tourism sector was equated with “ecotourism.” However, companies such as Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Starwood are now implementing innovative solutions that also reduce the environmental impact of their operations, save money, and benefit local economic development. Read more
Building Effective Local Content Programs in the Extractives Industry
At a recent event in Paris, BSR brought global oil and gas companies and industry service providers together to share emerging best practices in the management of "local content"—the procurement of materials, goods, and services made in-country rather than imported. Local content is one of the most important contributions the extractives industry can make to economic development and to maintaining a secure social operating license. Read more
Overcoming the Myths of Government Partnerships
Racheal Yeager, Manager, HERproject
Partnerships between companies and government, commonly known as public-private partnerships, are nothing new for business. Over the last two years, however, BSR has seen a significant uptick in interest from companies in partnering with governments. This is likely due to two main factors: the growth in the role of national governments in addressing sustainability challenges, and the increasing opportunities for companies in emerging markets. Read more
Working With Government on Responsible Labor
Ryan Flaherty, Manager, Advisory Services
Through BSR's DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project, we recently presented recommendations to the Salvadoran government on how the country can promote company and national competitiveness through improved working conditions. Our benchmarking of global public-policy practices revealed that more governments are incorporating sustainability incentives into their policies. Read more
Can Women Solve the World’s Woes? A Q&A with Half the Sky authors Nicholas Kristof and Sher
Interview by Racheal Yeager, Associate, Partnership Development, BSR
In October 2009, New York Times journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published a powerful call to action in their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors posit that individuals and organizations worldwide can advance economic progress and fight poverty by investing in women and girls. Read more
Business Leadership Needed for Sustainable Water Solutions
Speaking last week at a conference on worldwide industrial and urban challenges for sustainable water management, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, emphasized the need for business to work with scientists and civil society to find solutions for the world's global water challenges. Read more
Indigenous People and Business: Meeting Expectations
Chris Nolan, Manager, Advisory Services
With 370 million indigenous people worldwide, international standards defining the basic rights of these people—including the ILO 169, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the International Finance Corporation's Performance Standard 7—are increasingly relevant for industries such as extractives, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. Read more
High-Tech Solutions for Low-Tech Problems
By Adrienne Cademenos
In the West African nation of Ghana, the women who pick and process shea nuts into shea butter may seem like unlikely candidates for software solutions provided by the global information and communications technology (ICT) leader SAP. Read more
Who Cares About the Millennium Development Goals?
All companies—particularly those with market and supply chain exposure in emerging economies—continually face health, environmental, and human rights challenges that impact their business. Such challenges affect market access, supply chain sustainability, and base-of-the-pyramid strategies. With more than a billion people currently living on less than US$1 per day, and even more lacking access to safe water, proper nutrition, and basic health care, these challenges show few signs of abating. Read more
Events
BSR Conference 2011: Leadership Required
Leadership in business is changing fast. In today’s global, integrated, and transparent world, business is expected to do more than deliver shareholder returns. At its best, business is a creative force and an integral player in delivering prosperity for 9 billion people, applying game-changing technologies for social benefit, and radically reducing our use of natural resources. Learn more
Reports
Financial Inclusion in the Supply Chain
Approximately 2.5 billion of the world’s adults do not use formal financial services to save or borrow money. About 90 percent of them live in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Without access to formal financial institutions, people must rely on their own funds or risky informal services that charge excessive fees to invest in their health and welfare and that of their families. Read more
Stories From the Field
"Stories From the Field" provides a reader-friendly collection of 14 case studies from our DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project in Central America and the Dominican Republic, which BSR created and led to make the business case for responsible labor in the region. Read more
Women and Sustainability: Investing in Women's Health
The gender dimensions of health have significant impacts on workplace productivity, the consumer marketplace, community stability, and community member well-being. Investments targeted at raising women's health awareness and access to health products and services, can deliver important immediate business benefits, such as more productive workforces or more informed consumers. In the longer term, these investments also support women's full economic participation and contribute to healthier, more stable communities. Read more
