Prominent foreign academics were among the fifty participants in the first two-day Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory (BoP Lab) in South Africa that took place at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) in December. The purpose of the Laboratory was to debate and promote sustainable development by making markets and organisations work for the poor in southern Africa.

The WF Kellogg Foundation in the USA was the sponsor of this initiative having awarded a grant of $150 000 (about R1 million) to the USB for the establishment of the Learning Laboratory.

Prof Stef Coetzee of the USB has played a leading role in launching this project, together with Dr. Stuart Hart of the Johnson Graduate School of Business at Cornell University, Dr. Michael Gordon of the University of Michigan Business School, and André Fourie, CEO of the National Business Initiative (NBI). The USB and NBI were the joint organisers and presenters of the plans to establish the BoP Lab in South Africa.

The Base of the Pyramid Protocol is a small and micro business incubation approach that offers great potential to develop new business opportunities and enduring benefits to the economically most disadvantaged citizens in society. The protocol seeks to forge partnerships between existing firms and income-poor communities with few resources, in order to stimulate business development that is both sustainable and equitable.

According to Prof Coetzee, who is also the founder of the new Centre for Development Policy and Partnership at the USB, one of the first outcomes of the SA BoP Learning Laboratory will be the publication of a book with ten to twelve case studies of best practice in this field. Work on the book, which will be uniquely applicable to South Africa and southern Africa, will commence in 2007.

“The Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory is a new approach and goes beyond corporate social responsibility by focusing on sustainable development and by innovatively including those people on the fringes of society. The BoP Lab is the launch of a southern African network of organisations, practitioners and academics promoting sustainable development at the grassroots,” he says.

A Southern African BoP Learning Laboratory, planned for June 2007, and training and research in the specialised field of sustainable development are two further outcomes of the USB-based Laboratory. Partnering with companies to promote small business in Khayelitsha through deep listening and co-value creation represents a fresh start to development. The BoP Lab also plans to establish a forum of CEOs keen to promote collaborative development through generating appropriate technologies and promoting innovative approaches and projects in historically deprived communities.

“Projects in southern Africa will also be pursued, including a Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory planned in Malawi, coupled with a fair trade exhibition,” says Coetzee.

“International cooperation can lead to innovation and producing at a lower unit cost that is affordable in Africa. We recognise something different has to be done to combat poverty, unemployment and inequality in South Africa and southern Africa,” says Coetzee.