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February 14, 2008
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
Here are some Jobs on Base of the Pyramid, ranging from COO positions to Management Consulting and Microfinance Development:
• Chief Operating Officer at Scojo Foundation. The Scojo Foundation is a global social enterprise, currently operating in 13 countries, which creates jobs and sustains livelihoods through the sale of affordable reading glasses to the 700 million people who require clear, up-close vision to read and work.
• Intellecap is looking for an Editor with Microfinance Insights in Mumbai; Senior Associates – Publications and Knowledge Advisory in Mumbai; Senior Associates/ Associates – Training and Research in Hyderabad; Senior Associates/ Associates – SME & Microfinance Development in Hyderabad; Senior Associates/ Associates – Management Consulting in Hyderabad; and Senior Associates/ Associates – Finance in Hyderabad.
Take a look at all Intellecap job postings. Intellecap is a leading consulting firm focused on capital advisory and innovations for the inclusive finance space, endeavoring to create and deliver mainstream, profitable solutions to address the problems of poverty and expedite sustainable development.
• Internship at Engineers for Social Impact (Internship with application’s deadline on March 2nd). Engineers for Social Impact is a unique fellowship program to connect the best engineering talent to the most credible social enterprises that drive market-based solutions to development in India.
• Associate, New Ventures Program, World Resources Institute. New Ventures promotes sustainable growth in emerging markets by accelerating the transfer of capital to businesses that deliver social and environmental benefits at the base of the economic pyramid.
• Director, TED Fellowship Program. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
Also have a look at a report which Net Impact made on December 2007 on Job's in the CSR arena.
August 31, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
We’re back from the summer break and eager to continue the conversation on corporate responsibility and sustainability. As last year, I include a list of events and topics which took place in the month of August:
The winner’s of the “Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care” have been announced.
5 new Ashoka fellow’s in Mexico
Echoing Green has announced their 2007 Fellows
Cemex is considered as one of the leaders in BoP space both through Construmex and Patrimonio Hoy
Harvard Business Review’s article on the dangers of Microcredit
GE Money and their Earth Rewards credit card
The 2007 Global Development Awards and Medals Competition is now open
$100 laptop production launched
Take a look at people who live in Manhattan and yet receive agricultural subsidies from the US federal government
Interesting initiative of “Executives Without Borders” shared by Pablo Halkyard
Snapshot at Global Migration
Upcoming Social Venture Conferences
Social Enterprise Competitions
July 19, 2007
María Soledad Pons Caruso, MBA 2007, Net Impact Chapter Leader
Wednesday, the 4th of July, the Global Village event took place at Instituto de Empresa. It was organized by Net Impact, but we would like to thank everyone who helped out in any manner. These people include the organizing committee, the country stand coordinators, those who prepared food or presentations, and all those who attended and helped support this cause.
The event raised around 2000 euros which will be split between four NGOs: ONGs: Koinonia (Kenya), Skip (Perú), Un Techo para mi país (Latinoamérica) y la New Gate to Peace Foundation (Jerusalem). Below you will find information on each. The money will be transferred next week. If you would still like to elect among them you may send an e-mail in the next few days.
At about 3 in the afternoon, many people left their classes early and began the preparations, led by Stephane who took charge of the logistics. At the door, the rest of the people were met by Guillermo, Lau, Sole, and Brent. More than 200 people attended! They were not only IMBAs, but also MBAs from September and February intakes, the master in Telecom and Digital Business, master in Finance y and Marketing.
The regions and countries represented were: Arab (Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon among others), Brazil, Central America (Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panamá), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, México, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and USA.
The Global Village had a dual purpose: to raise money for the NGOs and to celebrate the diversity of countries at IE. IE has a very international student body, so we should take advantage to learn about the cultures of others in all aspects, not just the work – related.
