Welcome to our Case Study Library. On this page, you'll find links to a number of case studies written about BOP-oriented enterprises. The case studies are organized by the following sectors: Agriculture, E-Commerce, Education, E-Governance, Energy, Financial Services, Health, Housing, IT & Telecommunications, Retailing, and Strategy.

If you know of a case study that should be included in this library, please email us and tell us about it.

 

Agriculture

Using raw materials sustainably: Natura
WBCSD, January 8, 2007

The Brazil nut is appropriate for infant nutrition as a milk and is a source of selenium, an important anti-oxidant. It is used as a medicine to treat hepatitis; it also treats dry skin and hair, and can be eaten as an appetizer. Brazil-based Natura depends on the sustainable harvesting of the Brazil nut for its products.

The Brazil nut also has an important socio-economic function. As sustenance for many families, the nut is used as an appetizer, and Brazil nut meal, a byproduct rich in selenium, can be used in cereals and other foods. The locally processed oil is sold to cosmetics companies.

In 2000, Brazil-based Natura started its program to sustainably use raw materials from Brazilian biodiversity. For example, Natura uses the Brazil nut in products for dry skin and hair (the Ekos line).

AKASHGANGA (India)
Ajay Sharma and Akhilesh Yadav, August 2003
Through its AKASHGANGA Automatic Milk Collection Systems (AMCS), SKEPL Pvt. Ltd. is using simple technologies to revolutionize the dairy industry in India. The Dairy Cooperative Societies that use the system are able to process greater quantities of higher quality milk, while also saving money through reduced staff requirements. For farmers, lines are shorter, less milk is spoiled and payment is quick and accurate. The systems are successfully being used at more than 750 dairy cooperative societies (DCS) spread throughout the Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

e-Choupal (India)
Kuttayan Annamalai and Sachin Rao, August 2003
In a country where 200 million people are engaged in farming or related activities, ITC is developing its internationally competitive agricultural business by empowering, not eliminating, the independent small farmer. The company is setting up of a network of Internet-connected kiosks, known as e-Choupals, through which farmers can receive all the information, products and services they need to enhance their farming productivity and receive a fair price for their harvest. Through the choupal, ITC sources the farmer's produce directly, reducing its procurement and transaction costs. Currently ITC has set up 4300 e-Choupals covering six states and 25,000 villages. By 2010, the e-Choupal network plans to cover over 100,000 villages, representing one sixth of rural India, and create more than 10 million e-farmers.

Indiagriline by EID Parry (India)
Kuttayan Annamali and Sachin Rao, December 2003
Like ITC, EID Parry provides local entrepeneurs the technological backing to run Internet kiosks in rural villages. EID Parry has also created its own Internet portal, to support farmers with access to fertilizers and tools, education and crop disease diagnosis, and a direct market for their crops of rice and sugarcane. While the cases are similar, the EID Parry video focuses on the entrepeneur, and highlights how a single computer can change a whole village.

Partnering for Mutual Success: DaimlerChrysler - POEMAtec Alliance (Brazil)
Yerina Mugica and Ted London, 2004
DaimlerChrysler formed an alliance with the Poverty and Environment in Amazonia Research and Development project (POEMA) to reforest previously cleared land in Brazil to produce continuous yields year-round and process these harvests within the region. The joint goal of DaimlerChrysler and POEMA was to make sustainable use of the region's existing resources, including its land, plant and human resources.

With an initial investment of US$ 1.4 million, research and development have centered on viable natural fiber products and the role local communities could play as suppliers. Through research, POEMA identified the use of coconut fibers in automobile headrests as a viable product and developed a low-technology production method for use by local populations.

SC Johnson: Pyrethrum Sourcing from Kenya
WBCSD, December 2004
Do you know that Kenyan farmers can improve their livelihoods by efficiently farming pyrethrum, a unique daisy that is the source for a naturally occurring insecticide? A unique partnership between SC Johnson, the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya and ApproTEC is helping them to do just that.

