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This year the World Business and Development Awards received a record number of 104 entries from 44 countries.
The panel stressed that the 10 winners excel in demonstrating clear linkages between their core business practices and the contribution they make to achieving the MDGs.The winning entries also exhibited inspiring partnership approaches with a variety of stakeholders while revealing potential for scaling up and replication in the future. The ten winning companies were honoured during the World Business and Development Awards ceremony in New York City on 24 September 2008 (in alphabetical order):
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Photos of ceremony
Video of ceremony
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The 2008 World Business and Development Awards Winners
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3K&A A small Ghanaian, familyowned and run business that has built a profitable soybean processing plant and developed new soy products. Its commercial success has been reliant on the rapid growth and improvement in the local production of raw materials (particularly soybean), made possible by investing in farming techniques, planning and commercial skills. In an area of Ghana where more than 80% of the population had never had access to currency, more than 2,800 farmers are now earning an average incomeof £531 per agricultural season. |
Diageo Two decades ago, all the grain for Diageo’s breweries in Africa was imported. The im- ports required precious foreign currency and repre- sented a lost business opportunity for local farmers. Diageo joined a project to develop the cultivation of a beer-friendly variety of sorghum in Nigeria. The project identified a usable sorghum cultivar and trained farmers to grow the crop. Sorghum farmers reported a 35-50% increase in yield from their land. Today, Diageo breweries in Nigeria source 95% of their grain from local farms, sustaining around 27,000 jobs. Diageo is a signatory to the BCTA.
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Endesa The largest utilities company in Spain, Endesa set out on a plan to make electricity accessible to the poorest part of the population in Brazil. The program is centered around the innovative concept of exchanging recyclable waste for electricity account credits. The two main objectives are to improve recycling and to provide customers with liquidity on their energy accounts, especially low income customers. The program has led to a substantial reduction of losses and unpaid accounts for Endesa and has helped to increase distribution to new customers who were previously unable to access electricity. |
Haygrove Though winter tourism is a major source of business in the Gambia, much of the profits go to Western-owned tour operators, airlines and hotels. Haygrove identified a willingness amongst high-end tourist hotels and restaurants to switch their purchasing from imported to locally grown produce. However, hotels and restaurants were put off by unreliable supply and poor quality. Haygrove and partners established a project called‘The Gambia is Good’. The project has had a major impact in connecting the high-end tourism market to the benefit of local agriculture workers, by dramatically improving their horticultural production capacity, both in terms of quality, yield and diversification.
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Olam Nigeria Ltd Nigeria consumes about 5.4 million MT (metric tons) of rice annually while local production only amounts to some 2.3 million MT per year. The remaining 3.1 million MT is imported, making Nigeria the second largest importer of rice in the world. Olam Nigeria, a major rice importer, decided to invest in local production of high quality rice for Nigeria’s domestic market In 2006, USAID/Nigeria entered into partnership with Olam, providing over 10,000 farmers with secure markets, high quality inputs, access to commercial finance, and technical assistance to produce high quality rice. In less than 3 years, the program has improved farm productivity by more than 200% and increased farmer profitability by more than 250%.
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Safaricom M-PESA is a new Safaricom service in Kenya allowing customers to transfer money and access other mobile banking services using their mobile phone. In the last few years, Africa has recorded the greatest mobile telephony growth in the world. In Kenya alone, there are over 12 million mobile phone subscribers, yet out of 33 million Kenyans, only 3 million operate bank accounts. M-PESA bridges this gap using mobile technology, making money transfer affordable and secure. Within one year, the M-PESA customer base had expanded to 2.7 million subscribers and now Safaricom nows adds approximately 200,000 new customers per month to M-PESA. The reliable savings mechanisms and credit services provided by M-PESA have helped poor communities increase income and work their way out of poverty.
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Sistema Ser The objective of Sistema Ser (SSer) is to improve the lives of those at the bottom of the economic and social pyramid in Argentina by increasing their access to health care. SSer has a self-financed system that provides primary care at low prices. SSer has two components: a nonprofit foundation (Fundacion Ser) and a network of non-exclusive associated providers (for profit). Individuals can join the system by purchasing a card (for about US$4 a year) that allows a variety of medical services and prescription drugs to be bought at significantly below market rates. To date, SSer has 20,000 members.
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| SMART Communications SMART is the leading wireless services provider in the Philippines. Before SMART introduced low-cost mobile phone subscription in 1994, there were only 1 million landline subscribers and 102,400 mobile phone owners, all of whom belonged to the more affluent social classes. By the end of March 2008, there were 58.9 million mobile phone owners, of whom 31.6 million subscribed to the SMART network. Adhering to its original strategy and riding on the success of a project called‘Smart Load’, the company has introduced about 20 other innovative products/services in the span of just over 10 years. These products have revolutionized the telecommunications market in the Philippines, giving the poor access to communication and micro-enterprise opportunities. |
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Syngenta When it comes to feeding the world’s growing population, sustainability is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Syngenta helps increase sustainable agricultural productivity in order to address these challenges. It provides innovative tools and technologies that help farmers produce more on limited farmland. The tropical sugar beet project is an example of this. The specially developed tropical sugar beet can yield the same quantity of sugar per hectare as cane in half the time. This directly improves the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and their communities in developing countries; helps increase food production; generates employment; protects and improves soils; and ensures more efficient use of precious natural resources, especially water.
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ZMQ Software Systems As an innovative software solution provider, ZMQ develops ICT products for new markets in India at the bottom-of-the-pyramid, by successfully reaching out to grass-root, under-privileged, and marginalized communities. On World AIDS Day, 1 December 2005, underthe banner“Freedom HIV/AIDS”, ZMQ released four mobile games on HIV/AIDS awareness to reach out to millions of people. It was a pioneering initiative to create awareness of HIV/AIDS within grass-root communities. The objective was to make use of the latest mobile technology to help combat a serious disease. In the span of 15 months, the four games reached 42 million people in India, with a download of 10.3 million game sessions.
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