Continue reading 'Global Village, Second Edition'
March 27, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
The Skoll World Forum is taking place today and until this Thursday. I have surfed through the Social Edge website all morning and sadly have not had access to the conferences live, as it was possible last year. Perhaps they will be uploaded later on. In the mean time, there are a couple of blogs available, which are covering the event from their own perspective. Some of the speakers are:
• Jeff Skoll, founder and Chairman, Skoll Foundation and Participant Productions
• Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Grameen Bank founder and microfinance pioneer
• Peter Gabriel, musician, activist, cofounder and Chair of WITNESS
• Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org, founder and former Director of the Seva Foundation
• Bill Drayton, CEO and Chair, Ashoka
• Jeroo Billimoria, founder, Aflatoun / Child Savings International, who was this past November at the Social Responsibility Day at IE
Free the Children - 2007 Skoll Awardee
The 2007 Skoll Awardees will be presented at this event and include among others, Free The Children, NGO which recognizes the potential of young people to create positive social change. It works with schools throughout North America to educate and empower youths to act locally and globally as agents of change for their peers around the world. More than 500,000 students have joined the organization’s Youth in Action groups in 1,000 schools across the U.S. and Canada. They have shipped $11 million in essential medical supplies and have provided health care projects benefiting more than 505,000 people.
My deepest congratulations to Craig and Marc Kielburger, with whom i had the opportunity to work with back in 1999, at the State of the World Forum.
Have a look at the 2007 Skoll Awardees.
March 19, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
Fundación Bip Bip, cuya misión es la de acercar las nuevas tecnologías a los colectivos más desfavorecidos, ha creado www.puntoOrg.org, el primer portal de referencia en Internet exclusivamente dedicado a conseguir que el Tercer Sector tenga un acceso real a las nuevas tecnologías.
Hoy en día, Fundación Bip Bip está vinculada con más de 700 organizaciones sociales que trabajan con inmigrantes, mujeres maltratadas y discapacitados.
De esta experiencia, ha detectado que la mayoría de las organizaciones no aprovechan las posibilidades que la tecnología les brinda. Como destaca May Escobar, Directora General de Fundación Bip Bip, “la mayoría de las organizaciones de este tipo, si bien tienen un nivel de equipamiento informático adecuado, en muchos casos, por desconocimiento no están ni utilizando ni optimizando sus potencialidades”.
www.puntoOrg.org ofrece a las ONG productos, servicios, guías y formación para reducir sus gastos, mejorar su productividad, compartir información y todo lo que pueda necesitar para mejorar su labor diaria.
Por otra parte, Fundación Logística Justa, cuya finalidad es la cooperación internacional para el desarrollo y fomento económico del comercio justo y la economía social, acaba de lanzar su portal. Este cuenta con un espacio para el trading social, facilitando el acceso de productos de comercio justo así como el envío de excedentes, apoyando a entidades de cooperación internacional así como sensibilizando al mundo empresarial.
Colaboramos con ambas organizaciones de manera institucional así como, en el caso de Fundación Bip Bip, a través de prácticas profesionales con nuestros alumnos. Es sin duda un gusto ver como se fortalece cada vez más su contribución al desarrollo social.
March 07, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
How about a real space that fosters social innovation? A space where social entrepreneurship can be breathed on every corner. This has been The Hub in London experience. Their core product is flexible membership of inspirational and highly resourced habitats in the world’s major cities for social innovators to work, meet, learn, connect and realise progressive ideas. It is now present in London, Bristol, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo and Cairo. But the conversation is ongoing and advanced in the Netherlands, Mumbai, Berlin, Belgium, Halifax, Mexico and has several synergies with the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto, which is a “convergence facility” for the social mission community, The Melting Pot in Edinburgh and others.
The market need is expressed by social innovators whose ability to thrive requires access to highly resourced, flexible and safe spaces within which to scale up, change gear, take risks and make mistakes. Over time, social innovators need access to a range of just-in-time resources and market-facing opportunities to thrive: knowledge, capital and networks. The Hub provides channels to such resources and opportunities, without crushing the innovators initial spark and ingenuity.
We are engaging on a couple of action led conversations, one of which includes the openning of a hub like space in Madrid. If you want to be part of this conversation contact me.
February 23, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
You've got things to do. People to meet. Ideas to realise. Events to host. A business to run. So what's the deal? You need the flexibility to scale up, wind down, change gear, move on. You need a space you can call your own. You need a safe space, professional space, dynamic space. That is, A Space for Social Innovation.
Next week I'll be at The Hub in London and Briston, attending "The Art of Hosting Spaces for Social Innovation". What? An international seminar and inquiry exploring the art of crafting and hosting spaces that incubate imaginative initiatives for a radically better world. Why? A new model and pattern is emerging in physical and virtual spaces that support pioneering social initiatives. These habitats create the conditions for collaboration, serendipity and emergence such that value is created far in excess of the sum of their parts.
