John Tedstrom, CEO of Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, made one thing perfectly clear in his remarks during the opening plenary session of “Investing in Women and Entrepreneurship: Solutions to Addressing MDG 3.”

He did not want to see any more groups of African women devoting their time to handicraft projects that, albeit funded by major international donors, will eventually reap little to no profits.

Tedstrom, who oversees GBC’s network of more than 250 businesses involved in fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, has his own ideas about what constitutes sustainability and how businesses and civil society can best work together to achieve it. During the March 8 forum at U.N. headquarters in New York, Tedstrom explained his vision for public-private partnership to boost global development.

What kind of partnerships with different organizations are you trying to cultivate right now in the field?

It’s not so much about organizations, but it is about the impact. And I think for us, the real exciting piece is when we can find shared value and sustainability. By shared value, what we mean is finding those issues and projects where businesses have a long-term stake in the success of these initiatives and where society benefits, where we are able to move the social indicator forward in a significant way.

On sustainability, what we mean is that we have got to move, I think, across the entire development spectrum from a situation where we are talking about corporate social responsibility and philanthropy to [one where we are making a] strategic investment in the communities where we worked. And businesses have a long-term interest in healthy workforces, educated workforces, productive workforces and consumers who are educated and employed and have a disposable income to buy their products.

And if we can create this virtuous cycle in which countries are investing their markets as part of the core business strategy and not writing a check to this symphony orchestra, or that art museum, or to this special project, but are really investing in a more strategic way, I think it would make a lot more progress and it would sustain us over the longer term.

Do you see a certain formula for achieving those strategic investments you are talking about?

Yeah. And I think it has to do with bringing this idea of shared value with the idea of sustainability. On the one hand, business has to recognize its enlightened self-interest is aligned with the advancement of its market. And NGOs, civil society, has to recognize that business can come along and be a good partner, that business isn’t and doesn’t need to be cast as the evil villain in all of our scenarios, in all of our screenplays.

Business has a positive role to play and through dialogue we can get there. Sometimes dialogue is short and easy and mutual interests are quickly identified, and in other cases we need more sustained conversations and brainstorming and we need to build trust.

And the second piece on sustainability: The thing is that essentially there needs to be profit.

I was chastised after my talk here by a woman who has created a company for women in Africa, HIV-positive women, to make very sophisticated and elegant beaded jewelry. What she is doing is breaking the mold of the unsophisticated beaded trinkets that are made by women in Africa, and are supported by organizations like USAID and the World Bank. But what she has done is she has created a real value-added business and that is entirely different from the ghettoization of African women into these unsustainable businesses that, frankly, there isn’t really a market for. And in that sense I think she has done a tremendous service to everybody and demonstrated, ‘Well, we know how to make little key chains that have little value and we can find philanthropists that will support that in the short term but, hey, we can take that experience and we can build a company, a profitable company.’

She is selling these bracelets, these amazing pieces of artistic jewelry, in Bergdorf [Goodman]’s for a couple of hundred bucks a pop. The profits are going back into the company to expand it, the women are making larger wages, and that is sustainability.

Collective action is integral to this whole concept of shared value. If you have got a 10 square-mile area in a developing or middle-income country that is underserved by education, by the health industry, what have you, it is possible to find a number of companies who are present there or who want to be present there and who have a stake in the development of that region and you can power, partner, the skills and resources of a company in the food and beverage industry with the skills and resources of a company in the marketing and communications industry, with that of a finance services company, et cetera. And all of a sudden, you have the skills and resources necessary to do just about anything you want.

We have all the skill sets needed to conquer the world, and by recognizing you have that shared value, you can create the type of scalable, sustainable development initiative that stands a chance of really making a difference.

Are there any particular countries or regions where you have seen enhanced collaborations between NGOs and businesses as of late – where this is becoming a strength?

I think that you are seeing it in spots all over, whether it is in the really poor countries in Africa or some of the middle-income countries. Interestingly enough, I think some of the middle-income countries have a little bit to catch up on in part because the development challenges haven’t been as pronounced.

Which cross-sector or public-private partnership do you think best harnesses the power of the private sector to fuel development and empower women? Please share by leaving a comment below.

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• Hollywood and Women’s Empowerment around the Globe: A Conversation with Actress Geena Davis
• At UN Forum, Business and Nonprofit Leaders Highlight Smart Investment in Women
• Partnering Opportunities at UN Women: A Conversation with Antonie de Jong

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