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Promise and Progress: Market-based Solutions to Poverty in Africa
Source
Monitor
Publisher
Monitor Group
Publication date
May 2011
Type
Reports
Industry
Agriculture
Category
Social Entrepreneurship
Discipline
Entrepreneurship
Change Management
Strategy
Change Management
Strategy
Language
English
Link
Free/Pay for content
Free
The Monitor Group has published a comprehensive analysis of financially sustainable enterprises that address challenges of Poverty in Africa. The report, titled Promise and Progress: Market-Based Solutions to Poverty in Africa, is the outcome of a 16-month research project on the operations of 439 enterprises in nine sub-Saharan nations, enterprises which are active in 14 sectors and seek to use market mechanisms to improve the lives and livelihoods of people living at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
These “market-based solutions” (MBSs) engage poor people as customers, offering them socially beneficial products at prices they can afford, or as business associates—suppliers, agents, or distributors—providing them with improved incomes. According to Monitor, “the report shows conclusively that MBSs make a significant difference in the fight against poverty by delivering social impact in a sustainable way, at scale.”
Monitor’s study of African MBSs included field visits, with more than 500 customer, distributor, or farmer interviews, discussions with experts and other knowledgeable parties, and research in the public record. The investigation also included interviews with executives at 47 multinational and large national corporations on their engagement in low-income markets, and with 53 impact investors to understand the nature of their interests and involvements.
The report builds on Monitor’s earlier study of MBSs in India, Emerging Markets, Emerging Models, which found that the enterprises that succeeded—earning a profit, or at least covering their costs, and operating at enough scale to have a positive impact on poverty rates—possessed a business model attuned to the exacting conditions of low-income markets
The report also discusses implications and conclusions of the research for the founders and leaders of MBSs; large and multinational corporations that seek to engage low-income people as customers or suppliers; impact investors, donors and philanthropists; and governments.
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