Companies can support or invest in social entrepreneurship in three main ways, all of which can also create benefits for the company:

* Through investing in social entrepreneurs and their organisation - either as a part of their core business operations in different parts of the value chain, or through their community investment activities.

* By engaging in public policy dialogue, advocacy, and institution building in order to create an enabling environment for social enterprise.

* By creating better internal climates, for example by encouraging employees to be innovative in developing new business models, products and services that combine profitable business opportunities with social or environmental solutions.

For more information and to find examples of how business and social entrepreneurs have worked together, read Harnessing potential: Why it makes sense for your business to work with social entrepreneurs

“Why Games Matter: A Prescription for Improving Health and Health Care”—an online collaborative competition running now through September 26, 2007. This competition is the third in a series sponsored by the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Ashoka’s Changemakers initiative.

The Changemakers open source competition model has helped RWJF this year to access a broad, exciting array of new ideas and approaches through two competitions addressing important challenges—ending intimate partner violence and finding disruptive innovations in health and health care. We’re now looking to stimulate similarly diverse and creative solutions that merge two distinct but increasingly interconnected worlds—computer and video games and health and health care.

Computer and video games have captivated the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world. Games today, in fact, are the fastest growing media form. People are interacting with them in arcades, at home, in schools, online, and on the go, using portable game players and mobile phones. No longer do they only constitute sedentary activity. Innovations like Nintendo’s Wii wireless console get people on their feet and playing the game with their whole bodies, and several games are being used in physical rehabilitation exercises with patients.

El boliche, una planta conocida en las comunidades rurales, sirve para fabricar un detergente biodegradable que quiere llegar al extranjero. Intente buscar en Internet información sobre el fruto del boliche, un árbol silvestre que mide más de 3 metros. Le será difícil. Pero pregúntele a su abuela o mamá y quizá le digan que en el campo lo usan para el aseo personal o para lavar la ropa en los ríos.

(El Comercio)

The least developed countries (LDCs) are a group of countries (presently 50 States) that have been officially identified by the United Nations as "least developed" in the light of their low income, weak human assets, and high economic vulnerability. UNCTAD, in past LDC Reports, has taken the view that the key to sustained economic growth and poverty reduction in LDCs is the development of productive capacities and related creation of productive employment. The Least Developed Countries Report 2007 corroborates this view by focusing on knowledge accumulation, technological learning and the ability to innovate as vital processes toward genuine productive capacity development in these countries.

Knowledge is becoming more and more important in the global sphere of competition and production. In this context, there is a danger that LDCs will be increasingly marginalized if they do not enhance the knowledge content of their economies and achieve economic diversification through learning and innovation. The Report shows that the current pattern of technology flows to LDCs through international trade, foreign direct investment and intellectual property licensing does not contribute to narrowing the knowledge divide. Sustained economic growth and poverty reduction are not likely to take place in countries where viable economic re-specialization would remain impossible in the absence of significant progress in technological learning and innovation capacity-building.

El Instituto Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual (INDECOPI) elaboró un informe sobre las facilidades que brindan las municipalidades para tramitar nuevos negocios o formalizarlos.

Las municipalidades del distrito de Los Olivos y de la provincia de Huancayo son las que ofrecen las mejores condiciones para tramitar licencias de funcionamiento, instalar anuncios publicitarios, entre otros procedimientos administrativos que se necesitan para generar negocios.

Así lo establece el informe denominado Índice de Acceso al Mercado (IAM), elaborado por la Comisión de Acceso al Mercado del INDECOPI, en base a información proporcionada por las propias comunas.

El informe fue realizado en base a las leyes que se necesitan para tramitar licencias de funcionamiento provisionales y definitivas, autorización para instalar anuncios publicitarios, para realizar trabajos en la vía pública y la aprobación y publicación de los Textos Únicos de Procedimientos Administrativos (TUPA) de cada comuna.

En cuanto a la tramitación de licencias de funcionamiento definitivas y autorizaciones para instalar anuncios publicitarios la Municipalidad Distrital de Los Olivos obtuvo el mayor puntaje.

En licencias de funcionamiento provisional, que permite promover la formalización de las micro y pequeñas empresas, Los Olivos también obtuvo el puntaje máximo. Los distritos de San Miguel, Jesús María y Magdalena del Mar, también ocuparon el primer puesto.

Otras municipalidades distritales que favorecen la generación de negocios son: La Molina, Santiago de Surco, Miraflores, San Luis, La Perla, Surquillo, Santa Rosa, San Martín de Porres, Chorrillos, Lurín y Ancón.

En cuanto a las provincias, además de Huancayo, que ofrecen un panorama favorable a la inversión son: Tacna, Chiclayo, Cajamarca, Lima, Callao, Cusco, Arequipa y Puno.

Según el IAM, los trámites para autorizar trabajos en la vía pública son los que más incumplen los gobiernos locales. Ello conlleva mayores costos para la instalación de servicios públicos de alcance nacional como electricidad y telecomunicaciones.

Algunas municipalidades distritales que no proporcionaron información se encuentran en situación de "incertidumbre" respecto a facilidades para generar negocios. Éstas son Breña, Carabayllo, La Victoria, Lince, Puente Piedra, Punta Hermosa, Rímac, Santa Anita y La Punta.

El estudio incluyó todos los municipios distritales de Lima y Callao. Además, la Municipalidad Metropolitana de Lima, la Provincial del Callao y las diez provincias donde el INDECOPI tiene oficinas descentralizadas: Piura, Chiclayo, Trujillo, Cajamarca, Huancayo, Arequipa, Tacna, Puno, Cusco e Iquitos.

