Business’s key role in ending poverty
This isn't a new thought.
Adam Smith, one of the fathers of our modern economy, said that the purpose of the economy was Prosperity.....but the original meaning of the word, not the recent one. Prosperity comes from the latin root - "towards hope". The purpose of the economy was to enable people to live a life with hope. And Smith defined that further, hope is living a life without shame. Being able to support yourself to buy a shirt and get your own kids through school, and earn your own living and fix your own problems.
Business is the key driver to ending poverty. "But", say some "surely we shouldn't be handing development over to $$$$". "But" I reply "where do you think all the donations come from for your charity, big and small $$$$?" Of course the answer is that it comes from business directly through its corporate giving, or indirectly through the salaries of those whose business provides with jobs, or the taxes the employed pay to their governments to distribute in aid support.
I am here in Rwanda again, discussing partnerships to bring our core programmes Leadership for Life and Lead Now into very vulnerable communities here and I am reminded once again of a few core truths.
Poverty gets from the belly into the head. To end poverty we have to end poverty mindsets and our programmes do just that. Without mindset change, the story will stay the same.
Everyone is a leader of their life. Everyone has a story to author. The problem is that they have either given away their pen, or someone more powerful than them stole it. Our training explicitly gives people back their pen.
Poor people aren't stupid. Just because someone can't read or write doesn't make them stupid. They are humans full of amazing potential but no one has ever told them that. Reading and writing are core skills to access the market place for livelihoods, but they don't measure a persons intelligence. Our Western education system focuses on reading and writing and maths and totally forgets to teach people how to lead their lives. All of our programmes, whether to children or youth or adults, teaches them how to lead their own life so that they are equipped to access the market place........because the market place isn't going to access them. We help them get from hopelessness to the first rung of the ladder.
When I started Emerging Leaders I saw how the 'wealthy' got access to leadership development, but the poorest got nothing. At Emerging Leaders we turned that upside down. It always fills me with joy to see the poorest lives changed because they got access to great leadership development, they see their potential, they exchange poverty mindsets for leadership mindsets.....they write their own new story.
Enjoy this brief youtube where I try to make a little more sense of this challenge