On January 22nd in London, there was the first European CEO Forum on Development. This was a private business round table to be convened by HRH The Prince of Wales and World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn. The purpose of the private, informal meeting of invited CEOs of European companies and international companies with a major presence in Europe, was "to share thinking and address critical development issues where businesses can influence key economic and social issues affecting both business and society."

The idea that multinational corporations could be regarded as development actors is something the UN Global Compact has embraced. Head of the Compact, George Kell said they face a challenging agenda in attempting to increase business contributions to development. "First, it must be able to facilitate greater 'development' contributions from the core activities of businesses in developing countries. Capacity building of the local workforce and diffusion of technical know how would be examples of such contributions. Second, it must encourage businesses to improve the enabling macro frameworks in developing countries. Businesses could be encouraged to set good examples by resisting corruption and taking a stand on human rights and thus contribute to inducing positive public policy changes which in turn can improve the environment for doing business." 32

A new study, undertaken jointly by Tanzanian academics and the British consultancy ERM suggested that there is a business case for fighting poverty in the global South. They looked at how poverty impacts on five private firms: a tea company, a sack manufacturer, an aluminium sheet producer, a foreign-owned brewery (one of Tanzania's largest private sector employers), and a not-for-profit crafts business. It suggested that chronic poverty in low wage countries like Tanzania is bad for business and of concern to businesspeople. 33 "Businesses know too well that in order to prosper, customers' purchasing power must be improved. One way of doing this is by helping them to fight poverty," said Tanzanian researcher Dr Benedict Mongula of the University of Dar es Salaam. Gastone Gaudence Kikuwi, the secretary general of VIBINDO, an umbrella organisation of small traders, said corporate citizenship schemes would do very little to ease poverty in Tanzania because a large chunk of the population - over 75% in 2001 according to the Tanzanian Planning Commission - works in the informal sector. He suggested big companies provide loans, training and market-access to people working in the informal sector.

There is undoubtedly a need for more research on the complexities of business acting in the cause of development. A half-century of experience and debate within the research and policy communities on international development needs to be drawn upon by practitioners and researchers of corporate citizenship. Most business leaders are on a steep learning curve when it comes to the theory, practice and historical experiences of international development and underdevelopment. Before one can learn, one needs to recognise there is something to learn... and to be prepared to "unlearn" what you already "know". Will business leaders turn to contested theories about development as they seem, at first glance, more compatible with corporate goals? Or will a more critical engagement be possible, where managers explore the concept of "development" beyond the narrow western worldview of ever-greater materialism and commercialism? [see 'Some economics please' for a discussion of the developmental dimensions to corporate citizenship]