 The CSR Initiative’s Economic Opportunity Program is a program of research and outreach on mechanisms for collaborative action among companies and other actors to expand economic opportunity in developing countries. In October 2007, the Initiative and FSG Social Impact Advisors , along with the International Business Leaders Forum and IFC, used their convening power to bring together more than 100 leaders in the private sector, the public sector, and academia for a leadership dialogue on “Expanding Economic Opportunity through Collaborative Action.”
 At the event, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, Permanent Secretary of the UK Department for International Development, presented a keynote on the role of growth, collaboration, and competition in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. As background for the meeting, the Initiative produced a framing paper on the role of large firms in increasing options for entrepreneurship and employment as well as papers exploring ways that companies in seven industry sectors are implementing these options, often in partnership with government entities and nonprofit organizations.
Attendees joined in a discussion of prospects for collaborative action and generated practical ideas for advancing the economic opportunity agenda.
These ideas, and examples of initiatives participants have undertaken to expand economic opportunity, are summarized in the event report, The Role of the Private Sector in Expanding Economic
Opportunity through Collaborative Action. Report of a Leadership Dialogue, Oct. 18 & 19, 2007.
The Initiative published eight reports for the occasion:
|
