Jul 2, 2015 | 9:30 am
Ganztägig
EAWAG Dübendorf | Dübendorf
The base of the pyramid (BoP) is the largest and poorest socio-economic group, the 3 billion people who live on less than US$2.50 per day. Few companies have so far addressed the opportunities in designing and delivering goods and services to BoP customers, whose purchasing power as a group is US$5,000bn a year according to the International Finance Corporation. This potential is increasingly being recognized, and for example the Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC) are is supporting a variety of initiatives in the sector, among them the Swiss Bluetec Bridge or a project to scale up the promotion of safe drinking water globally.
Paul Polak delivering his keynote on how to fight poverty with business solutions
The event showcased initiatives from around the globe, focusing on water and sanitation services for the BOP market, including a keynote by Paul Polak (www.paulpolak.com) and several initiatives with a strong relation to Switzerland. The participants were also given an opportunity to deepen their understanding of key issues such as marketing, value chains or start-up and project financing (both in Switzerland and locally) in various thematic workshops.
Here you can download the presentations of the event:
- Chlorine dispensers: a low-cost approach to safe drinking water (Naomi Rosenthal, South Pole Carbon AG)
- Taking a water kiosk business in Senegal from pilot to scale (Renaud de Watteville, Swiss Fresh Water)
- Meeting the basic needs of the urban BoP customers (Jessica Altenburger, x-runner ventures GmbH): this link opens a new webiste with a video about the project in Lima
- Testing and scaling up business models for safe water (Urs Heierli, Antenna Technologies Foundation)
Group work during one of the afternoon workshops: supportive landscape for BOP initiatives
Other ressources:
- Website of WashTech, where the tool for technology assessment (TAF) is presented and explained
- SECO start-up fund
- Technology fund
- REPIC
- Impact HUB
- cewas
- Cleantech Switzerland
- CleantechAlps
Co-organizers:
Networking was an important part of the event
Programme:
Click here to see the full programme (opens new window)
Event location: EAWAG Dübendorf, Überlandstrasse 133, 8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland
