Barrick Gold Corporation is the world’s largest gold producer, with 27 operating mines and many advanced exploration and development projects located across five continents. Our vision is to be the world’s best gold company by finding, acquiring, developing and producing quality reserves in a safe, profitable and socially responsible manner. MBAs Without Borders is proud to welcome Barrick Gold as a Gold Sponsor during the 2008 MWB Public Engagement Campaign across Canada.

Westerkirk Capital is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and manages private capital for a Canadian Investor. It consciously follows a long term investment horizon and seeks to be both a patient investor and a strong business partner in the growth and development of solid, profitable and sustainable businesses. Westerkirk Capital believes in the power of small business and is proud to support MBAs Without Borders’ efforts to engage the public about “The Role of Business in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube selected MBAs Without Borders (MWB) as its first Canadian receipient of YouTube Grants providing donated advertising space to MWB while visitirs view videos on the YouTube website. MBAs Without Borders is the most subscribed all-time Canadian non-profit on YouTube.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is a global law firm with 980 lawyers in North America, Europe and Asia. Orrick provides MBAs Without Borders with pro bono legal support and guidance as we look to expand official operations into the Unites States, Australia, Europe and Africa.

(ATIO) is the oldest organization of translators, conference interpreters, court interpreters and terminologists in Canada. ATIO provides MBAs Without Borders with French translations for its documents including MWB’s 2008 Public Engagement Campaign

MBA-Exchange.com is the international marketplace for top business talent. Business school students and alumni explore international career opportunities while employers recruit mid- and top-level managers. MBA-Exchange.com provides MBAs Without Borders with unlimited access to it’s job boards and online recruitment tools. Working together to attract the most unique MBAs, MBA-Exchange.com’s partnership has been invaluable.

Other MWB Partners

La Senza Lingerie is the ultimate shopping destination for a vast array of exclusive high quality branded lingerie at affordable prices. Since the first store opening in 1990, La Senza has maintained a focused vision of excellence.

Skura Corporation (www.skura.com) was founded with a singular mission: ‘Solve business problems for customers who we respect and value. We will achieve this by surrounding ourselves with people we both respect and trust and who will encourage each other to reach beyond their limits.

Get Involved

MBAs

MBAs Without Borders is always recruiting for a number of challenging and new positions in Africa, South-East Asia, South Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean.

We are continuing in our pursuit to bring MBAs to developing countries to aid local businesses, international business and NGOs by providing business solutions, education, and community assistance that will contribute to the sustainable development of social and economic life.

See the Projects section of this site for more information about current and past projects, or to submit your CV for general consideration. New projects are added frequently. If you’d like to stay informed please sign up for our e-newsletter using the form at the top of this page.

Business+NGOs

MBAs Without Borders (MWB) is an international not-for-profit organization that strives to contribute to the business and social development of upcoming nations through work rotations of MBA (Master in Business Administration) business volunteers.

Partnership Proposal

We partner with international and local businesses and not-for-profits working towards the better good of developing countries and we recruit MBAs who best support such organizations. We match highly qualified MBA volunteers who provide business assistance with finance, accounting, marketing, operations, strategy, business development, etc.

How Can our MBA Volunteers Help?

MWB’s volunteers provide a wide range of business support. This includes, and is not limited to,

providing training to management and staff in finance, accounting, strategy, marketing, human resource, business development, etc. Our MBAs can also provide support such as developing and implementing business plans to launch products and services to new markets, building sales and distribution channels within country, developing fundraising strategies and managing projects in the field.

About our MBA Volunteers

Our MBAs are on average 32 years old, speak multiple languages and have extensive experience in business and understanding the needs of businesses and organizations in developing countries. For each project, we recruit from the over 400 MBA communities from around the world including Australia, Canada, Europe, India, Mexico, South Africa, USA, etc. With a database of 5,000+ MBAs. 40,000 monthly website visitors we received 50-100 MBA applicants per position.

Where We Work

Primarily we focus our work in five areas: Agriculture, Health, Finance, Income-Generation and the

Environment. We are also pleased that our MBA volunteers are helping to build up businesses in some of the most challenging and exciting countries around the world. To date we have worked in:

Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Cost Sharing Arrangement - Everybody Benefits

The cost-effectiveness of our volunteers is where an organization really see its return on investment. MWB, as a charitable not-for-profit organization, has a policy of maintaining low project overhead costs in an attempt to send as many MBA volunteers to as many organizations as possible. When partners cannot afford the full costs of our MBAs, MWB works to raise remaining funds. Below is a generic cost breakdown of expenses for an average MWB volunteer.

If you are a small business or NGO/NPO workin a developing country and interested in partnering up with MBAs without Borders, please Contact Us and request our “Partnership Questionnaire.”

