The Southern Africa Trust and the Nepad Business Foundation Joint Workshop on Inclusive Business
April 2012, Sandton
Lynette Chen (NBF) and Prega Ramsamy (Southern Africa Trust)The Southern Africa Trust and the NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF) jointly held a workshop on profitably integrating the poor into the value and supply chains (inclusive business) of businesses. The workshop aimed at motivating companies to engage in inclusive business practices was held in April 5, 2012 at the NBF offices.

The workshop was jointly opened by Lynette Chen, CEO of NBF and Dr Prega Ramsamy, Head of B4D Pathfinder at the Southern Africa Trust. In their opening remarks, they both welcomed the participants and underscored the importance of having an inclusive approach in doing business. Dr Ramsamy highlighted the potential at the Bottom of the Pyramid and urged business to include the poor their value chains.

Ullrich Klins, Southern Africa TrustParticipants, mainly from business, discussed innovative, market-based business opportunities for the private sector and shared information on different options for inclusive business approaches, risks and solutions. After the introduction of the Southern Africa Trust and NBF on the concept of inclusive business, examples of best practices were presented by Standard Bank, SAB Miller, AngloAmerican and the small scale enterprise Essay Gifts.

In a final session, Ullrich Klins from the Southern Africa Trust presented the B4D Barometer, a monitoring and evaluation tool for inclusive business to support businesses in their activities. Companies were requested to provide their inputs in the development of the Barometer and to also volunteer as pilots during the development phase of the Barometer.


Southern Africa Trust


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