Women and Sustainability: Investing in Women Economic Empowerment
Investments in women's economic empowerment are a strategic means to create and support markets, by providing jobs, opportunities for professional development, financial literacy and access to banking, and start-up capital and capacity-building to help women run small businesses. Read more
Partnering with USAID: A Guide for Companies
Can Women Solve the World’s Woes? A Q&A with 'Half the Sky' authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn—authors of a new book about how to turn oppression into opportunity for women—talk with us about what they say is the key to economic progress: investing in women and girls. Read more
Public Policy and the Promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility
In the past decade, governments have become increasingly proactive in promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) through their public policies. Most recently, companies have seen increased government involvement in the business sector—partially due to the global financial crisis—and this trend is expected to continue into the future. Keeping this in mind, it is likely that government promotion of corporate responsibility and good governance will continue to grow in the coming years. Read more
Evaluating Global Development Alliances: An Analysis of USAID's Public-Private Partnerships for Development
This report is a result of the growing importance of the private sector’s contribution to the social and economic growth of emerging markets, and the need to understand the full value and impact of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) public-private partnership model for development--Global Development Alliances. Read more
Aligned for Sustainable Design: An A-B-C-D Approach to Making Better Products
Eco-Promising: Communicating the Environmental Credentials of Your Products and Services
This business briefing is intended to help managers in consumer- facing companies to communicate the environmental credentials of products honestly and convincingly. We examine why businesses are increasingly using environmental messaging on products, how different formats (such as eco-labels) have developed, and the risks and challenges associated with making environmental claims. Read more
China's Rising Influence in Africa: Is There Room for CSR?
Sustainable Investment in China Articles
Principle 5: We Will Work Together to Enhance Our Effectiveness in Implementing the Principles
Case Studies Report
ExxonMobil: Early Planning for Sustainable Economic Development
For the Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Project, we helped ExxonMobil create sustainable economic development programs focused on workforce and supplier development and strategic community investments. Learn more
Sino Gold Implements Action Plan for Community Development in China
Sino Gold's Jinfeng Mine is an Australian-operated joint venture with the Chinese government that entered production in May 2007. Sino Gold sought guidance on how to build its "social license to operate" by promoting long-term community development in the five remote villages surrounding the mine in the mountains of southern China. Sino Gold contacted BSR for advice on the design of a community development strategy that would go beyond traditional public relations or social marketing efforts to promote real, tangible improvements in people's quality of life. Learn more
IBM Supports Small Businesses in Emerging Economies
IBM wanted to develop a virtual business incubator for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and asked us to help evaluate target markets, assess gaps in current offerings and desired functionality, and identify potential partners. Such an understanding would prepare IBM to develop a solution that best meets the needs of SMEs and maximize the impact on economic development. Learn more
Sustainability Matters
Building Cross-Sector Partnerships to Maximize Social Impact in China
Given the scale of social and sustainability challenges in China, cross-sector partnerships are becoming increasingly important and have great potential to drive social impact. However, few companies in China know how to partner with NGOs in a way that has positive impacts on the company and the causes that they support. Similarly, few Chinese NGOs have learned how to maximize funding and resources available to them via corporate partnerships to realize their missions. Learn more
BSR Review
Women and Sustainability
In response to a question about Saudi Arabia's economic competitiveness in 2007, Bill Gates famously announced to the gender-segregated audience: "If you're not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you're not going to get too close to the top." View email publication
Sustainability in the Chinese Context
With China's incredible growth, it will soon become the world's second-largest economy. However, the country strives for more than just economic prosperity—sustainable development is a top priority for the country, as evidenced by the latest 12th Five-Year Development Plan. View email publication
Other Publications & Events Tagged, Economic Development
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- BSR Insight Articles [ 28 ]
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- Research Reports [ 11 ]
- Sustainable Investment in China Article [ 1 ]
- Sustainability Matters [ 1 ]
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