Putting the Poor First: How Base-of-the-Pyramid Ventures Can Learn from Development Approaches

In order to make progress toward the UN Millennium Development Goals - and particularly in terms of poverty alleviation - business has a pivotal role to play: in terms of core business; purchasing products from the poor; employing them; and selling them affordable services and products. Serving the global 4 billion people at the base of the economic ladder - the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) - with suitable products and services is a new but growing field in research and practice. In the initia...