TechnoServe CEO Promotes Business Solutions to Poverty as WEF Panelist

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND, JANUARY 25-26, 2007 —TechnoServe President and CEO Bruce McNamer participated in the World Economic Forum, a gathering of world leaders that aims to generate innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.

McNamer spoke on two panels focused on the potential for new technologies and well-targeted investments to revolutionize African agriculture and to promote sustainable development. He presented examples from TechnoServe's work that illustrated the transformative potential of market-driven solutions to increase the incomes of the rural poor, double agricultural yields and alleviate chronic hunger in Africa. He highlighted TechnoServe's nearly 40 years of experience in developing high-potential industries that can support scalable, replicable businesses by identifying and strategically targeting points along the value chain where interventions are most effective.

During the panel Driving Development: Transforming African Agriculture and Nutrition, McNamer and Unilever Chairman Antony Burgmans presented the overall strategy of the Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger (BAACH), of which TechnoServe is a Steering Board member and Strategic Advisor. This group of business leaders, politicians and civil society representatives is working to create innovative and scalable market-based solutions to the persistent problem of chronic hunger in Kenya.

About TechnoServe: TechnoServe helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor rural areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries. Since its founding in 1968, it has helped to create or improve more than 2,000 businesses, benefiting millions of people in 32 countries. TechnoServe is currently working to build and expand businesses in Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland, Uganda, Ghana, Madagascar, Rwanda, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire and India. TechnoServe was recognized as one of the world's “Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs” by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.