Companies and development

Companies and development

AFD is a partner and/or member of a number of Northern networks gathering companies, experts and donors to work on An increasing number of companies are innovating and building new partnerships in developing countries. They are thus making an important contribution to achieving the MDGs. Social Responsibility is a core issue which they factor into their own development.
Support for local socio-economic development, transformations in entrepreneurial models (“BoP” strategies in particular), involvement in fair trade… companies are adopting new initiatives to support the fight against poverty.
AFD supports and provides its expertise to development initiatives implemented by companies in Northern countries, particularly for their CSR processes.
One aspect of AFD’s partnership strategy for French companies involves supporting innovative private initiatives that meet important issues in terms of economic and social development.
the role played by the private sector in the development of Southern countries.

  • “BoP” ("base of the pyramid") strategies – accessibility strategies designed by companies to give the poorest access to their products and services

    For a few years now, major international corporates have been developing new entrepreneurial models and have thus created a new relationship between the “business world” and the fight against poverty. For example, companies adopt the so-called “base of the pyramid” (BoP) strategies in order to give the poorest access to their products and services. By including populations living on less than a few dollars a day in their markets, these strategies are giving the private sector a new role in the fight against poverty and can, at the same time, open up new economic opportunities for companies.
    These new entrepreneurial processes are likely to have a real impact on the development of populations: greater access to essential services (water and energy in particular), access to certain products that empower actors (mobile phones, new technologies…), local private sector integrated into production and distribution chain…
     
    AFD’s objective is to support BoP initiatives that aim to give poor populations greater access to certain products or services when this helps reduce poverty and improve their living conditions. This support is provided beforehand via AFD’s participation in studies conducted in consortium with companies. In addition to its financial contribution to studies, AFD also provides its sectoral and geographical expertise in developing countries.

  • Business involvement in fair trade

    Fair Trade meets the three core issues of Corporate Social Responsibility (economic, social and environmental concerns). And yet it is in this movement, which is still in its infancy, that it is the least integrated. Fair Trade may be extremely familiar to the general public, but professionals still know very little about its technical aspects. It is not automatically perceived as being a possible process for core business activities.
    AFD is seeking to promote business involvement in fair trade via a partnership with the Plate-forme pour le commerce equitable (French Fair Trade Platform).