Sustainability through Profitable Inclusive Business
Those of you who have been lucky enough to work with both businesses firms and non-Government organizations – are aware I am sure, that they do not talk the same language. Sometimes they find that their value systems are so different and their ways of working are so far apart – they would never be able to work together as partners. Fortunately (some might say Unfortunately!) for us at Business Innovation Facility – we are trying to get these two types of organizations to do exactly that – work together!
In order for the businesses and NGOs in Bangladesh to be able to understand the importance of working together and to built the foundation of such partnership, BIF Bangladesh teamed up with one of CARE Bangladesh’s project titled “Responsible Business Promotion in Bangladesh (RBPB)”. The goal of the project is to research and address the precise needs of national industry and civil society in understanding and implementing responsible business models in Bangladesh and provide training to stakeholders on these areas. The project will result in the establishment of partnerships between industry and civil society e.g. NGOs that benefit the poor as producers, consumers or workers. Department for International Development (DFID) UK and CARE International UK are funding the RBPB project.
As a part of the series of activities for the project, CARE BD has undertaken a research of the current status of social involvement of various reputed business firms in Bangladesh. Then together with BIF, RBPB planned a series of workshops to enhance the awareness, increase the capability, and also identify the barriers to effective partnerships between NGOs and businesses. We sought the help of International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) for their expertise in conducting Partnership development workshops and agreed with Care to contribute by bring the IBLG experts to conduct the series of workshops.
After a series of international teleconferences and a lot of brainstorming – we all planned to first start cautiously, as there lies some sensitivity amongst these two parties. We decided to have separate workshops at the beginning – before bringing them on a common platform. BIF Bangladesh and Care BD hosted two separate workshops on “Sustainability through Profitable Inclusive Business” on 12th & 13th April, 2011. Trainers from UK-based International Business Leaders' Forum (IBLF), Joanna Pyres and Nazneen Huq, conducted the workshops.
On the 12th, leading local and foreign private sector companies that are operating in Bangladesh took part in the event for businesses at a local hotel in Dhaka. Jamie Terzi, Deputy Country Director of Care BD gave the welcome speech. I introduced BIF and what we are aiming to do with the project. Joanna Pyres introduced IBLF. After an introductory session on general partnerships and cross-sector partnership characteristics, there were presentations by Kazi & Kazi Tea, Rural Sale Program of CARE BD as successful examples of cross sectoral partnerships and inclusive business. The facilitators then took the views of the participants both openly and through a group work, to understand their mindset regarding working with NGOs as partners.
The perceptions of the business people towards the NGOs as a partner for sustainable development are mixed. Some said NGOs have mindsets that only think about development so they are unable to focus on profitability. Identifying common interest, lack of skills for private sector engagement and slow decision making process are common problem in partnering with NGOs. Someone said companies feel that NGOs would be better implementing partners for proper utilization of their resources which they are now using for CSR, as businesses are not being able to use it properly. But close monitoring, active participation of partners and continuous follow up is needed for better output of those CSR activities. Effective utilization of budget and political, social pressure or mindset was detected by the business personnel as a barrier for sustainable development.
On the 13th, leading local and international NGOs that are operating in Bangladesh took part in the event for NGOs at CARE BD headquarters in Dhaka. Again Jamie Terzi, DCD of CARE BD gave the welcome speech. I introduced BIF and what we are aiming to do with the project. Joanna Pyres introduced IBLF. With a similar introduction, CARE BD presented two projects – one was Rural Sales Program and the other was a project with KIK Company from Germany. Later the facilitators took the views of the participants openly.
Participants of the workshops shared their experiences of trying to work with businesses. They are all facing challenges for ensuring sustainable development through NGO activities only. NGO personnel feel that business people have the mentality that only thinks about making profit, and sometimes they want to use the development sector just to reach market growth and hard to reach consumers. They also confessed that most of the NGOs don’t know that how to engage with business sector effectively. They said that proper training, building trust on partnerships and even tripartite meetings with businesses, NGOs and the Government can lead to better solutions for sustainable development.
At the end of both those workshops – we invited all the participants and other members of their organizations to participate in the following 2 days workshop on “Leading Inclusive Growth – How to create Win-Win Partnerships” which was planned to be held on the 19th – 20th of April. We felt at the end of both these workshops, that we have been able to create enough interest that these two parties were now ready to come and meet together, to learn the details of partnering in one common platform – which was quite an achievement by itself.