This issue brief produced by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) looks at the opportunities for information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate and scale the private sector’s contribution to development. The short report presents a number of case studies across sectors and along the value chain that highlight the power of ICT-enabled solutions. It also highlights opportunities for and barriers to achieving further scale. WBCSD member companies featured include Accenture, Grundfos, IBM, ITC, Nokia, Novartis, Syngenta, TNT Express, and Vodafone.

1. Issue Brief
Information and
communication
technology – An enabler
for inclusive business
solutions
August 2012

2. About WBCSD
A CEO-led organization of forward-thinking companies that galvanizes the global business
community to create a sustainable future for business, society and the environment

3. Overview of the Issue Brief
• Growth story of ICT
• Nexus ICT – development
• Examples of ICT-enabled solutions
• Benefits and lessons learned
• WBCSD Technology Enablers Initiative

4. Growth story of ICT
Mobile phone subscriptions, by level of development

5. Growth story of ICT
Global ICT development

6. Nexus ICT – development
• ICT is a powerful tool to tackle development
challenges, but not a panacea
• ICT can
Expand breadth & depth of economic
activity
Improve delivery or public services
Help developing countries “leapfrog” in
terms of communication infrastructure (no
need to install vast grids of fixed phone
lines)

7. Numerous other examples
of ICT-enabled solutions
highlighted in the issue brief
WBCSD member
companies featured:
Accenture, Grundfos, IBM,
ITC, Nokia, Novartis,
Syngenta, TNT Express,
and Vodafone

8. Benefits of ICT-enabled solutions
• Better, faster, and easier access to information
• Improved interaction and two-way communication
• Cost efficiency and lower transaction costs
• Automation and standardization
• Economic opportunities
• Improving data visibility or transparency

9. Some lessons learned
• ICT cannot replace investment in other types of
infrastructure (ex. roads to transport goods to market)
• Inertia and resistance from traditional models (ex.
mobile money services competing with traditional
financial services)
• User interfaces (ex. voice-based systems and iconic
user interfaces)
• Collaboration between stakeholders needed -
partnerships between private and public actors are
often the catalysts for the initial co-investments in a
long-term sustainable model

10. WBCSD Technology Enablers Initiative
• Initiative led by Vodafone (member of WBCSD
Development Focus Area Core Team)
• Platform for companies from different industry
sectors to explore opportunities for catalyzing
inclusive business models leveraging ICT
• Facilitated a series of discussions and events with
WBCSD members, aimed at creating successful
partnerships or collaborative action between
member companies and other partners

11. Examples of discussions via WBCSD platform
• TNT Express & Vodafone “speed-dates”
with WBCSD members from various sectors
• Explore how mobile phones could provide
geo-coded addresses and payment
services to small entrepreneurs in
informal settings, allowing them to
send and receive goods and services
in the absence of street names.
• Vodafone & Accenture shared insights
from their “Connected Agriculture” report
 How ICT can be used further to improve
efficiency and sustainability in the food and
agriculture value chain

12. Dowload the issue brief
(12 pages) at
www.wbcsd.org
www.inclusive-business.org
Filippo Veglio
veglio@wbcsd.org
+41 22 839 31 08