Partners

Agora Partnerships

Nicaragua

Agora Partnerships is a non profit, social mission organization dedicated to providing talented entrepreneurs in developing countries with the tools, networks, and financing necessary to launch successful, socially responsible businesses - the kind that can fight poverty, provided needed goods and services, and help build a sustainable society. Agora has launched operations in Nicaragua and is preparing to scale regionally.

AIACA

India

All India Artisans & Craftworkers Association is a membership-based apex body for the handloom and handicraft sectors. Similar to an industry association such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), AIACA seeks to represent a range of organizations in the handloom and handicrafts sector and to engage in policy advocacy activities aimed at increasing the domestic market for handloom and handicraft products and improving the standard of living of craftworkers.

blueEnergy

Nicaragua

blueEnergy is a nonprofit organization that provides a sustainable solution to the energy needs of marginalized communities through the construction, installation, and maintenance of hybrid wind and solar electric systems. blueEnergy manufactures wind turbines and other key components locally, near their point of usage, to create the capacity needed to support the long-term operation of the systems. blueEnergy’s approach creates employment where it is desperately needed and ensures sustainability, the most critical factor in keeping the life-cycle cost of the energy service affordable.

Gone Rural

Swaziland

Proyecto Tití is a multi-disciplinary in situ conservation program that combines field research, education initiatives and community programs to make the conservation of natural resources economically feasible for local communities in Colombia. The program is designed to provide useful information to assist in the long-term preservation of the cotton-top tamarin and to develop local community advocates to promote conservation efforts in Colombia.

Hopital Albert Schweitzer

Haiti

Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) is a model for health care facilities in developing countries around the world. An integrated rural health system, HAS provides medical care and community health and development programs for more than 300,000 impoverished people in the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti. Visiting medical professionals from North America and abroad work with a permanent Haitian staff of almost 550. Financial support comes from partner organizations and private individuals around the world.

Kageno (Kenya, Rwanda)

Kageno’s MISSION is to transform communities suffering from inhumane poverty into places of opportunity and hope by identifying and delivering actionable programs. Kageno builds Innovative Community Centers that provide access to clean water, food, sanitation, health care, education, and income generation.

MicroInsurance Academy

India

The Micro Insurance Academy is a Delhi-based charitable trust dedicated to evidence-based studies, training and advisory services for microinsurance units serving the poor.
Community-based micro health insurance units represent the highest hope for the extension of insurance coverage among the uninsured poor. However, microinsurance schemes need help in customizing their insurance to the risks and conditions they face, at affordable premiums, through a process that they trust. The MIA offers innovative, context-specific solutions to meet those needs.

One Acre Fund

Kenya

One Acre Fund is a 501c3 non-profit organization started in January 2006, with the goal of completely re-thinking how to solve the chronic hunger problem in Africa. We don’t give food away – handing out food will never solve hunger for more than one meal. Rather, we are pioneering a tiny investment package that will enable farm families to grow their own way out of hunger, permanently.

Proyecto Titi

Colombia

Proyecto Tití is a multi-disciplinary in situ conservation program that combines field research, education initiatives and community programs to make the conservation of natural resources economically feasible for local communities in Colombia. The program is designed to provide useful information to assist in the long-term preservation of the cotton-top tamarin and to develop local community advocates to promote conservation efforts in Colombia.

Transfair USA

Africa

TransFair USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is one of twenty members of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. We audit transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In addition, annual inspections conducted by FLO ensure that strict socioeconomic development criteria are being met using increased Fair Trade revenues.

WE-ACTx

Rwanda

WE-ACTx is an international community-based initiative that was launched in fall 2003 by frontline AIDS physicians, activists and researchers with extensive experience in caring and advocating for HIV-positive women. Our primary goal is to increase women’s and children’s access to HIV testing, care, treatment, support, education and training in resource-limited settings at the grassroots level.

Yele Haiti

Haiti

Yéle Haiti is a foundation started by Grammy-Award winning musician, producer, social entrepreneur and Haitian Goodwill Ambassador Wyclef Jean that is changing thousands of lives in this poor but optimistic nation. Through Yéle Haiti, Wyclef supports projects that are making a difference in education, health, environment and community development.

Grasroots Business Fund

Global

The Grassroots Business Fund is a not-for-profit organization that aims to provide sustainable economic opportunities to poor and marginalized people in developing countries as entrepreneurs, producers and consumers. GBF is being established through the restructuring of the International Finance Corporation’s Grassroots Business Initiative.