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E-Commerce

Thamel.com: Diaspora-enabled Development (Nepal)
John Paul, December 2005
Thamel.com is a Nepal-based marketing and development company that has tapped the resources of the diaspora to create new opportunities for Nepalese workers, generate cultural value, and help move local businesses in a new direction. The company's unique combination of e-commerce, remittance, and business development services demonstrate how combining the power of IT and diasporas can create opportunities at the base of the pyramid.

ASAFE: Strategic Challenges for E-Commerce Promotion in Central Africa
Andreas Ernst and Dr. Maximilian Martin, June 2003
ASAFE empowers entrepreneurial women in Cameroon to take advantage of the opportunities that private enterprise and initiative can provide for economic betterment. Founded in 1989, ASAFE began to promote e-commerce and e-readiness in 1999.

ViaSebrae: E-Commerce Solution for Small Businesses in Brazil
Jason Hekl and Carlos Waack, July 2001
The ViaSebrae platform has enabled Brazilian small businesses to undertake e-commerce initiatives they could not otherwise afford.

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Education

HBS Cases: How Magazine Luiza Courts the Poor
By Julia Hanna, HBS, April 18, 2007
Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza has developed an innovative strategy for selling to the poor, combining technology with great service that please both customers and employees. The question of how the company can grow without sacrificing the special qualities that have made it successful.

 

NetMark: A Case Study In Sustainable Malaria Prevention Through Partnership with Business
By AED, Academy for Educational Development, April 1, 2005
NetMark is a unique cross-sector partnership created to fight malaria in sub-Saharan Africa where the disease kills more than two million people each year. It was initiated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and developed under the management of the Academy for Educational Development (AED), a nonprofit human and social development organization.

Aptech's Vidya (India)
Mayank Dhanuka, Daniel Price, and Warren Teichner, August 2003
Vidya, Hindi for "knowledge," is a computer literacy program run by Aptech Ltd., one of the two largest computer education and training companies in India. As a part of its corporate citizenship effort, Aptech launched the Vidya program in 1999 to expand its course catalog beyond the company's core offerings targeted at computer professionals and corporate markets.

The pricing of Vidya has provided opportunities to many low-income students that would otherwise not have able to afford computer training. Aptech has introduced Vidya at approximately 1,250 of the company's 2,449 centers in India and enrolled more than 350,000 students.

Educar's Strategy for a Nation Connected & Learning (Argentina)
Norissa Giangola, June 2001
A novel public-private partnership centered around connectivity and the Internet, Educ.ar could transform education in Argentina.

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E-Governance

Citizen Centricity: E-Governance in Andhra Pradesh (India)
Praveen Suthrum and Jeffrey Phillips, December 2003
Partnering with business to deliver government services electronically is fundamentally altering the relationship between government and citizens in Andhra Pradesh, the fifth-largest state in India. Government processes are more transparent; bribes paid to officials to facilitate transactions through a bureaucratic, paper-based system are eliminated. Citizens find it easy to pay bills and get answers, and easier to trust their government.

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Energy

Electricité de France: Providing Services to Rural Populations
By WBCSD, February 23, 2007
EDF, a competitive multi-energy, multi-service provider, has a keen interest in global electrification, both as a major player in the global power industry, as well as a public company with a history of dedication to public service and rural electrification.

EDF committed itself "to help provide energy to developing countries' populations". Improving rural and peri-urban (areas outside formal urban boundaries but which are in the process of urbanization) zone development, reducing the negative impact on the environment, and using and promoting renewable energy technologies, are some of the objectives of the Group's sustainable development commitment.

Distributed Solar Energy in Brazil
Yerina Mugica and Ted London, August 2004
Approximately 25 million people in Brazil do not have access to electricity. Fabio Rosa, a local social entrepreneur, is aiming to fill this need through innovative distributed solar energy systems.

E+Co & Tecnosol (Nicaragua)
Scott Baron and George Weinmann, December 2003
By providing growth capital to local entrepreneurs, E+Co helps deliver alternative energy solutions to people around the world. In Nicaragua, where nearly fifty percent of the population is "off the grid," E+Co's investment in solar energy provider Tecnosol means people can have refrigeration, lights, running water, and jobs. The Nicaraguan government welcomes this effort, as scarce financial resources have stymied efforts to completely build out the electric grid.

