Feedback Form
Home Features Mastermind Videos About Advertise Blog Network Contact
   

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

Featured Ebook


ebook Famous Entrepreneurs - Modern Empire Builders


Featured Ebook

More Evan Carmichael
Have A Suggestion?

Sales Lessons From Starbucks And Dell

2.0 Introduction: Enterprise solutions to poverty

 
African Accounts - Meet The Authors
Zahid , BAA Zahid Torres-Rahman
BAA
United Nations , Resource United Nations Capital Development Fund
Resource
Rob , MainSpring Rob Smorfitt
MainSpring
Africa , Resource Africa Renewal
Resource
African Accounts - Meet The Authors
2.0 Introduction: Enterprise solutions to poverty
   

This paper has two objectives. The first is to introduce the Shell Foundation and its way of working. The second is to offer up insights drawn from our experience as a contribution to the wider debate on how the private sector and the International Development Community (IDC) can most effectively catalyse equitable, self-sustaining development in poor countries (see annex 1).

The Shell Foundation is new – established by Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies as a UK charity in June 2000 – and a little different. Unlike many corporate foundations, the Shell Foundation focuses on social issues aligned to the core characteristics of our founder – an energy major and a multinational group of companies (MNC).

Thus we address social problems arising from the links between energy and poverty, energy and the environment and the impact of globalisation on vulnerable communities.

In addition, while set up as a grant-making charity, the Shell Foundation believes the application of business principles and business thinking can be very useful in tackling social problems, especially the challenges of overcoming poverty in developing countries. Hence we tend to act more like an investor in deciding where and how to allocate our commitments of time and money. We also expect our partners to act more like entrepreneurs and businesses in the pursuit of their social and charitable objectives.

Finally, and because of our focus on energy issues, we’re exploring ways of harnessing what we call the ‘value-creating’ assets of one of the largest international energy majors, the Shell Group, to advance our charitable objectives. We could not do this if our issues were traditional corporate philanthropy concerns of health, education or culture.

Moreover, because the Shell Group has long been present in many developing countries, we have ready access to practical experience and ‘local’

knowledge on enterprise–poverty issues simply not available to the majority of IDC actors – donors in particular. Taken together this means we are able to bring ‘more than money’ to the table when seeking strategic partners and working with them to develop and implement viable, scalable solutions to the social problems we target.

Of course, the Shell Foundation is still young and our track record relatively limited. However, our work to date tackling poverty in developing countries is throwing up intriguing challenges – not only for the Foundation Board and its staff,1 our founders, the Royal Dutch/Shell and our partners – but more widely for practitioners concerned with international development and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

In Section 1 we set the stage for exploring these challenges by reinforcing a case for putting ‘propoor enterprise’ more at the heart of the efforts by the IDC and big business to help poor people escape poverty (see annex 1). In Section 2, we describe the core features of the approach taken by Shell Foundation to pursue this goal. Section 3 uses case study material to illustrate our way of working and the outcomes being achieved. Finally, in Section 4, we distil our experience into a set of propositions for wider debate and consideration by the international development and business communities. To learn more about this author, visit Shell Foundation's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends
[Get Copyright Permissions] E-Mail | Print | More  


Related Articles Related Articles
6.0 Propositions and conclusion: Enterprise solutions to poverty
  We have argued throughout that the expansion of enterprise, particularly SMEs, is critical to economic and poverty reduction. This is hardly a new or revolutionary argument. It has been advanced by many others s...
6.3 Come Together: Enterprise solutions to poverty
  an invitation to invest in proving and positioning enterprise as a key part of the solution to poverty
1.15 Building an employment agenda: Working Out of Poverty
  Employment, and the promotion of enterprise that creates it, remains the most effective route to poverty eradication. The objective of full employment is essential – an issue on which the European Union has given ...
1.9 Building local development through cooperatives: Working Out of Poverty
  Participation and inclusion are central to a new approach to poverty reduction.
What is the next Hot module coming up in SAP?
  Member Question: What is the next Hot module coming up in SAP I am in the field of SAP for the past 4 years in the technical field focussed more on conversion, I want to move to functional area and want to kn...

Related Forum Posts Related Forum Posts
Re: How do we market to 2 Billion people in China? Re: How do we market to 2 Billion people in China?
Book: The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to c Book: The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to c
Resource for Women Entrepreneurs Resource for Women Entrepreneurs
Hi Folks!!! Hi Folks!!!
Business or Personal Coachin Business or Personal Coachin
Biz Plan Competition Biz Plan Competition
Enterprise Toronto Enterprise Toronto
Book: Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows y Book: Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows y

 
About the Author


Shell Foundation
(Visit Shell's Website)
The Shell Foundation is established to support efforts to achieve a balance between economic growth, care for the environment and equitable social development - the goal of sustainable development. The Foundation's focus on sustainable development is based upon the Shell Group's belief that the long-term health and prosperity of societies of which it is part, and its own future, depends on the ability of all stakeholders, worldwide, to attain such balance. However, as one of the most significant international oil and energy groups, Shell recognises the global dimension of many sustainability issues related to its activities. It believes it has a responsibility and an opportunity to play its part in addressing these issues.
Have A Suggestion?

View Author's Video
Become An Author

Free Downloads


Shell Foundation's

Complete
List Of
African-Accounts
Articles


First Name
Last Name
Email
 
If you enjoyed this article, get Shell Foundation's Complete List of African-Accounts Articles For FREE!
Become An Author