Themes and ideas
An essential element of alleviating poverty is providing communities with access to resources and skills to increase income and assets. This has been acknowledged in the Millennium Development Goals. However, there are different views on how best to achieve this.
There were three keynote addresses given at the 2009 Measuring Effectiveness conference. One featured an NGO experiment in entrepreneurialism; another examined the role of large corporations and the third explored linkages to the Millennium Development Goals.
The presentations presented case studies from Asia (Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, India), Africa (Uganda, Malawi), Latin America (Honduras), the Pacific, and Indigenous Australia.
Some presentations addressed the relationship between poverty reduction and development program effectiveness. Others provided insights into dealing with large corporations, the links between business processes and agriculture, and the importance of markets. Attention was given to measurement processes, looking at social performance and impact, as well as how businesses have emerged from community development activity.