Electrifying Rural Moroccan Households
WBCSD, 2005
Currently more than 2.1 billion people lack access to electricity. EDF, Tenesol and Total are working to provide individual solar solutions to families in rural areas that the electricity grid will never reach.

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Financial Services

Vodafone: economic empowerment through mobile
Vodafone, February 20, 2007
Following a successful pilot program in Kenya, Vodafone is rolling out a service that allows customers to access cash via their mobile phones. Called M-PESA, the service allows customers to borrow, transfer and make payments using a mobile phone, transforming financial services by making transactions cheaper, faster and more secure.

Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said his company sees significant growth potential in emerging markets like Kenya partly because research shows that mobile technology can revolutionize social and economic growth in these countries.

Banco do Nordeste's CrediAmigo (Brazil)
Yerina Mugica and Ted London, April 2004
In November 1996 at a meeting in Fortaleza, the World Bank and Banco do Nordeste, a development bank formed to support growth in northeastern Brazil, decided to initiate a collaborative process to jointly implement a local development program based on the idea of micro-credit.

Motivated by the fact that small informal companies - family owned and small properties - were not being served by the Bank's financing activities due to the restrictive regulation of Brazil's Banking Systems, Banco do Nordeste and the World Bank decided to develop and launch a pilot low-income bank, targeting micro-entrepreneurs from informal sectors.

ICICI Micro-Banking (India)
Michael Hokenson and Todd J. Markson, August 2003
ICICI Bank, India's second largest financial institution, is betting its future expansion on leveraging new partnerships and innovative uses of ICTs to profitably market banking services to the poorest of the poor. The bank has combined its capital and expertise with the social mobilization strength of existing microfinance organizations and self-help groups (SHGs), in order to help such groups scale up their activities. In two years alone, the company has increased the number of SHGs it serves from 1,500 to more than 8,000.

To further increase their rural presence, ICICI has also partnered with several Internet kiosk networks that will utilize ICTs to provide online banking services. By formalizing the rural financial services market, ICICI is fulfilling the long unmet demand for rural credit at an interest rate that enables the borrower to lift themselves out of poverty.

PRODEM FFP's Multilingual Smart ATMs for Microfinance (Bolivia)
Roberto Hernandez and Yerina Mugica, August 2003
PRODEM FFP is a private financial fund that has developed a strong competitive advantage in serving the bottom-of-the-pyramid market in Bolivia by developing solutions based on proprietary technology that lowers costs, better meets existing customers' needs, and makes its services accessible to new customers.

Scaling Microfinance: Remote Transaction System (Uganda)
Nicolas Magnette and Digby Lock, August 2005
The Remote Transaction System is a technological innovation designed to help microfinance institutions serve more clients, especially in rural areas. A consortium of microfinance institutions, along with Hewlett-Packard, designed and piloted the Remote Transaction System in rural Uganda. The technology proved valuable in lowering transactions costs, reduced risk, and more convenience for lenders and clients alike. Designed with the specific needs of microfinance in mind, the Remote Transaction System could help expand access to finance to underserved areas in many countries.

ABN AMRO Real Microcredito (Brazil)
Yerina Mugica and Frederico Moura, April 2004
Recognizing a potential market and seeing a service that could both help the community and be self-sustaining, ABN AMRO's Brazilian subsidiary Banco ABN AMRO Real launched Real Microcredito in July 2002, in partnership with ACCION, a non-governmental organization specializing in micro-credit worldwide. ACCION provides the technical expertise in micro-lending while ABN AMRO provides its strong financial background, infrastructure and banking network in Brazil.

