WBCSD Annual Review 2006 NEW.qxp - Sustentabilidad.uai.edu.ar

In November, Cambridge University’s Program for Industry, the WBCSD, Oxfam
and UNDP launched the Business and Poverty Program. The event assisted some
50 leaders from business and civil society to understand how business can
improve the quality of life of the world’s poorest communities through
mainstream commercial activities.
The WBCSD and the International Business Leaders Forum launched A Business
Guide to Development Actors in May to facilitate partnerships between
development organizations and business. The guide introduces companies to
some of the main development actors worldwide, and allows company
managers to identify which organizations are working on common areas of
interest. (http://www.wbcsd.org/web/devguide.htm)
A woman making
fiberglass chairs at
Ghonoshatho Kendro
workshop, Bangladesh.
Doing Business with the World, a publication summarizing key development issues
and opportunities facing business, will be available in early 2007. The FACT
members have included a statement of purpose underlining their commitment
“to play our part in building capacity and empowering people so they have the
opportunity to move out of poverty and into the formal economy.”
Work is ongoing to develop an externally recognized framework for measuring
the economic and broader development impacts of company activities that will
better inform operational and long-term business investment decisions.
Research is ongoing to understand the importance of mobility as a driver for
economic development and the steps necessary to narrow the mobility divide.
In 2006 12 development case studies were prepared and shared widely. Visit the
Development Focus Area’s online case study collection at
http://www.wbcsd.org/web/dev/cases.htm
The online Sustainable Livelihoods video library captures the vision of leaders
from the business community and civil society, and provides lively footage of onthe-ground
projects, to demonstrate how companies are creating inclusive
business opportunities. The video library is accessible at
http://www.wbcsd.org/web/slexperience.htm
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Members of the Cooperative De Café
Comarca sort and classify coffee beans
in Marcala, Honduras, some
150 kilometers from Tegucigalpa.