Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Involving corporations into poverty alleviation in Australia

This Friday, Australian corporate leaders will meet to discuss how they can reduce poverty.

Australia as a whole tries to take a lead in developing the whole Asia Pacific region. This alliance of business leaders was formed in 2006 to try to do more to develop the entire area. The try to combine meeting the Millenium Development Goals with business sucsess.

Anneli Knight gives the details of the summit in this article from Australia's Business Day.

Australia's corporate leaders will congregate in Melbourne tomorrow for the Business for Millennium Development summit. The key aims of this meeting are to raise awareness in the Australian business community about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, which focus on reducing poverty and improving human rights.

Macquarie Bank, ANZ, IBM, IAG and KPMG will be among the corporate giants at the summit, discussing how corporations can do business with the poorest members of society in a way that helps alleviate poverty and bring profits to business. The presentations will include a live link-up with former World Bank president James Wolfensohn.

"The summit is designed to be a catalyst, to spark interest. And to transplant a global movement here to Australia," says Business for Millennium Development chief executive Mark Ingram.

Mr Ingram says the second phase for the Business for Millennium Development initiative, after Friday's summit, is to hold a partnership forum, and bring NGOs and corporations together to work towards the Millennium Development Goals.

ANZ will reveal a case study at the meeting of its pilot program, partnering with World Vision, to offer financial transactions via mobile phones to some of the lowest-paid workers in Cambodia, Ingram says.


Here is a link to the Business for Millennium Development Summit site. It includes who will speak at the summit and an agenda.

All this makes me wonder if there is something similar here in the States?

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