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Health

Afrique Initiatives (Senegal)
Luis Castro and Sharon Smith, August 2003
Brussels-based Afrique Initiatives operates two distinct services in the city of Saint Louis, Senegal: Pesinet, a not-for-profit health care organization, and St. Louis Net, a for-profit IT services company. The two entities share IT infrastructure developed and maintained by Afrique Initiatives, but have evolved different business models. Pesinet's model, while successful, is non-profit and therefore requires continued subsidy; St. Louis Net, meanwhile, is beset by a series of business challenges and is struggling to succeed. Afrique Initiatives' mixed results may reflect the difficulty of starting an enterprise when the impetus comes from an external - rather than an internal and entrepreneurial - source.

CareShop Ghana
Joel Segrè and Julia Tran, March 2008
CareShop is a for-profit franchise of nearly 300 licensed chemical sellers (LCS) that are spread throughout Ghana's Greater Accra and surrounding regions. LCS, authorized by the Ghana Pharmacy Council to dispense over-the-counter drugs, are present across Ghana and are often the first point-of-call for many Ghanaians seeking health advice and medicine, yet LCS themselves often do not have access to local suppliers of high quality medicines. Ghana Social Marketing Foundation Enterprises Limited (GSMFEL) founded CareShop in 2002, with the intention of battling common infectious diseases in low-resource areas by improving supply chains and providing training to LCS through a franchising arrangement. GSMFEL, as the franchisor, generates revenue through the sales of inexpensive, high-quality drugs to franchisees. GSMFEL delivers these products directly to franchisees' doorsteps, and also provides franchisees with valuable health and business training, and branded materials.

Fighting hidden hunger: DSM
WBCSD, December 4, 2006
According to the United Nations World Food Programme, one-third of the world's population -- approximately 2 billion people -- suffers from hidden hunger (micronutrient malnutrition).

One of the most effective and sustainable ways to combat malnutrition is to fortify staple foods with vitamins and minerals. DSM's Nutrition Improvement Programme is intended to contribute to the elimination of malnutrition in the developing world. Improving the nutritional status in these developing and emerging countries and economies offers future business opportunities for DSM.

HealthStore's Franchise Approach to Healthcare (Kenya)
Michelle Fertig and Herc Tzaras, November 2005
HealthStore's sixty-four for-profit franchises serve roughly 400,000 patients per year; by 2008, it plans to expand its network to over 200 locations serving 1.5 million patients per year. Each HealthStore franchise is owned and operated by a licensed nurse practitioner or by a community health worker with a nurse on staff, enabling outlets to offer a wide range of products and services. With locations in underserved villages and urban areas throughout Kenya, HealthStore clinics provide access to much-needed healthcare, while generating enough revenue to pay their nurse-owners and staff a competitive annual salary. The HealthStore micro-franchise model gives local entrepreneurs the opportunity to own and operate sustainable, profitable businesses while simultaneously curtailing incentives for corruption, as franchisees risk losing their business if they fail to comply with franchise regulations.

Healthnet (Uganda)
Keisha Phipps, Genevieve Sangudi, and Steven Woolway, August 2003
HealthNet Uganda is pioneering the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in the African healthcare sector to provide practitioners with real-time access to vital information. The technology also allows for easier consultation, real-time ordering of medicines, and access to medical journals - all of which improves the quality of Uganda's health care system. HealthNet Uganda's leadership and strategic planning have allowed it to successfully transition from a grant-funded project to a stand-alone non-profit organization, in part due to its ability to secure support from the Ugandan government. By introducing cutting-edge technology within an innovative business model, HealthNet Uganda is successfully working to improve the health of millions of citizens.

Jaipur Foot (India)
Scott Macke, Ruchi Misra, and Ajay Sharma, December 2003
With five and a half million amputees, there is an almost overwhelming need for an inexpensive artificial foot/lower limb prosthesis in India. Any solution also has to meet the needs of the Indian lifestyle - walking barefooted, squatting, and sitting cross-legged. With innovative design and use of materials, Jaipur Foot (a non-profit organization) has created a low-cost prosthesis that it fits on sixteen thousand patients annually, allowing their return to their chosen professions in the fields and cities without loss of income or productivity.

