Allwin Initative for Corporate Citizenship

Cohen Leadership Development Program

Former president of Women’s World Banking mobilizes corporations to fight poverty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — October 19, 2007

CONTACT:  Kim Keating, 603-646-2733

HANOVER, N.H.—Corporations are better equipped than governments and non-governmental organizations to bring the hundreds of millions of people in emerging economies into the global economy, says Nancy Barry, president of NBA Enterprise Solutions to Poverty and former CEO of New York City-based Women's World Banking (WWB).

"Looking at what corporations do, the answer is not in philanthropy," says Barry, speaking to Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth students at an October 15 event hosted by Tuck’s Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship and the Cohen Leadership Development Program. "The answer is not even in public relations-based corporate social responsibility. It is in large companies tilting their business models so that they are competitive and inclusive."

NBA Enterprise Solutions to Poverty mobilizes leading corporations and entrepreneurs to engage millions of low-income people in competitive and inclusive business models in India, China, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Kenya. Barry says the business sector has the capacity to treat the world's poor as "producers, as distributors, and as consumers," which in turn leads to an individual increase in income and assets.

In China, for instance, education and technology company New Oriental has lowered costs of its intensive English language program to accommodate poorer segments of the population. As a result, they have greater success gaining entry into U.S. schools than wealthier students. Barry says to date the organization has taught English to 5 million students, 500,000 of whom now attend American institutions.

Barry cites another example in India, where one corporation has engaged millions of low-income farmers by creating a 3,000-strong network of small stores in secondary cities and towns. Cutting out the middleman, Barry says, will deliver farmers a three-fold increase in income. "If you can do that for 10 million farmers, that is real impact."

One of the world's leading authorities in the field of microfinance, for the last two years Barry has appeared on Forbes magazine's list of the world’s most powerful women. As WWB president, Barry changed the lives of millions of poor women and their families around the globe. The nonprofit organization serves as a network of more than 1,000 lenders in 40 developing countries that make small loans to low-income women—and in some instances, men—so that they can build their own business and move beyond poverty.

"The impact of these loans is extraordinary," says Barry. "Poor women have shown that they are the world's best customers, repaying their loans and using their increased income to feed, clothe, and educate their children and strengthen their communities." Prior to joining WWB, Barry spent 15 years in top positions at the World Bank.

Tuck's Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship helps students to develop the skills to manage increasingly complex interactions between business, governments, and the nonprofit sector.

Founded in 1900, Tuck is the first graduate school of management in the country and consistently ranks among the top business schools worldwide.