Hammer and Nail problems

Jon Camfield — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:56:35 -0400

I see the majority of this discussion as a hammer and nail problem -- when you have a hammer (BoP market-based solutions), everything begins to look like a nail (maybe there's a profitable market in humanitarian disaster-relief...?). It's the same problem I see constantly in ICT4Dev -- ICT is not a panacea, and neither is BoP solutions; even though as practitioners we are constantly tempted to apply our favorite hammer to any and all problems, and to promote it as such. We need Edwardses to keep us in check.

A Dialogue on Philanthrocapitalism: Are BoP Businesses Useful Tools Against Poverty?

Manuel Bueno — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:20:45 -0400

This is part 3 of our series reviewing Michael Edwards' Just Another Emperor and the concept of 'philanthrocapitalism'. Follow the links to read part 1 and part 2.

Recently, there has been some debate surrounding business involvement in philanthropy and its usefulness after the publishing of “Just Another Emperor?” last March by Michael Edwards. Michael Edwards, Director of Governance and Civil Society at the Ford Foundation takes a critical look for the first time at a relatively new phenomenon: using sustainable business tools and models to solve poverty problems. NextBillion.net’s core content (and passion!) deals exactly with these issues.

Constructive criticism is always welcome, especially if it is from someone who has worked at Oxfam, Save the Children and the World Bank. In the fight against poverty, Edwards makes a distinction between government, civil society and what he calls, philanthrocapitalists. According to him this last group is made of market agents that claim to be able to solve social problems through business approaches alone. Edwards states that, although these approaches are important, they are very difficult to operate successfully at scale and that they usually experience some trade-offs between their social and financial goals. Furthermore, he argues that civil society might be being damaged by these trends.

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Hammer and Nail problems

A Dialogue on Philanthrocapitalism: Are BoP Businesses Useful Tools Against Poverty?