Mi Farmacita Nacional (Mexico)
Enrique Coronado, Christina Krettecos, Yvonne Lu, June 2007
Mi Farmacita Nacional, a fully for-profit pharmacy franchise, is among the first retailers of generic medications to serve low-income communities in Mexico. Mi Farmacita was launched in 2003 and has since more than doubled its number of outlets every year to reach 57 outlets as of March 2007. Outlets in operation for a minimum of 22 months are now processing an average of 2,400 transactions/month in sales of affordable medications, doctor consultations, filtered water, telephone access, and other essential products and services.

Procter & Gamble: Treating water at its point of use
WBCSD, October 17, 2006
Procter & Gamble, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and governments, is working in developing countries to provide safe drinking water to people directly in their homes.

A complementary approach to providing piped-treated water is through treatment of drinking water directly in people's homes. This point of use (POU) model has the advantages of cost, immediate availability and ease of distribution to reach rural areas.

The aim of Procter & Gamble's PuR product is to create safe drinking water through the removal of pathogens and the use of disinfectants in turbid waters. P&G believes that if it can provide affordable products that meet a real consumer need, then there will be demand for these products in the developing world

Salt - Hindustan Lever Limited (India)
Anuja Rajendra and Tej Shah, December 2003
In India, Iodine Deficiency Disorder hinders the growth and intellectual development of 70 million people, with twenty percent of the population at risk. Yet up to fifty percent of the iodine in iodized salt can be lost during storage, transportation, and Indian cooking.

Using world-class technology, Hindustan Lever Ltd. has developed a more stable iodine for salt that is effective in preventing IDD and affordable; by using village-based entrepeneurs to sell products in remote areas, HLL is ensuring its availability, as well as providing jobs, income, and self-respect for the poor.

Scojo India Foundation
Nico Clemminck and Sachin Kadakia, June 2007
Scojo Foundation has established a network of "Vision Entrepreneurs," low-income men and women who sell reading glasses directly to rural villagers throughout India. Scojo Vision Entrepreneurs earn significant supplementary income and enjoy a better standard of living, as well as increased self-respect and influence in their communities. Their customers benefit from ready and convenient access to inexpensive reading glasses, which translate into restored eyesight and improved livelihoods.

For weavers, mechanics, goldsmiths, and others whose livelihoods depend on near vision, a lack of access to reading glasses can impede productivity and significantly decrease their income and ability to feed their families. Since 2003, Scojo India Foundation has employed more than 400 entrepreneurs and restored the near vision of more than 50,000 rural customers.

Shell - Searching for Sustainable Solutions to Indoor Air Pollution
WBCSD, August 2005
Indoor air pollution (IAP) kills more than 1.6 million people each year - one person every 20 seconds -- and some two billion more are at risk. To address this problem, the Shell Foundation has committed US$ 10 million to tackle IAP through its Household Energy and Health Programme, branded as "Breathing Space."

Soap - Hindustan Lever Limited (India)
Mindy Murch and Kate Reeder, December 2003
Around the world, 2.2 million people die from diarrheal disease every year. Children are especially at risk - one child dies every 30 seconds. India alone contributes thirty percent of the world's diarrheal deaths. By teaching and demonstrating the benefits of handwashing through both UN and branded programs that reach into the villages, Hindustan Lever Ltd. is reducing infectious disease and improving soap sales.

Voxiva (Peru)
Cynthia Casas and William Lajoie, December 2003
In Peru, the for-profit Voxiva has developed and implemented a technology platform that enables medical professionals to collect data in real-time and communicate with one another in order to effect change based on the data. Rather than be constrained by rural Peru's low teledensity, Voxiva's Alerta project worked with the existing IT infrastructure to provide 24-hour, 365-days-per-year access to data, via text message or e-mail. Voxiva's flexible solution can be adopted by any end user - whether they are in a developed or developing country setting.

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Housing

CEMEX: Innovations in Housing for the Poor (Mexico)
Ajit Sharma, Sarmilee Mohan, and Sidharth Singh, December 2003
The third largest cement manufacturer in the world, CEMEX decided it needed to move from selling materials to selling solutions. With low fixed prices, materials on credit, pre-costed housing designs, and even supervised construction services for Mexicans working abroad, CEMEX makes housing affordable and possible for the poor in Mexico.

