Fighting Poverty Through Enterprise: The case for Social Venture Capital - Paperback

by Kim Tan (Author), Brian Griffiths (Author)

Nearly 50% of the world's population - almost 3 billion people - live on less than $2 a day. 10 million children die every year from easily preventable diseases. AIDS kills 3 million people every year and 1 billion people lack access to sanitation. About one-quarter of children in poor countries do not finish primary school and some 1 billion adults are illiterate. To date, the debate on tackling global poverty has been dominated by the case for providing more aid. The authors of this booklet certainly believe that foreign aid has a role to play in facing this challenge. However, here they voice the need for greater emphasis to be given to the part that business and enterprise can play in reducing poverty. In recent years China and India have proved dramatic examples of countries which have reformed their economies, opened up to trade and investment, embraced an enterprise culture, and lifted millions of their citizens out of poverty. Griffiths and Tan believe Africa has the same potential as Asia. Micro-credit has been a crucial first step in directly helping the poor escape poverty. Using case studies they argue that social venture capital has the potential to become a new asset class and a critical second step to support the growth of small and medium sized enterprises in developing countries, so creating jobs and reducing poverty.

Author Biography

BRIAN GRIFFITHS is Vice-Chairman of Goldman Sachs International and has been heavily involved in China since the early 1990s. Previously he taught at the London School of Economics, was Dean of the City University Business School, a director of the Bank of England and head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street from 1985 - 1990. He was made a life peer as Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach in 1991. KIM TAN is the Chairman of SpringHill Management Ltd, a specialist venture capital management company in biotech and pharmaceutical investments. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, a board member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community's (APEC) Life Sciences Forum, a board director of a number of companies in Malaysia, India, the European Union and the USA, and a founding director of the Transformational Business Network (TBN).