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Annual Report 2001 – 2002 ]
Worldaware Business Awards 2001
Highlighting the contribution that commercial enterprise
makes to sustained economic and social progress of developing nations
The importance of the Business Awards lies in recognising the excellence
of the work being done by the winners. This is not confined by national
boundaries, and we therefore decided this year to open the scheme
to organisations throughout the world, so long as they could show
a significant and sustainable contribution to a community in a developing
country.
In January 2002, we were delighted to welcome Hilary Benn MP, Minister
for International Development, to our annual ceremony as the presenter
of the 2001 Awards. He spoke persuasively of the critical part that
the private sector had to play if the least developed communities
were to make progress, and of the part Worldaware had played in
championing this role through the Awards over the years. He was
particularly impressed by the range and diversity of the winning
entries, whose quality was ‘inspirational’.
“Business is not the problem, but rather part of the
solution.”
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart,
Chairman of Business Action for Sustainable Development
This year has also been marked by significant improvements to the
Awards section of our website. We have brought together in case-study
form all the winning entries since the scheme’s inception
in 1989. This is a useful research tool for students and business
policy formers alike, and we hope people will find it useful. The
stories are now linked wherever possible to the sites of the winning
organisations themselves so that subsequent progress can be tracked.
In this way we are helping to increase understanding of the practical
ways in which socially responsible business contributes to both
sustainable community development and business success. Our ‘alumni’
deserve to be recognised for their often pioneering role.
Winners of the 2001 Awards
- Mobah Rural Horizons (Nigeria) for development of the ‘Pot-in-Pot’
cooling system which prevents rapid food decay, thereby increasing
food production and distribution in hot rural climates. (Shell
Award for Sustainable Development)
- Nyaya Industries (Zimbabwe) for providing a vital alternative
source of lighting through candle manufacture, and for community
investment, in the current harsh economic climate in its country.
(Crown Agents Foundation Award for Small Businesses)
- Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd with Uganda Railways Corporation
(Uganda) for forming and operating a successful joint venture
workshop for locomotive repair which has dramatically increased
engine availability (P&O Nedlloyd Award for Infrastructure)
- The EuroEd Foundation (Romania) for its teaching and language
centre, helping to improve both education and management standards
in the country and others in the region, and for committing 15%
of its teaching to the disadvantaged. (British Council Award for
Effective Transfer of English Language Skills)
- ECOTA Fair Trade Forum with Traidcraft Exchange (Bangladesh)
for marrying Bangladeshi handicrafts to European markets and providing
support services to often-deprived artisans. (DTI Award for Capacity
Building in the Commonwealth)
- Motivation (UK) for creating self-sustaining operations in
14 developing countries for the provision of customised low cost
wheelchairs, produced from indigenous materials adapted to the
local terrain. (Worldaware Award for Innovation)
- Quesinor (Ecuador) for creating and sustaining a dairy co-operative
with 355 members producing and exporting high quality cheese in
the country’s highly challenging economic circumstances.
(Worldaware Not-for-Profit Award)
- The National Business Initiative (S Africa) for creating and
sustaining a partnership of public, private and non-profit sectors
dedicated to build its newly-democratised country. (Judges’
Special Commendation)
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