Holcim Apasco: Concrete innovation with Mi Casa (Mexico)
WBCSD, 2004
Holcim Apasco is helping Mexican people self-build concrete homes to an acceptable standard and improve the availability of affordable construction materials through its Mi Casa distribution centers.

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IT & Telecommunications

Afrique Initiatives (Senegal)
Luis Castro and Sharon Smith, August 2003
Brussels-based Afrique Initiatives operates two distinct services in the city of Saint Louis, Senegal: Pesinet, a not-for-profit health care organization, and St. Louis Net, a for-profit IT services company. The two entities share IT infrastructure developed and maintained by Afrique Initiatives, but have evolved different business models. Pesinet's model, while successful, is non-profit and therefore requires continued subsidy; St. Louis Net, meanwhile, is beset by a series of business challenges and is struggling to succeed. Afrique Initiatives' mixed results may reflect the difficulty of starting an enterprise when the impetus comes from an external - rather than an internal and entrepreneurial - source.

First Mile Solutions' DakNet Takes Rural Communities Online (Cambodia)
Carol Chyau and Jean-Francois Raymond, October 2005
Many developing countries continue to face the challenge of how to increase access to information communication technologies (ICTs) in rural and remote areas. Telecommunication companies are usually reluctant to extend their network due to high infrastructure costs, low population density, and limited ability to pay for the services. First Mile Solutions (FMS) counters this problem by providing telecommunications equipment that can cheaply connect rural and remote populations to the Internet through an innovative technology: DakNet. DakNet leverages short- range wireless technology in tandem with traditional telecommunication and physical transportation infrastructures. Local transportation- e.g., public buses, motorcycles, and supply trucks- facilitates data exchanges between rural villages and Internet hubs. This unconventional communication network provides end users with asynchronous access to e- mail, voice messages, and Internet browsing.

Grameen Telecom's Village Phones (Bangladesh)
Nevin Cohen, June 2001
Grameen Telecommunications uses Grameen Phone's advanced GSM technology in stationary village phones owned and operated by local entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs purchase the phones with money borrowed from Grameen Bank, and sell phone services to customers by the call. An average of 70 customers a month uses each phone. This shared-access business model concentrates demand and creates relatively high cash flow, even in poor villages, enabling operators to make regular loan payments and still turn a profit.

Infocentros Telecenter Model (El Salvador)
Yacine Khelladi, July 2001
El Salvador's Infocentros has a business model that is unique among telecenter networks. Not only it is based on a sophisticated franchising approach, but each telecenter operates as an incubator for new businesses based on local content and knowledge. Successful businesses are replicated across the telecenter network, with Infocentros gaining a share of the revenue. Infocentros is an example of a development-centered ICT strategy based in a unique partnership between government and civil society.

n-Logue's Rural Connectivity Model (India)
John Paul, December 2004
n-Logue Communications is setting up a sustainable network of wirelessly-connected Internet kiosks in rural villages throughout India. Through the kiosks, villagers are able to access a wide-range of relevant local language content and services aimed at enhancing the quality of life of rural Indians. To enable its rapid expansion, n-Logue has employed a three-tiered franchisee model that empowers local entrepreneurs to invest in and help run the network. As the company scales, there is enormous potential to leverage n-Logue's rural networks in ways that take advantage of both existing and new technologies in the areas of health, finance, agriculture, e-government and civil society empowerment.

Smart Communications (Philippines)
Sharon Smith, September 2004
Smart Communications has transformed the cell phone market in the Philippines by enabling electronic sales of airtime via short message service (SMS) and by reducing the unit size of such sales to as little as US$0.03. This innovation has enabled millions of low-income Filipinos to access communications services - 98% of Smart's subscribers are l ow-income, pre-paid customers. Its distribution system, using SMS technology, allows merchants to re-sell minutes, taking a commission on every sale, in essence creating a business opportunity for 450,000 entrepreneurs.