The objective is to build a network of inspirational habitats in major world cities for social innovators to work, meet, learn, connect and realise progressive ideas. The Hub is a place for making things happen. All the tools and trimmings needed to cultivate an idea, launch a project, host a meeting and run a business.
Over time, social innovators need access to a range of just-in-time resources and market-facing opportunities to thrive: knowledge, capital and networks. The Hub provides channels to such resources and opportunities, without crushing the innovators initial spark and ingenuity.
Well, these and many other conversations will take place next week. Hope to be able to post on a daly basis, in order to start the conversation of The Hub Madrid. Up to now The Hub in Madrid is what I have in mind as providing this social innovation stretch, a space where MBA alumni and others can start their social enterprises, meet, interact and learn from practitioners in the community and abroad. At the same time, these practitioners certainly will be enriched by the business perspective of value creation that IE MBAs can offer. Bluntly speaking, it is a great model which makes perfect sense on my mind. I’m certain that my perception will still change 180 or 360 degrees next week, hopefully bringing it closer to the right direction.
February 09, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
A €1.16 billion program is being funded in order to encourage drug companies to come up with vaccines to help prevent pneumonia and meningitis, intended to save the lives of more than 5 million children by 2030, in the world's poorest countries.
The idea of the fund, which is to begin with the pilot program in pneumococcal disease, is to act as a bridge between poorer countries and drug firms. Italy, Canada, Norway, Russia and Britain are the first countries to back up the fund. The plan is to subsidise the future purchase of vaccines, hoping to serve as an incentive in order to bring drug firms into action.
If a developing country agrees it needs a drug which industry can develop, the fund provides a commitment to purchase the vaccines once they are produced.
"The key aim is to ensure there is secure funding for the vaccines urgently needed in the poorest countries, where thousands of children die every day from diseases that can be prevented," Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank President
Companies must agree to sell the new vaccine at a price that developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America can afford. After a period of 7-10 years, vaccine producers are to continue supplying their products, at a discounted price.
On another note, the first large-scale trial of an HIV vaccine is set to begin in South Africa. Three thousand HIV negative men and women who are sexually active will be immunised in a 4 year study.
This is a highly needed element in Public Private Partnerships. Pharmaceutical companies have their very important and fundamental role to play, but so do governments from developed and developing economies, NGO’s, other agencies and philanthropists, in order to generate incentives which increase R&D of neglected diseases, which still is in a low 10% of the whole R&D expenditure.
Learn more about The Global Fund and their January 2007 Africa Update.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on vaccine preventable diesases.
Learn about the International Aids Vaccine Initiative.
February 08, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
HBS Working Knowledge has just interviewed Professor Kasturi (Kash) Rangan on his latest book, Business Solutions for the Global Poor, which includes the conclusions of the December 2005 Conference on Global Poverty: Business Solutions and Approaches.
“To the degree that these ventures empower the poor—either by improving their quality of life (clean water, for example), providing them with productivity tools and services (cell phones, for example), or creating jobs—that's where the goals of poverty reduction and economic profit can align.”
According to Kash Rangan, there are three major challenges when considering the BoP:
• Cultural distance between corporate decision makers and the poor
• Lack of infrastructure in poor markets that can make operating at the base of the pyramid difficult, and potentially costly.
• Companies are challenged to find ways to bring BOP initiatives to scale and sustainability within the time frames dictated by traditional corporate targets. In many BOP ventures, the true profit driver lies in volume rather than in profit margins
Read the whole Q&A session here.
Interested in Improving Health for the Poor?, read the Q&A session with HBS Professor Michael Chu.
Last but not least, the Q&A session in regards to The Corporate Value Shift with Professor Lynn Paine, who argues that companies can't consider themselves amoral or apart from society anymore—that the relationship between companies and society at large necessitates bringing a moral dimension to decision making.
January 09, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
Time's Person of the Year is YOU. The tool that makes this possible is the World Wide Web. And we didn't just watch, we also worked. Its also time to take part on conversations that matter and to engage in actions that make a difference.
The World Economic Forum, which will take place January 24-28th, will use new web applications which will extend the discussions at the Annual Meeting 2007 to a much wider audience. The debates and discussions at Davos will be open to the general public via traditional broadcast channels, but also via webcasts, podcasts and for the first time, vodcasts.
