Shell Foundation Outlines New and Successful Approach to tackle Indian Development Challenges at Scale

Shell Foundation Outlines New and Successful Approach
to tackle Indian Development Challenges at Scale

From traditional philanthropy to ‘enterprise-based’ solutions

New Delhi, April 19, 2011: Shell Foundation has launched its ‘Enterprise Solutions to Scale’ in India with an additional publication summarising the Foundation’s experience in India. The documents show how the organisation’s journey around creating scalable, cost efficient and sustainable solutions to key development challenges in India. Shell Foundation’s enterprise based approach differs from traditional corporate philanthropy because it is based on establishing new partners with new ways of working that, from the outset, target scale of impact and financial viability.

The approach is about providing ‘more than money’ and working with local partners over the long term to overcome the business issues they face, while helping them ensure a tangible and measurable social impact. It is also about ensuring partners are able to move from subsidy to earned income. Adopting enterprise-based solutions helps promote the growth of the enterprise which in turn helps benefit a greater number of people – with greater scale of impact – and the accompanying innovation means the enterprises are able to provide customers with more affordable goods and services.

Anuradha Bhavnani, Regional Director of the Shell Foundation, said: “This enterprise-based model delivered not only tangible scale and sustainability; it also helped us to create Indian social enterprises that are able to successfully deliver valued and affordable products and solutions to poor consumers in India. Each of our programmes is focused on a very specific sectoral issue and operating with a view to achieving financial viability, sustainability and scale. None of the entities is Shell Foundation branded and yet each works very closely with our team of business advisors, who provide expertise, knowledge and financial as well as non-financial resources.”

In India, Shell Foundation is focusing on four key programmes which include reducing Indoor Air Pollution (IAP), helping poor rural farmers by promoting ethical trading, providing energy access for the poor and developing sustainable urban transport solutions to reduce urban congestion. These programmes directly address some of the core Indian development challenges:

• Indoor Air Pollution in India leads to approximately half a million fatalities every year;
• 480 million Indians still don’t have regular access to reliable electricity;
• Rural farmers face barriers to entering established supply chains; and,
• Rapid urbanisation makes sustainable transport a pressing issue.

Chris West, Director of the Shell Foundation, said, “After a decade of on the ground of operational experience and working with multiple Indian partners, we have learnt that achieving scale and sustainability is actually about being focused, market based, long term and targeting financial viability. We have achieved significant success in India where most of our partnerships are gradually shifting towards scale and sustainability. However, we recognise that our accomplishments to date are still small compared to the scale of the challenge. For that reason, we are embarking on an outreach campaign to encourage others to move away from traditional corporate philanthropy and adopt a much more business-based approach so that collectively we can all increase the impact of our contributions to sustainable development in India.”
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For more information, please contact
Ira Arora/ Ritu Pant
Torque Communications
Handphone: 9811288862/ 9899629788
Landline: +91 124 4283939
E-mail: ira@torquemail.com; ritu@torquemail.com

Download the report by clicking on the following links:
http://www.shellfoundation.org/download/pdfs/FINAL+Shell+Foundation+Executive+Summary.pdf
http://www.shellfoundation.org/download/pdfs/Final_Shell_Foundation_India.pdf

NOTES TO EDITOR:

1. About Shell Foundation
Shell Foundation is an independent UK registered charity, established by Shell Group in 2000, that catalyses enterprise-based solutions to global poverty and environmental challenges. It pioneers sustainable business models that can be scaled up to improve the lives and livelihoods of billions of people across the developing world. To find out more visit www.shellfoundation.org

2. The Foundation’s strategic partners are as follows:
• Embarq India: EMBARQ, the World Resources Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Transport, has been operational in India since 2006 and works on identifying, testing, evaluating and implementing comprehensive solutions to local transport problems.
• Agrocel: an Indian ethical intermediary focused on sustainability in the agricultural sector. It is a significant provider of sustainable and organic inputs and has helped local Indian farmers understand and implement the concept of Fairtrade.
• CottonConnect: acts as an ethical intermediary to help build sustainable supply chains that connect leading retailers and developing world producers
• Envirofit: aims to achieve a significant long-term global reduction in indoor air pollution (IAP) through the market-based development, production and sale of high-quality, durable and improved cook stoves. Envirofit India’s business has created over 500 local jobs and supported enterprise development through the growth of its 400-strong network of manufacturing, sales and distribution channel partners
• Husk Power Systems: The Company generates electricity through the gasification of rice husk – an abundant waste feedstock found throughout India’s rice belt – and sells that electricity on a pay-as-you-go basis to local communities.
• IntelleCash: a specialist provider of debt finance and business development assistance to early stage microfinance institutions
• Dlight Design: produces and distributes lowcost high quality portable lighting solutions for rural consumers
• Sedemac Mechatronics: builds and markers low costs products that substantially reduce the fuel consumption of small combustion engines

Shell Foundation was established by the Shell Group in 2000 as an independent, UK registered charity operating with a global mandate.

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This release was published on openPR.