Doing Good by Doing Well: Capitalism, Humanitarianism and International Development

Over the last decade, the notion that the private sector can stimulate much-needed development in the world's poorest regions has gained increased prominence. Today it is often business - whether transnational corporations or for-profit social enterprises - that is cast as the engine of development: delivering win-win outcomes for both the world's poor and the financial bottom line. Increasingly we find a humanitarian ethic of care for distant others (Redfield 2012) materialised in the creation of markets for goods and services at the 'bottom of the global economic pyramid' (Cross 2013). While private sector enthusiasts celebrate the potential of business to improve the lives of the poor by delivering increased access to health and energy, or by creating opportunities for employment as entrepreneurs (Prahalad 2004; London et al 2011), this seminar series responds to an urgent need for critical and empirical engagement with the interventions, models, claims and impacts of capitalist humanitarians.

As policy makers, practitioners and journalists debate the role of the private sector in a post-2015 development agenda, this series will bring them together with leading academics in anthropology, development studies and business/management, to critically examine market based approaches to development. Over a 3 year period this series of international conferences, UK practitioner roundtables, and post-graduate advanced seminars sets out to address key questions about the workings and outcomes of 'bottom of the pyramid' business models. They include: 1) How are new ways of conceptualising relationships between business and development mobilising people, driving policies, attracting finance and shaping politics at national and international levels? 2) Who makes the claims that define and drive these approaches and what values, assumptions and beliefs underpin their activities? 3) Through what political, economic and social processes do everyday objects become reclassified as 'social', 'merit' or 'ethical goods' endowed with the power to bring development benefits? 4) How is the impact of these goods measured by governments, business or international organisations and how might participant perspectives suggest different measures for development outcomes? 5) How does an ethic of humanitarian capitalism reflect broader social concerns and economic tensions in the UK and internationally? 6) Do they result in development outcomes that are both ethical and sustainable?

This seminar series will create a space to debate the evidence and generate new thinking, approaches, and methodologies that critically engage with bottom of the pyramid models and markets. The planned programme of events includes:

- International conferences: Each year one applicant institution will host an international conference to bring together invited participants from the UK and beyond. The schedule and themes of the conferences are as follows: 2014) Technology and Capitalist Humanitarianism, Edinburgh; 2015) Distributing Development to the Bottom Billion, Oxford; 2016) Accounting for Development, Sussex.
- UK Based Practitioner Roundtables: Each year one applicant institution will host a practitioner roundtable to discuss the possibilities, benefits and challenges of market-oriented initiatives, based on cases underway: 2014) Measuring and Evaluating the Impacts of Business on Poverty, Sussex; 2015) Low Income Markets for Low Carbon Energy and Health Technologies, Edinburgh; 2016) Last Mile Distribution Strategies, Oxford;
- Advanced Seminars: Each year one applicant institution will bring together post graduate students in anthropology, development studies and business/management studies from across the UK for an advanced seminar.

A website and online network (www.responsiblebop.com) launched in 2012 by the Co-Is will be used to foster collaboration and dissemination during and after the series.

Who will benefit?
This seminar series will make critical ideas, debates, and concepts that interrogate the relationships between business and development available to policy makers, practitioners and wider publics as they seek new ways to address the challenges of global poverty. It will have widespread appeal to a range of stakeholder communities from beneficiaries in government, the private sector and the third sector.
There are several specific categories of stakeholders for whom this seminar series and its outputs will be of particular interest, and with whom the co-investigators have established working relationships. These include: those involved in policy making in international development institutions (DfiD, World Bank, UNDP) and think tanks (ODI); practitioner networks (Business Fights Poverty, Network of International Development Organisations in Scotland); and global corporations (e.g. Unilever, Danone, Nestle, Coca-Cola), private sector consultancy firms (Accenture, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Deloitte), social enterprises (SolarAid/SunnyMoney, Living Goods etc.), and INGOs (Oxfam, CARE, Action Aid, PLAN) that have a stake in delivering outcomes for the global poor. In addition the series will also be of interest to journalists from news and media organisations that cover international development issues (The Guardian, New Statesman, Prospect, New Internationalist).
Though these stakeholders have divergent interests, each will benefit from enhanced understanding of the motives, values, and experiences of organisations outside their networks. We will extend invitations to participate through the extensive academic and institutional networks, partnerships and collaborations that each of our Co-investigators bring.

How will they benefit?
- Policy beneficiaries: It is anticipated that the seminar presentations (paper and poster), discussion and outputs (on the website, and in journal and book form) will directly contribute to informing evidence-based policy and to formulating market-based initiatives that respond to development concerns around health, energy, and poverty, ethically and sustainably.
- Practice beneficiaries: Those who attend the seminars or access the outputs will, it is hoped, gain a new critical awareness of the wider contexts within which business has become an agent of development, and its diverse impacts.
- Wider Publics: The series will act as a springboard for critical enquiry about the role of business and development among the UK public. Given the widespread public attention afforded other forms of commercial engagement in development such as Fairtrade, microfinance and corporate social responsibility, we envisage that the ethics of current private sector initiatives at the BoP will similarly galvanise the interest of the wider public. Our experience organising a public debate on BoP strategies demonstrated that social media tools and online communication can foster public interaction and build community rapidly and we thus plan to use our dedicated website (www.responsiblebop.com) and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to bring the issues raised in the seminar series to a wider audience. The Beltane Network for Public Engagement, based in Edinburgh, will provide key support in helping us to maximise the reach of these activities.