International Development CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Business in the Community

Please find below Business in the Community (BITC)’s submission to International Development Committee inquiry on post-2015 development goals:

1.Executive summary. This submission is on the role of the private sector in the post-2015 development goals. We believe business has a substantial role to play in addressing global development challenges. The Millennium Development Goals currently provide a useful framework to understand and communicate the contribution of business to development, both through core business and social investment activities. Business should be engaged in the post 2015 process.

2.Business in the Community (BITC) is a business led charity; one of the oldest and largest organisations in the world designed and developed to address key issues in society through inspiring, supporting and mobilising responsible business action with HRH The Prince of Wales as the President. BITC has a core membership of over 800 companies, including the majority of the FTSE 100, employing over 17.8 million employees with a further 10,700 companies engaged in our campaigns globally. Over 300 business leaders from member companies are involved in BITC’s Leadership Teams, informing our strategy. We convene the CSR360 Global Partner Network of more than 120 organisations in over 60 countries around the world.

3.Business in the Community and International Development. Business in the Community is working to inspire, engage, support and challenge business to take action on development and accelerate the pace of change.

4.Business can play a fundamental role in scaling up development efforts. Business can and does address a number of challenges bringing a range of benefits, including jobs, skills, technology, innovation, products, services and access to markets. Foreign direct investment now outstrips official aid in many developing countries. Business can and does make an increasingly positive impact on development through working with their core business, supply chains and employees, providing products and services for the global poor and through their social investment activities and advocacy. Business is at the core of the solution.

5.The current Millennium Development Goals serve as a useful framework to galvanise action and provide a way to understand the issues and communicate the business contribution to development, both through core business and social investment activities.

6.Examples of the positive role business can have in addressing global challenges can be found from the many BITC International Award winners and our case study booklet, Transforming the Pace of Change.1 The BITC International Awards are given to companies who’s programmes positively one or more of the MDGs. Companies recognised for their contribution in 2012 include:

Citigroup won Business in the Community’s International Award for a Large Business for its microfinance programme which has funded 29 microfinance institutions in 16 countries, having a direct outreach of more than 330,000 loans to micro-entrepreneurs, approximately 84% of whom are women.

The Redbush Tea Company won Business in the Community’s International Award for a Small Business for building their core brand around donating a percentage of their profits to support education and water projects for the indigenous people of Kalahari in Bostwana and Namibia, whose ancestors were the first to use rooibos as a herbal medicine.

Goldman Sachs “10,000 Women” initiative, a five-year, $100 million initiative to provide 10,000 underserved female entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education.

Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme which has delivered over four billion litres of clean drinking water preventing over 165 million days of disease and saved over 22,000 lives.

Tata Consultancy Services in India is rolling out banking services across 25,000 villages to 20 million customers in the next five years. To date, over 9,000 villages are covered, with just under two million customers enrolled and 6,423 Business Correspondent agents have been deployed.

Ferrovial’s Maji ni Uhai project in Tanzania (with Amref Flying Doctors) has provided drinking water and sanitary infrastructures to 51,000 people in Serengeti District.

The Cooperative Group’s “Kibagenge” project in Kenya, where the livelihoods and trading position of 11,000 smallholder farmers have been significantly strengthened through a trade development project.

KPMG’s Global Development Initiative, which uses KPMG’s skills, knowledge and resources in professional collaborations with International Development Agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations in pursuit of the MDGs.

7. Business have a critical role to play and should be engaged in the post 2015 process. With over 800 businesses in membership, Business in the Community is well placed to share the views of our members on a new framework.

8. Recommendations for action: Government and the UN recognise the substantial role that business can play in addressing global development challenges and engages business in the post 2015 process.

September 2012