Sustainable BusinessRecent posts
Four Reasons Why Transparency is a Strategic Asset for Development Finance Institutions
Open access to information builds credibility, enhances outcomes, encourages collaboration, and attracts investment. For development finance institutions, transparency is not just a value, it’s a cornerstone for achieving sustainable progress while navigating complex financial and operational landscapes.
Energy Efficiency Means Investment Opportunities for Technological Companies
Digitalization offers economic and sustainable benefits, driving efficiency, resilience and innovation in telecommunications, with key opportunities in infrastructure, responsible investment and multi-sector strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the Face of Sustainability Challenges, Strong Governance Begins in the Boardroom
Boards of Directors must lead mitigation strategies, embedding long-term planning and innovation into risk oversight. IDB Invest empowers directors to transform climate governance into resilience, opportunity, and competitive advantage across diverse sectors.
Overcoming stereotypes could save your business
By Susan Olsen, Lead Specialist, Opportunities for the Majority, IDB Difficulty accessing financing, poor infrastructure and incapacity to scale are cited as reasons why businesses that target the (BOP) fail. Yet, an unwillingness to overcome base of the pyramid stereotypes could easily be the most important explanation as to why some BoP-focused companies aren’t successful. Shattering stereotypes before starting an inclusive business model was the basis for a provocative panel that took place during the Inter-American Development Bank’s BASE III Forum in Mexico City.
Five reasons FinTech companies are an opportunity for financial institutions and SMEs
By Greg Da Re Access to financing has been and continues to be the main obstacle facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). According to a recent survey, 90% of all banks surveyed in Latin America and the Caribbean consider SMEs strategically important for their business, yet 44% acknowledge that their portfolio lacks suitable financial products for such enterprises.
Don’t let base of the pyramid millennials catch your company off guard
Hardly a day passes without a new article on how businesses are analyzing the needs, wants and spending trends of millennials. In the US alone, millennials (or Generation Y), those born between 1980 and 2000, represent 30 percent of the population. By 2025 they will be 75 percent of the workforce of this country. The impact that millennials are starting to have on the global economy, the environment, and politics is enormous. But “millennial mania” is dominated by studies, research and marketing efforts that focus on affluent individuals. Meanwhile, in Latin America and the Caribbean a market of 77 million low-income or base of the pyramid millennials goes almost unnoticed.
How to make cultural tourism inclusive and sustainable
If you want to start a hotel, the normal thing to do is buy some land, build the hotel, hire a few locals for cooking, cleaning and maintenance and open for business.
Four Ways to Get the Most out of Palm Oil in Latin America and the Caribbean
What do soap, Ben and Jerry’s, and KitKat bars have in common? They all contain palm oil, an oil produced by the oil palm tree. Indonesia and Malaysia produce the vast majority of the world’s supply and have experienced significant environmental consequences as a result. Now the crop’s profitability is attracting interest in other tropical climates, including Latin America and the Caribbean.
Improving effectiveness of development cooperation and the role of private sector
By Ichiro Toda Many collaborative efforts are underway to bring public and private development practitioners together to strengthen development effectiveness. The push for more cooperation began in November 2011 when the global development community, including the IDB, agreed to the Busan Partnership for Development Effectiveness. The principles in the agreement promote enhanced country ownership, results measurement, inclusive partnerships, transparency and mutual accountability in development work. Recognizing the central role of the private sector, the Busan final document encouraged efforts to:
