- Uphill governance battle for Russian companies
- US$1 million Rio Tinto Alcan Prize for Sustainability now open for entries
- more IBLF news
- The Role of Business in Society: An Agenda for Action
- Responding to the Leadership Challenge
- more IBLF publications
The aim of this area of work is to highlight how business practices contribute to local development solutions and how business can grow more sustainably through profitable and successful partnerships with communities.
Mark Foster, Group Chief Executive, Management Consulting & Integrated Markets, Accenture
Leaders from business, often accompanied by leaders from other sectors of society, visit business-supported community projects around the world. The purpose is to enable these leaders to experience at first hand how partnerships with local organisation - tackling a particular development issue - can contribute to business success and sustainable international development.
Building on our work in this area under the name of INSIGHT, we launched a Crossing Borders programme in 2005 to show business leaders some of the challenges and opportunities in sustainable development.
In the first year of the programme, the chief executives of nine multinational companies, nearly 150 senior, regional and national business leaders and more than 50 NGOs and other organisations visited or been involved in project visits in 12 countries around the world.
The programme is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development's Global Development Alliance (USAID/GDA) as part of its drive to develop and integrate a public-private partnership approach into its work and mandate.
Visits in 2007
David Stout, President of Pharmaceutical Operations, GlaxoSmithKline, joins former US President Jimmy Carter at a partnership project in Nigeria.
Mark Foster, Group Chief Executive, Management Consulting & Integrated Markets at Accenture, sees how Accenture employees in Africa are using their skills to help international development organisations improve their performance.
Read about the visits that happened in the first year
(click on the name to download a short report on each visit)
Travis Engen, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Alcan, accompanies a group of NGO leaders from around the world to visit projects in Vancouver and see how development challenges exist in developed-world cities.
Jean-Baptiste Renard, Group Vice President, Refining and Marketing, Business Marketing and New Markets, BP learns the importance of the company’s support for young Mexican entrepreneurs.
Andrew Baker of Cadbury Schweppes sees how the company is helping to preserve its major source of cocoa through a biodiversity project in Ghana.
Amanda Walsh, Director of Corporate Affairs, Manpower and other business leaders see how business involvement is helping school-leavers and improving hospital standards and management in Egypt.
Neville Isdell, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Coca-Cola, sees how employees and the local community are benefiting from the company’s engagement in rural India.
Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
An IBLF-led India Business Task Force experienced how sustainable business and partnership models can help tackle rural development issues.
Ed Fuller, President and Managing Director of International Lodging at Marriott International, joins a team of nearly 100 executives to build affordable housing in tsunami-affected areas of Thailand.
Kevan Watts of Merrill Lynch sees how links between large and small companies are developing markets and creating jobs in the suburbs of Jakarta.
Lesley Roberts of Pentland sees how a long-term approach is key to changing working conditions in Vietnam’s footwear factories.
An IBLF Task Force visited tsunami-affected areas in Sri Lanka, Thailand and India to learn how business could contribute to rebuilding and recovery.
Download the entire set of visits from the first year as one report.
For further information on the programme, contact Kate Hewett, Programme Coordinator, on +44 207 467 3625, or email firstname.surname@iblf.org