Publication database

This report identifies eight factors that are critical to the success of social and environmental enterprises. It provides assistance to the SEED initiative by outlining the factors that can be used to identify potential award winners and used to establish a baseline for performance of new winners.

This report examines how one type of Japanese private sector development support, the one-village one-product (OVOP) approach, fits with other donor approaches and how it relates to the development of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). It discusses the origin and academic context of OVOP; it reviews issues in the evaluation of the OVOP approach; and it includes a brief assessment of OVOP in Malawi.

This case study assesses Unilever's socio-economic footprint in South Africa; it reviews the company's impact on the growth, development, society and environment in the country. It outlines that the company's direct impacts are those felt by its 3,000 suppliers and their 20,000 employees due to the company’s purchases of goods and services from them; and its indirect impacts include those felt by its suppliers’ suppliers owing to the orders they receive.

Investigates the role microfinance institutions (MFI) could play in the formalisation of the economy. Examines the effectiveness of the credit as a incentive to induce clients to formalise and reviews the advantage for a MFI to deal with more formal client.

This study looks at Unilever in Indonesia and examines its business activities for their direct and indirect socio-economic impacts on the poor. It attempts to improve the understanding of the relationship between big business and poverty reduction, and it suggests that the extent to which the wealth created by business can reduce poverty is determined by many factors, an industry's operating structure and the values and strategies of individual companies within it are critical factors.