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walter coddington
The world’s number one problem is poverty, particularly as the root of many other social ills. For individuals, poverty creates a vicious circle of living circumstances that often precludes higher education, adequate health care and a voice in community social and political affairs – the lack of which greatly reduces an individual's chances for economic security. In poor neighborhoods, here in the US and throughout much of the developing world, poverty hits women and young people the hardest. Women worldwide own less than 5% of the world’s land and receive less than 15% of its income.
As a marketing and communications consultant to the United Nations for 10 years, I had the opportunity to observe the challenges that poverty presents to individuals, businesses and governmental and non-governmental organizations in poverty-stricken communities.
As Kirk Magleby, author of Microfranchises as a Solution to Global Poverty, puts it, "the developing world suffers an acute paucity of strong small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), dooming far too many countries to low economic growth rates, high unemployment, social unrest, and all the other pathologies that breed in poverty.”
In most developed countries, small- and medium-sized businesses typically employ 60% or more of the population and are the key to overall economic growth and prosperity.
My objective, and that of my partners, is to help increase the number of SMEs in developing countries. One such approach is the optionsforlife natural cleaning products business model: www.optionsproducts.com
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