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Conference Development Through Innovative Business Models
‘Can rising corporate interest in the poor as a potential market be used for development-policy purposes?’This was the issue discussed by some 120 experts from business, academia, civil society, and implementing organisations together with government representatives at the conference entitled Innovative Business Models as a Stimulus for Development. The event took place at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in Berlin on 18 September 2008. At the heart of the concept known as Base of the Pyramid (BoP) is the idea of using innovative products and methods to develop the hitherto scarcely tapped market of the three billion poor people worldwide. The aim is to provide better services for the needs of those on the lowest, but widest step of the world's incomes pyramid, and allow them greater economic participation. With new, cheaper products and services, the lives of poor people can be significantly improved. Guests from three continents discussed access to vitamins, social security, better prices for agricultural products due to more transparent markets and the creation of new sources of income from business start-ups by women (see presentations). The examples show that there is an overlap between commercial and development-policy objectives. Around the world, companies, economists and non-governmental organisations are pushing forward with innovations aimed at the markets at the base of the global income pyramid. Documentation
Conference documents
Presentations
Further information
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