The Forum will webcast over 50 of the 220 sessions. 31 of the sessions will be webcast live and a further 20 will be available for download once the session is over. All webcasts will be available also as pod- and vodcasts for download from Google video. All webcasts and vodcasts can be accessed here.
If you can physically join the event don’t miss the chance. If you were not invited, do join the conversations, it will definitely be worth your while.
…Still’s never been a time when both private citizens and public officials had the potential to shape a world of peace and prosperity. Could we screw it up if we let AIDS eat us alive? Yes. Could we go back to an ice age if we don’t do something about global warming? Absolutely.
…we’re building something we never had to build before so, don’t be discouraged and don’t use your political disappointments as an excuse to avoid personal commitment. Bill Clinton
Need to capture the essence of the annual meeting?
Plan your schedule in accordance to the Programme.
Join the Davos Conversation.
January 04, 2007
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
2006 was a year full of highlights in corporate responsibility and sustainability. Going from a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to international awareness on global warming, it certainly was a year which proved the tipping point in these conversations. Here are some of the most important things that happened in 2006:
Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank win the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize
UN Principles for Responsible Investment Launched
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore
The Clinton Global Initiative and more than US$7 billion in Global Aid
IFC's Lighting the Bottom of the Pyramid
Five big stories on Global Health
Carbon Neutral is “Word of the year”
The 2007 perspective looks even more promising, lets build on this conversation…
December 13, 2006
Harvard Business Review has just published on their December issue two great articles together with an editorial and material which relates to Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility and to Disruptive Innovation for Social Change. The first is authored by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer and the former by Clayton M. Christensen and others.
I sincerley recommend purchasing these articles or moreover, December's issue of HBR; both CSR and social innovation are very well envisioned, together with an editorial and Michael Porter's Mapping Social Opportunities, which helps you visualize how an organization can set a successful CSR agenda which maximizes social benefit while making business sense.
Here's an abstract of Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility:
Governments, activists, and the media have become adept at holding companies to account for the social consequences of their actions. In response, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country. Frequently, though, CSR efforts are counterproductive, for two reasons. First, they pit business against society, when in reality the two are interdependent. Second, they pressure companies to think of corporate social responsibility in generic ways instead of in the way most appropriate to their individual strategies. The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so disconnected from strategy as to obscure many great opportunities for companies to benefit society. What a terrible waste. If corporations were to analyze their opportunities for social responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business choices, they would discover, as Whole Foods Market, Toyota, and Volvo have done, that CSR can be much more than a cost, a constraint, or a charitable deed—it can be a potent source of innovation and competitive advantage. In this article, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer propose a fundamentally new way to look at the relationship between business and society that does not treat corporate growth and social welfare as a zero-sum game. They introduce a framework that individual companies can use to identify the social consequences of their actions; to discover opportunities to benefit society and themselves by strengthening the competitive context in which they operate; to determine which CSR initiatives they should address; and to find the most effective ways of doing so. Perceiving social responsibility as an opportunity rather than as damage control or a PR campaign requires dramatically different thinking—a mind-set, the authors warn, that will become increasingly important to competitive success.
Purchase this article.
Here's an abstract of Disruptive Innovation for Social Change:
Countries, organizations, and individuals around the globe spend aggressively to solve social problems, but these efforts often fail to deliver. Misdirected investment is the primary reason for that failure. Most of the money earmarked for social initiatives goes to organizations that are structured to support specific groups of recipients, often with sophisticated solutions. Such organizations rarely reach the broader populations that could be served by simpler alternatives. There is, however, an effective way to get to those underserved populations. The authors call it "catalytic innovation." Based on Clayton Christensen's disruptive-innovation model, catalytic innovations challenge organizational incumbents by offering simpler, good-enough solutions aimed at underserved groups. Unlike disruptive innovations, though, catalytic innovations are focused on creating social change. Catalytic innovators are defined by five distinct qualities. First, they create social change through scaling and replication. Second, they meet a need that is either overserved (that is, the existing solution is more complex than necessary for many people) or not served at all. Third, the products and services they offer are simpler and cheaper than alternatives, but recipients view them as good enough. Fourth, they bring in resources in ways that initially seem unattractive to incumbents. And fifth, they are often ignored, put down, or even discouraged by existing organizations, which don't see the catalytic innovators' solutions as viable. As the authors show through examples in health care, education, and economic development, both nonprofit and for-profit groups are finding ways to create catalytic innovation that drives social change.