Mercado Global

Guatemala

Mercado Global is a non-profit fair trade organization that links the world’s most rural and economically-disadvantaged cooperatives to the U.S. market through a model that provides both fair wages and investments in community’s long-term development

Meds & Food for Kids

Haiti

Meds & Food for Kids (MFK) is leading the charge to cure child malnutrition in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
Our goal is “Alive at Five”: to ensure that children remain well-nourished and healthy through the toddler years, giving them a chance for normal growth and development into adulthood.

Organic Blooming

Ecuador

Organic Blooming’s mission is to become the leading producer and exporter of organically certified cut-flowers in Ecuador. This start-up company aspires to be environmentally conscious and socially responsible, while contributing to the well-being of the local community. Organic Blooming grows organic calla lilies on its farm, Hacienda El Manantial, and plans to expand into other cut-flowers and produce.

Futbol Con Corazon

Colombia

Low-income children in Barranquilla, a city in the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, do not have mentors, have a lot of free time, suffer from violence within their families, and do not have acces to after-school programs. They are in constant risk of drug addiction, alcoholism, criminality and gangs.
Futbol Con Corazon (aka Soccer for Peace Foundation) will a contribution in achieving higher levels of peace and equity in Colombia using the power of soccer and its value-centered methodology.

Solar Aid

Zambia, Tanzania

Two of the biggest threats facing humanity today are climate change and global poverty. SolarAid helps to combat both, simply by bringing clean, renewable power to the poorest people in the world. Solar power can enable poor people to cook food, pump clean water, run fridges, light homes, schools and hospitals, farm more effectively, and much more.
PATH (Vietnam, Cambodia)

Vestergard Frandsen

Nigeria, Sierra Leone & Pakistan

Vestergaard Frandsen is a rapidly growing international company. VF is committed to the goal of basic disease prevention by providing safe drinking water and protection from malaria and other vector-borne diseases. Over the years, it has been associated with many non-governmental organisations and UN agencies, as well as ministries of health in countries worldwide.

Karibu Fair

Tanzania

The “Karibu Travel and Tourism Fair” jointly organized by Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, Tanzania Tourist Board together with the Ministry of Natural Resource and Tourism, is a four day International Travel and Tourism Fair which is held at Magereza open grounds Arusha Tanzania. The Fair has since grown into East Africa’s biggest tourism event of the years. This event has been conducive to informal networking and getting to know each other better among all stakeholders on Tourism industry.

Menakshi Mission Hospital

India

Streetwires (South Afiica)

Streetwires focuses on the unique and dynamic genre of wire art, and, through its Proudly South African project, is providing the skills training, support and raw materials necessary to enable over 100 formerly unemployed men and women to earn a constant income. Streetwires currently exports to 14 countries and also supplies to several large domestic retailers.

CHF International

Haiti

Since 1952, CHF International has worked in more than 100 countries worldwide. Currently we work in an average of 30 countries per year. Our mission is to be a catalyst for long-lasting positive change in low- and moderate-income communities around the world, helping them to improve their social, economic and environmental conditions. Each day, CHF International transforms promise into progress. CHF International is successful because it brings together the people, organizations and resources necessary to ensure steady, sustainable change.

Heartland Alliance

Guatemala

Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights champions the human rights and improves the lives of men, women, and children who are threatened by poverty or danger. For more than 100 years we have been providing solutions—both through services and policy—that move individuals from crisis to stability and on to success.
ECATH (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda) – www.ecatradehub.com
The TRADE initiative was launched to assist African businesses take better advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), passed by Congress in May 2000. The Act establishes a framework of incentives to encourage greater economic growth and self-reliance through enhanced international trade and investment in Africa.
The East and Central Africa Global Competitiveness Hub (ECA AGCI Hub) in Nairobi, Kenya is one of three trade hubs established by USAID.

Terrafertil

Ecuador

Terrafertil is located at 3200 meters above sea level, next to lagoons which were formed out of the thaws at Andean snow-capped mountains, occupying a unique and privileged place, given it’s ecological surroundings. Our approach aims at keeping artisan processes in order to assure high quality in all our lines of production. Terrafertil is a pioneer in the market of exotic products in Ecuador. Our products are intended for both the final consumer and the food industry, which may use them as intermediate raw materials.

Proteak

Mexico

Proteak Renewable Forestry began its commercial operations in 2006 following six successful years of operation as a forestry company along Mexico’s Pacific coast. During those six years, Proteak transformed itself into the major grower of teak in Mexico and one of the largest in the western hemisphere. With over seven thousand acres under cultivation, Proteak is positioned to be the most reliable source of sustainable plantation teak and teak wood products for years to come.