WISIONS is happy to announce a new call for Sustainable Energy Project Support SEPS. Project developers, institutions, NGOs and others are invited to send us their applications for promising and innovative projects in the field of renewable and efficient energy use.

The total grant amount of 4th call in 2007 is 500,000 EUR.

The AMD Open Architecture Challenge is an open international design competition that reaches beyond the traditional bounds of architecture by challenging industry professionals and others to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to improve living conditions around the world. Every two years this initiative will tackle a different systemic issue faced by half the world's population that is living on less than $2 a day. It is the belief of the challenge organizers that the generation of ideas alone cannot create real social and economic change and that by building sustainable and replicable solutions we can truly make a difference. This initiative will provide up to $250,000 for the implementation of the selected winning design.

We are currently in the process of inviting local organizations in communities that lack connectivity and would benefit from a technology center. If you are an organization that is interested in becoming the recipient of such a facility and would like to partner on this initiative please download the Request for Proposals (RFP) through one of the links above and return it to the enclosed address no later than July 20, 2007.

As the world becomes ever more globalised, international businesses are faced with an urgent need to forge stronger ties to the local communities in which they operate.

While these challenges are particularly pronounced for foreign firms with affiliates in developing countries, they are relevant to domestic developing country firms as well.

In developing countries, business linkages with local small-medium enterprises (SMEs) - including procurement, distribution, and sales - offer large firms an avenue through which to address some of these concerns.

The challenges for businesses, however, are in the implementation. Many large firms are, in principle, interested in developing relationships with local SMEs - however, such relationships can also be costly to form and maintain, and as a result, they rarely develop easily or smoothly.

A new publication by IBLF, Harvard University's Kennedy School and the International Finance Corporation explores some of the challenges and opportunities in the practice and scale-up of business linkages between large firms and small-medium enterprises in developing countries.

Business Linkages: Lessons, Opportunities, and Challenges provides 21 case studies from companies leading in this area, and highlights lessons from their experiences.

1. Minera Yanacocha (Newmont and IFC)
2. Eagle Lager, Uganda and Zambia (SABMiller)
3. SMEs in the value chain (National Business Initiative)
4. Economic linkage program in Rajasthan, India (Cairn India and IFC)
5. Prominp, Brazil (Petrobras and Partners)
6. Private sector initiative, Sub-Saharan Africa (SBP)
7. Anglo Zimile, South Africa (Anglo American)
8. Agricultural supply chain improvement, global (Ecom Agroindustrial Corporation)
9. Gulf of San Jorge SME program, Argentina (Pan American Energy)
10. Partnership for enterprise development in Africa (UNIDO and Microsoft)
11. SME development and linkages in Chad (ExxonMobil and IFC)
12. Vietnam Business Linkages Initiative (International Business Leaders Forum)
13. ACG/BTC linkages program, Azerbaijan (BP and IFC)
14. Diavik Diamond Mines, Inc, Northwest Territories, Canada (Rio Tinto)
15. Supply and distribution linkages with SMEs, global (Nestle)
16. Barclays microbanking, Ghana (Barclays Ghana with the Ghana Cooperative Susu
17. Collectors Association and Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network)
18. Distribution and retail linkages, Global (The Coca-Cola Company)
19. Aspire SME facilities in Africa (Shell Foundation and GroFin)
20. Empowering micro, small and medium retailers, Brazil (Tribanco)
21. Sustainable tea initiative, Kenya (Unilever and Kenya Tea Development Agency)
22. Small business development group, Kazakhstan (Chevron)

PERU 2021, como parte de su labor de fomentar las iniciativas que contribuyan al desarrollo sostenible del país, está organizando junto con la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú y el Servicio Holandés de Cooperación al Desarrollo la 4ta. Expoferia de Proyectos de Responsabilidad Social de las Empresas, la cual busca reconocer a las empresas privadas que han demostrado integrar prácticas y programas socialmente responsables a favor de sus grupos de interés.

En esta Expoferia que se realizará el martes 26, miércoles 27 y jueves 28 de junio en el Campus PUCP y participan empresas como: Amanco, Antamina, Backus, Bayer, Edegel, Asociación Atocongo-Cementos Lima, Natura, Profuturo AFP, Yanacocha, Doe Run, Camposol, Banco de Crédito, Sedapal, Banco Continental, Minera Poderosa, Minera Barrick, Larcomar, entre otras. Organismos como AVINA, SNV Servicio Holandés de Cooperación al Desarrollo, Fundación ANAR, Asociación Paz Holandesa, ADRA Perú.

Scojo Foundation's network of entrepreneurs selling reading glasses in India demonstrates how market-based development models can provide much-needed services to the poor while stimulating economic growth, according to a case study released today by the World Resources Institute.

The case study, What Works: Scojo India Foundation, authored by Sachin Kadakia and Nico Clemminck of Columbia Business School, is an analysis of Scojo India Foundation's business model and best practices.

The work of Scojo India Foundation tackles presbyopia, or blurry up-close vision, while providing employment to hundreds of microfranchisees. While presbyopia causes inconvenience for those in high-income countries, where a quick visit to the drugstore for a pair of inexpensive reading glasses will remedy the condition, presbyopia in developing countries can have considerable adverse impacts on the precarious working lives of the poor. For weavers, mechanics, goldsmiths, and others whose livelihoods depend on near vision, a lack of access to reading glasses can impede productivity and significantly decrease their income and ability to feed their families.