Supporting Entrepreneurship at the Base of the Pyramid through Business Linkages

Abstract

Brazil is undergoing an economic boom, with GDP growth of 5.4%, low inflation, and a balance of payments surplus in 2007. At the same time, the country faces enormous divides between ""haves"" and ""have nots,"" and critically needs to find ways of making growth more inclusive. In this context, Brazil was an exciting venue for the third roundtable dialogue in the Business Linkages series established by IFC in 2007 in partnership with the International Business Leaders Forum and the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at Harvard's Kennedy School. Business Linkages: Supporting Entrepreneurship at the Base of the Pyramid, hold June 10-12 in Rio de Janeiro and co-hosted with Tribanco, brought together approximately 40 corporate business linkage practitioners and selected operational partners from civil society and the international development community to discuss supply, distribution, and sales models that foster entrepreneurship and enterprise development among those currently living in conditions of poverty. The roundtable focused on business drivers and key success factors behind participants' linkage models, offering a space where participants could share openly the opportunities - and challenges - they all face. The level of openness in the conversation was highly encouraging. We consider it the sign of a maturing field when people are interested in discussing what is not working, in addition to what is.