Principal Associate/Inclusive Business & Biodiversity

Nutshell

Poor people are often overlooked as potential consumers, sellers and distributors in a business value chain. Poverty in Africa and business attitudes to sustainability tend to mask business opportunities. For example, if retailers were to invest in the development of the local agricultural industry so that farmers become suppliers and distributors, then transport and storage costs incurred from importing fruit and vegetables by retailers would be reduced. Similar examples that explicitly demonstrate both ‘pro-poor' and profit-making objectives abound in the mining, banking and service sectors.

"Poverty is unnecessary. People are able to get themselves out of poverty. All they need is opportunity. They are not expecting charity or instructions. Charity is good, but it is not enough. If you turn it into a business proposal, then it is a very powerful as it can work by itself" (Source: Muhammed Yunnus, Founder of Grameen Bank & Nobel Peace Laureate)

Expertise

Janice is based at our Johannesburg office in South Africa, where she manages our Business For Development Project (B4D Project) with the Southern Africa Trust. The theme of the B4D Project is "improving the social, environmental and economic performance of private sector investment in the southern African region".

The motivation behind the B4D Project is to help alleviate poverty across the fourteen countries of the SADC region. Its innovation is that it integrates the needs, abilities and conditions of low income earners into international and regional business practices, and vice versa.

Rooted in the concept of "Inclusive Business <http://www.inclusivebusiness.org/> ", the B4D Project involves:

• Promoting Inclusive Business as a venture that integrates the poor with the core value chain of a business while not losing sight of the profit-making objective; and
   
• Assessing Progress of Inclusive Business (Charter, Barometer, and an Information Toolkit).

Inclusive Business is thus a strategic orientation that aims to move the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) function from a tactical level to a strategic level.

Previous experience

Janice has a rich, decade-long experience working in countries of the SADC region. She started off in scientific research (Plant Ecology) and policy reform (Biodiversity and Conservation) with the international NGO and public sector (IUCN, South African National Biodiversity Institute). Between 1999 and 2003, she coordinated a Red Data List project in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe (supported by NORAD, UNDP, USAID). Thereafter, she worked as a freelance consultant while reading for a doctorate at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford.

Janice's formal training in plant ecological theory has prepared her well for her current role with the Helical Group because successful CSR strategies, like with the study of living organisms, involves business interactions that capitalise on risk, opportunity, resilience and adaptive capacity. In moving from the field to the boardroom, Janice now works on the ‘gold standard' or ‘top-end' of ‘smart business' in the SADC region.

Education

BSc. (Botany), University of Cape Town, 1995
BSc (Honours), University of the Western Cape, 1997
MSc. (Ecology), University of Cape Town, 2002
PhD. (Geography), Oxford University, 2008