News/Events

WDI Unveils BoP Roadmap

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

WDI’s Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Research Initiative hosted a launch event Oct. 23 in Washington, D.C. for its BoP Roadmap, which is designed to re-energize the BoP domain for the next decade.

The roadmap is an action agenda that represents a shared vision for the BoP community, and was co-created by more than 200 leaders in the field through discussions and working sessions at the BoP Summit hosted by WDI in October 2013. Download it here.

While not meant to cover all potential issues facing the domain, the roadmap is intended to catalyze efforts to create a stronger and more robust BoP community that learns and shares more effectively, and better supports the development of BoP enterprises. The roadmap presents four initiatives as key priorities to achieve this vision.

These four initiatives focus on the goals of:

1) Creating more sustainable, scalable enterprises

2) Building a more holistic partnership ecosystem

3) Understanding and enhancing mutual value creation

4) Building a globally connected knowledge sharing and training network

The roadmap was launched with the support of a variety of leading organizations as a partnership platform that will help make this vision a reality. Find out more about the activities that are already underway here.

“We aim to build a community willing to dedicate leadership and resources not only to support the enterprises of today, but also to share in the larger journey of energizing a domain,” said WDI Senior Research Fellow Ted London.

At the Oct. 23 event, the creation of the roadmap was discussed to understand why these activities are necessary and, more importantly, discussed how the BoP domain can move these ideas to action – both what has happened already and where are the key opportunities for future engagement.

London said the roadmap is needed because the BoP domain is at an important crossroads.

“Much has changed over the last decade,” he said. “More than ever, business and market-based approaches in general are seen as part of the solution to global poverty. However, we need to continue to challenge our approaches and models, ask the next generation of questions, and focus on moving the domain forward.

“Our community must come together in a more robust manner to share lessons learned and create new platforms and knowledge.”

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