NOTES FROM AN ABANDONED VILLAGE

I'm still asking: Where and why did they go? Here is the story: the Bories village is composed of seven groupings of huts, each having a very precise function: houses, stables, barns, goat shelters, tanning mills, bake houses - the whole social and economic system build laboriously from limestone, and it all was abandoned by its inhabitants about 150 years ago. Classified as a Historical Monument by the French Government, it includes an impressive collection of archived documents none of which tells WHY??? The Bories village in France isn't the only abandoned place on Earth: Brochs, Trullis, Cabanes, Cleits, Giren are scattered around the world. Wherever you spot them, you are hit by the patience and dexterity of those who created them and the enigma that surrounds their abandonment. Visiting abandoned places - ancient but also modern - is becoming more and more popular tourism nowadays. Ghost towns in the former USSR and in the US, orphaned mine sites in Canada, post-Chernobyl villages attract by their macabre beauty. As the DirJournal blog says, "There are mainly two reasons why people suddenly or little by little leave the place where they used to live for years or even generations: that's the danger and economic factors."
My blog is dedicated to
"These were thy charms - but all these charms are fled."
Oliver Goldsmith, "The Deserted Village"

Thursday, February 4, 2010

B24b - Business to 4 billion people in poverty: measuring and assessing Global Sustainable Business Performance

First, we need to define what we measure and why. There is now a comprehensive dictionary of performance measures definitions. In the context of sustainability, the essential parameter for businesses that drive the economic growth would be the role they are undertaking to alleviate poverty in developing countries. The private sector is responsible for creating most jobs and wealth, and competition stimulates the investment, innovation and technological progress that underpins economic growth.

Some possible resources for the upcoming research:

1. Overseas Development Institute is Britain's leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Mission: to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries.

How: by locking together high quality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate: working with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries.


2. Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) is deeply involved in the evaluation of global programs, like the Prototype Carbon Fund, the Stop TB Partnership, and the Cities Alliance, and regional programs like the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control and the Child Protection Initiative are programmatic partnerships.

How: The partners contribute and pool resources (financial, technical, staff, and reputational) toward achieving agreed-upon objectives over time. The activities of the program are global, regional, or multi-country (not single-country) in scope.


3. GEMI - Global Environmental Management Initiative has created tools and provided strategies to help business foster global environmental, health and safety excellence and economic success.

How: through the sharing of tools and information to help business achieve environmental sustainability excellence.



5. Implementing an Effective Global Performance Measurement System:
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