Fonkoze

Haiti

Fonkoze is Haiti’s alternative bank for the organized poor. In fact, it is a family of three institutions working together shoulder-to-shoulder towards a single compelling mission: building the economic foundations for democracy in Haiti by providing the rural poor with the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty. This mission is reflected in our name, Fonkoze, which is an acronym for the Haitian Creole phrase “Fondasyon Kole Zepòl” meaning “Shoulder-to-Shoulder Foundation.”

CEIHD

Uganda

The mission of Centre for Entrepreneurshp in Internatioanl Health & Development
(CEIHD-pronounced “seed”) is to improve the health of low-income families in developing countries by drawing on the power of science and entrepreneurship to deliver health-enhancing products and services at affordable prices. As a nonprofit with close ties to the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, CEIHD provides thought leadership, tools and case studies to the field. CEIHD acknowledges the importance of scale in creating measurable change in health status at a population level and chooses its projects with this overarching objective in mind.

Impact

The business support provided by our MBAs is having a tremendous impact. It is dramatically increasing the sustainability of our field partner organizations as well as the quality of life of their community members. As a secondary benefit, the success stories of our MBAs is inspiring and mobilizing a new generation of MBAs who are passionate about leveraging their business savvy to make a lasting difference in our world!

Here is a sample list of tangible results thus far:

• Working with fair trade coffee producer, Sidama, certified 31 local co-ops with fair trade certification, making them the largest fair trade producer in Ethiopia
• Initiated the enrolment of 4,000+ HIV positive patients into the membership of a national community-based health insurance plan in Rwanda
• Increased women micro-credit customers from 150 to 3,000 for local micro-finance institution in Kenya with Faida Biashara Ltd
• With MBA’s “toolkit binder”, a local agri-business NGO launched into its second district of operations, which in under six months already counts 14 new employees serving 1,200 clients
• Developed a branding strategy to attract new patients to a local hospital in Madurai, India
• Trained 2 staff members in supply chain management and helped increase local workforce from 8 to 170 people by partnering with local co-ops to support MaliChic, a local Handicraft group in Mali
• Trained 20 local staff and implemented new process controls, resulting in an increase in income for 700 rural handicraft producers that work with Gone Rural in Swaziland
• Developed Market Research Report on the local cashew market in 10 West African countries for use by local producers as part of their export plans
• Managed and supported social marketing campaign for distribution of 1million+ malaria bed nets across Sierra Leone
• Developed supply strategy to grow local women’s cooperative labor base from 35 to 80 people, to increase production of environmentally-friendly eco-mochilas in Colombia
• Increased the product line development for a local environmentally-friendly Teak company in Mexico
• Using product placement in Nollywood (Nigeria’s film industry), introduced a creative malaria net campaign that was featured in 20 soap operas and television shows across Africa reaching millions across Nigeria and Africa

About

MBAs Without Borders (MWB), a division of CDC Development Solutions, is an international organization that empowers local entrepreneurs in developing countries by matching them with top MBA leaders around the world. We believe that business can do amazing things and when channeled appropriately, it can have an incredible lasting impact in communities

Key aspects of MWB’s work:

• We focus our efforts with grass roots entrepreneurs in developing countries. We believe that small businesses are a critical piece to create sustainability particularly in under-served markets
• All project requirements come directly from our field partners. This ensures that we address the needs as identified by local owners and experts
• Our field partners contribute towards the cost of sending an MBA abroad. This confirms the need and value of our MBAs and it also helps establish ownership - a key ingredient to every project’s success
• We recruit our MBAs from around the world. The MBAs selected often have extensive professional experience in an international context

Why do we focus on small businesses?

Small businesses are critical for creating a thriving and sustainable local economy, especially in developing countries. Small businesses create opportunities for more people to participate in the formal economy, so they help reduce poverty by creating jobs.

In many developing countries large businesses have access to formal, bank-based credit and capital markets while households and micro-entrepreneurs have access to micro-loans. This leaves a massive gap known as the “missing middle.” While small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in rich countries represent over half of GDP, they are largely absent from the formal economies of developing countries.

Socially responsible grassroots entrepreneurs in developing countries provide goods and services to the poor and create sustainable jobs. They are on the front lines in the fight against poverty and environmental degradation, but too often they are alone. MBAs Without Borders responds to this need in the “missing middle” by providing critical business support to local entrepreneurs.

MWB’s Sector Focus:

Agriculture, Health, Handicrafts, Micro-Finance and Environment
MBAs Without Borders focuses on the areas of agriculture, health, handicrafts, finance and the environment. MWB believes that small businesses can have a significant impact in these sectors and lead by example by helping farmers market their crops, increasing access to health care services, creating profitable micro-lending models, and even introducing renewable energy products to the market.

MWB’s Countries:

Bolivia, Cambodia, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Ukraine.