Below is the foreword by Dr. Tony La Viña, Dean of the Ateneo School of Government and Director of iBoP Asia.

The Ateneo School of Government warmly congratulates and thanks PBSP for making this project a success and the publication of this book possible.  In 2007, as the Graduate School of Leadership and Public Service of the Ateneo de Manila University, the School adopted the ambitious goal of working with leaders of 1,000 local governments to build a prosperous and just Philippines. Providing solutions to poverty and inequity is at the core of our mission.

This poverty, aptly called the “poverty of capability” by Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen, comes not just from a lack of opportunity and resources, but also in great part from a lack of capability – the lack of capacity of many to access quality education, health care, housing and credit, to name a few. We are no stranger to those who barely get by on a daily basis, living in shantytowns and rural villages, some even in garbage dumpsites. These are the economically marginalized poor in our society, those at the “base of the pyramid”.
 
The base of the pyramid or BoP is the economic designation of the roughly 4 billion people worldwide living with less than US$ 4 a day; in Asia, they are roughly 2.9 billion or 80% of the region’s population. The School of Government, through its cluster of poverty programs and projects, is involved in various efforts toward finding innovative solutions to poverty, not only at the national level but also on a regional scale. The iBoP Asia Project of the School of Government, supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, is a major regional initiative. Through its small grants program, web-based portal and convening activities, iBoP Asia’s efforts are geared towards finding and promoting Science and Technology (S&T)-based solutions that address the basic needs of those at the BoP. We define S&T in its broadest sense, referring to the full range of social, natural, medical and life sciences, as well the physical and engineering disciplines.

Why are we here – we are here because we are concerned about the alarming stats and we would like to help improve the lives of those at the base by promoting the BoP approach to development – that those at the base have the potential to become innovators themselves and co-creators of value; they can be served with products and services tailored to their needs and budgets, and at the same time be suppliers or active partners in the productive value chain. The BoP approach puts forth the idea that commercial and developmental objectives can be mutually reinforcing, and enables higher levels of understanding and collaboration across sectors, and higher levels of business-social convergence.

The Business Advisory Program of PBSP is a model for this business-social convergence. By providing affordable consultancy services to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), this program not only strengthens the capacities of their MSME clients (whose workers, partners and market are often those at the BoP), but also adds more value to the products and services made available to the BoP. With this book of successful case stories, learnings from the Program’s implementation and recommendations for its sustainability, we hope to be able to demonstrate that the BoP approach to addressing poverty works and contributes to the empowerment of the poor as social actors.

Trying to “invert the pyramid” is indeed a huge challenge but all we need is to take the necessary steps, however small, to do it. We, at the School of Government and our partners are motivated by one vision for our country – to build a prosperous and just Philippines, and to do this not only for own own self-satisfaction but for the greater glory of God. Let me end with the words of our University president, Fr. Ben Nebres, S.J., taken from his 2005 report:

“…Amidst much affliction, powerlessness and devastation, our mission now, as always, is to heal, to empower and to rebuild. But most of all, our mission is to build hope: to be the Lord’s light to our nation and our people who dwell in great darkness and uncertainty.”

Knowing that this is our collective mission, let us go out and work with our people to build a prosperous and just society.

Dr. Antonio G.M La Viña
Dean, Ateneo School of Government
Director, iBoP Asia Project

Click here to download the casebook

Related link:
PBSP-BAP "Perspectives" video