Purchase this article.
Interested in this subject? You should also read The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy.
December 05, 2006
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
The Acumen Fund is trying to create an “entrepreneurial bench” of top talent with strong financial and operational skills as well as the moral imagination to build appropriate enterprises with local stakeholders. Through the Acumen Fund Fellows Program, they have identified and developed in their own words "some of the world’s next generation of leaders".
They have just announced a call for extraordinary individuals to build the Acumen Fund Fellows class of 2008, a program which provides them with a unique opportunity to use their skills to effect real social change with our portfolio organizations in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, India and Pakistan, and to build lasting relationships with other like-minded individuals. Fellows will spend one year working with their team and with local entrepreneurs, gaining intensive experience in price performance, logistics, distribution systems, scaling and innovative technology. Fellows will learn and apply these skills while enjoying an unusual level of responsibility both at Acumen Fund and within our portfolio organizations.
Ideal fellows include those who have already decided on a career in venture philanthropy, those who are seeking a career at the highest levels in the corporate world but want to better understand and have an impact on problems of global poverty, and budding social entrepreneurs who want to learn about managing organizations in the most demanding settings.
The application's deadline is January 31, 2007, having the selection phase by mid-April and the program beginning in September. You can find more information and application guidelines at Acumen Fund.
Apply now.
Learn more about the Fellows Program.
Acumen Fund and Social Entrepreneurship in Action.
Max Oliva, Associate Director, Social Impact Management
The Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has around $10bn raised money to fight these diseases, has recently held its 14th board meeting. It's interesting to see the views from different stakeholders in regards to this meeting in order to make an assessment of their work. Although it has a very challenging future, being results focused, governance and other methods make it a learning organization which allows them to improve their processes and methodology on an ongoing basis.
According to the Financial Times, “its governance structure, which offers board seats to developing nations and non-governmental groups as well as donor nations and the private sector, is one of the more pioneering aspects of its operation. It is designed to provide “ownership” to recipients as well as donors, encouraging them to be more responsive and effective.” It has however challenging issues which it must still tackle.
They have planned a Five-Year Evaluation which will be implemented under the guidance of the TERG. It is framed by a set of three overarching questions related to the organizational efficiency of the Global Fund; the effectiveness of the Global Fund partner environment; and the impact of the Global Fund on the three diseases. This report will be ready in 2008.
“Four years ago, almost nobody in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world was receiving treatment. That well over one million people with AIDS are on now on treatment through the support of Global Fund is a remarkable achievement,” Professor Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund.
Feel like contributing with your knowledge? How about taking part on the Five Year Evaluation of the Global Fund? You have until January 15th, 2007.
Feel more committed? They are recruiting!
See a very compelling video by Kristen Ashburn, who has photographed the impact of AIDS in southern Africa in case you still need a small motivational push...
December 01, 2006
Watch a 40 second message of Bono in regards to AIDS.
In 2000, heads of state made a promise to halt and begin to reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015.
New reports by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that, as of 2006, the epidemic continues to spread in every region of the world. By now more than 65 million people have been infected with HIV and well over 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981, 2.9 million in 2006 alone. At this rate, the WHO predicts that in the next 25 years another 117 million people will die, making AIDS the third leading cause of death worldwide.
Anything strange about this familiar image? The (RED) campaign is getting a great boost today by google.com
According to research revealed by the BBC, More than a million jobs are being lost every year from the spread of HIV/Aids, the bulk of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Clinton Foundation is to Lead $50 Million Effort with UNITAID to Assist 40 Countries to Expand Treatment to 100,000 Additional Children in 2007
"Accountability -- the theme of this World AIDS Day -- requires every President and Prime Minister, every parliamentarian and politician, to decide and declare that “AIDS stops with me”... But accountability applies not only to those who hold positions of power. It also applies to all of us... And it requires every one of us help bring AIDS out of the shadows, and spread the message that silence is death." Kofi A. Annan
Read his full message here.
The Independent is following up with their second (RED) Edition.
Visit the World AIDS Campaign.
Visit the World AIDS Day webpage.
Which is the actual situation in regards to AIDS and Africa?
Uniting The World against AIDS.
The Global Business Coallition fight against HIV/AIDS.
