Source: Department for International Development, 23 September 2008
Ten private companies were recognized on 23 September at the World Business and Development Awards (WBDA) for their work in improving the lives of the world’s most disadvantaged people.
The Awards Ceremony was part of the special focus on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) during the opening week of the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York.
The World Business and Development Awards showcase creative initiatives by corporations, large and small, who apply their core business expertise to world-wide efforts to achieve the MDGs. This year’s winners (please see winners listed below) improved the lives of millions of poor people across Africa, Asia and Latin America and prove that private companies can be an engine of both growth and development.
The Global Partnership for the Business Call to Action
Launched on the same day as the WBDA awards was the The Global Partnership for the Business Call to Action, in recognition of the pivotal role of private companies in helping to increase growth in developing countries and meeting the MDGs by 2015. At a lunch hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the CEOs of Yara, Ericsson and Map International announced new initiatives that attempt to tackle food shortages in Mozambique and Tanzania, improve access to financial services for more than 2 million people living in rural Uganda, and develop mobile applications that focus on health solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It’s been just over seven years since 189 world leaders endorsed the MDGs, and initiatives like the WBDA and the Business Call to Action aim to build awareness and share knowledge among the business community of using responsible business practices to help the world’s poor.
Winners
3K&A
Diageo
ENDESA
Haygrove
Olam Nigeria
Safaricom
Sistema Ser
SMART Communications
Syngenta
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