December 10, 2014
Veolia - 48, avenue Kléber 75016 Paris
FACTS Seminar: Poverty and access to basic services
Event co-organized with Groupe Bel.
Professor at HEC and Director of Azao. The seminar brought together some of the contributors to discuss inclusive distribution and the informal sector.
The aim was to present initiatives undertaken by companies or non-profits to reach out to the most disadvantaged rural or urban population groups by using specially-designed distribution circuits: micro-franchises, and the development of training, work integration, or support for entrepreneurship. CNRS research director Laurence Fontaine opened the discussion by taking the long view, as a historian, of the issues around the market and informal networks. The first round table focused on practices in emerging countries, notably Bangladesh (the Grameen Veolia experiment), Vietnam (Groupe Bel), and rural India (Sattva social enterprises). The second looked at innovations in France, with representatives from the ADIE, Voisin Malin (partners of VEDIF), Emmaüs Défi and Compte Nickel.
“Over 100 participants from 50 different organizations took part in this highly informative morning seminar on the ‘last mile’, a decisive factor in the provision of goods and services and – more than that – for the economic and social inclusion of the most disadvantaged population groups.”
> View the papers in the Last Mile Delivery special issue