November 30, 2006
Arusha, Tanzania, June 4-7, 2007
TED's first global conference is taking place with amazing people who are doing something valuable for Africa's future. Their voices will inspire. And their ideas will spread.
"Over the past few years a growing number of people in the TED community have become passionate about Africa, a continent that appears to be at an important tipping point. Its problems and challenges are well known. Less well known is that across the continent, change is afoot. Instead of relying only on development aid, Africans across the continent are beginning to take matters into their own hands. Ingenious solutions are being applied to tackle some of the toughest health and infrastructure problems. Businesses are being launched that are capable of transforming the lives of millions. New communication technologies are allowing ideas and information to spread, enabling markets — and governments — to be more efficient. And the numbers suggest that incomes are starting to nudge up in some countries and real growth is on the way. A new Africa beckons."
Some of the speakers already confirmed include:
Jacqueline Novogratz: After 20 years' involvement in Africa, she founded the Acumen Fund, a leader of the "new philanthropy" movement which, instead of offering charity, supports entrepreneurs who are building businesses in areas such as healthcare, low-cost housing and water distribution.
Eleni Gabre-Madhin: Economist and leading researcher on African agricultural markets.
Danniel Annerose: CEO of and founder of Manobi, developer of prize-winning cellphone-based services that, for example, give farmers market intelligence and allow them to achieve better prices for their crops.
Jane Goodall: Famous for her pioneering work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, she has become a globally recognized conservationist and a United Nations "Messenger of Peace."
Patty Stonesifer: CEO of the Gates Foundation, the world’s largest philanthropic organization. The Foundation funds multiple projects in Africa with a major focus on tackling AIDS, malaria and other public health issues.
See the full list of speakeres.
You can Register here.
What is TED?
What are TEDTALKS?.
November 14, 2006
Oxfam International has just brought out their report on Health, Education, and Water and Sanitation for All.
This report shows that developing countries will only achieve healthy and educated populations if their governments take responsibility for providing essential services.
Rich country governments and international agencies such as the World Bank should be crucial partners in supporting public systems, but too often they block progress by failing to deliver debt relief and predictable aid that supports public systems.
For those job hunting, in order to provide basic health care and education for all, the world needs 4.25 million more health workers and 1.9 million more trained teachers.
I believe that Oxfam reports, by being so critical put things in balance and bring people, institutions and governments into action, which is already a big contribution; but I also find it important to be critical with such reports and moreover with their overall contribution.
It is interesting to see raising critical voices on this year’s Oxfam report, as being “more of the same”, arguing that “The Oxfam doctor's prescription is to throw more money at these self-same entities - but more consistently and in larger amounts”.
How much value are these reports really adding? Can they be improved or modified in accordance to new realities?
Read the Oxfam Report.
September 28, 2006
Max Oliva, Associate Director of IE's Social Impact Management
Travelocity is looking at making Voluntourism mainstream as Part of ''Travel for Good'' Initiative. They are inviting consumers to join employee volunteers on National Public Lands Day September 30 as the First Step in its Far-Reaching Program.
They’ve recently launched their Go Zero program to help customers reverse climate change and enhance forests and wetlands through forestation programs. Now, under the Travel For Good initiative, Travelocity is kicking off a program called Change Ambassadors to help bring the idea of "voluntourism" to a broader, mainstream audience. In a 2006 Travel Forecast poll they conducted, 15 percent of respondents said they planned on taking a volunteer, education or religious trip this year.
It is not only them who are taking part on this endevor. Lonely Planet has their very own Sustainable Travel & Responsible Tourism (START), having together with Rough Guides through Climate Care, a carbon neutral initiative.
Another initiative was brought to me through the PSD Blog in regards to the Worldhotel-link.com, which connects travellers and accommodation providers via locally-owned and operated e-marketplaces.
According to The Transnational, Two-thirds of 90 British companies polled by the Institute of Travel Management have implemented corporate social responsibility programs.
Be it for CO2 emissions, responsible tourism, making it easy for volunteers to find opportunities to spend part of their next vacation volunteering, it seems that there is a big market which is about to reach its tipping point. Are you willing to be one of the early movers on this arena?
Know more of Voluntourism and other responsible travel initiatives.
Thanks to Gustavo Martinie and Antonio Lopez who shared this through the Tourism & Leisure Forum at Global Communities.