Tarahaat's Portal for Rural India
Caitlin Peterson, Vivek Sandell, and Dr. Andrew Lawlor, July 2001
Aiming to stimulate employment and economic opportunities, TARAhaat is setting up a network of franchised village Internet centers in rural India. Through these 'TARAkendras', villagers can access the local-language TARAhaat portal, a site which provides a wide range of social and economic information, as well as educational and other services, The locally-relevant content-from market prices to marriage opportunities to educational material-is what drives the model at the village and peri urban level. TARAhaat, which has set up 30 TARAkendras so far, earns its revenues through fee for service, membership fees, and commissions.

Vodacom's Community Cell Phones (South Africa)
Jennifer Reck and Brad Wood, August 2003
Vodacom Community Services, a program of Vodacom, South Africa's largest cellular phone company, is a successful example of how business and government can work together to achieve significant social and economic goals.

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Retailing

Casas Bahia: Fulfilling a Dream (Brazil)
Sami Foguel and Andrew Wilson, December 2003
In fifty years, Casas Bahia has grown from one man selling blankets and bed linens door-to-door to the largest retail chain in Brazil, offering electronics, appliances, and furniture. With its emphasis on serving the poor customer, its low prices, and credit determined by payment history rather than formal income (70% of CB customers have no formal or consistent income), Casas Bahia grosses over a billion US dollars a year, and has invoked deep loyalty in its customers.

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Strategy

Quantifying Heineken's economic impact in Sierra Leone
WBCSD, February 2, 2007
A new economic impact assessment (EIA) model was developed and tested in Sierra Leone to quantify both direct and indirect impacts of a foreign company on the local economy.

The Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) and Heineken International commissioned Triple Value Strategy Consulting and InReturn to develop an economic impact assessment model and test the model on the Heineken operating company, Sierra Leone Brewery.

Patrimonio Hoy: A Financial Perspective
Arthur I. Segel, Michael Chu, Gustavo Herrero, Sep 21, 2006
Patrimonio Hoy, a program targeting the housing needs of low-income families launched by CEMEX, a major Mexican corporation and a leading global cement company, has gone from a market research project to a highly visible initiative in 22 cities and has earned public recognition. The president of Cemex North America must decide whether it is corporate social responsibility or a new business line. In the process, it allows analysis of the Patrimonio Hoy program versus the traditional alternatives from the perspectives of both the end-user and of the corporation.

Unilever: Exploring the Links Between International Business and Poverty Reduction (Indonesia)
Jason Clay, September 2005
In an attempt to evaluate the impacts of international business on people living in poverty, two organisations with very different aims and perspectives - Unilever (a major company operating in some of the poorest countries in the world) and Oxfam (an international development and humanitarian organisation) - collaborated on an ambitious research project.

The research considered the impacts of Unilever Indonesia across the entire business value chain, from producers and suppliers, through the company's core business operations, to its distributors, retailers, and consumers. This report presents the findings of the research. It is a contribution to the debates among the wider business community, governments, civil-society organisations, and academics who seek to understand how the wealth, employment, and products that a large company creates could bring increased benefits to people living in poverty.

GrupoNueva's Amanco (Argentina)
WBCSD, 2005
In late 2001, Argentina's economy collapsed, its currency plummeted and the unemployment rate increased to over 18%. This situation, coupled with falling sales to its big retailers and local customers encouraged AMANCO to implement business projects that could contribute to poverty reduction. The company started with innovations along the value chain, which helped the company realize that it needed to bring its products to its customers in quantities that they could pay for.

Promoting Public-Private Partnership in Health and Education (Bangladesh)
Yidan Wang (editor), 2000
Through a series of examples, this report addresses four main questions: why are partnerships desirable for health and education development; what legal, policy and regulatory frameworks are necessary to involve the private sector effectively; what do specific country experiences tell us about issues and problems that arise from such partnerships; and what are the appropriate roles for the government in creating enabling environments for such partnerships?

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