BUSI-POVERTY-NESS

By

Jayesimi, Kehinde Hannah

 November, 2023.
Abstract
This article is written to explicate the importance of business in the society, and how it can be
done through PESTLE analysis to help salvage the prevailing social issues around the world.
Since it may be difficult to address all the issues in one piece of writing, this article focuses
extensively on poverty, its effects on people and the society, and the role of business in the
alleviation of poverty. The part of business highlighted in the later part of this essay is small
scale business, with little emphasis on stakeholder theory.

Introduction
Business is an indispensable part of the society. It is a concept that transcends and operates in all
kinds of areas. Most times, the essence of doing business is to satisfy individual wants by
providing variety of goods and services through wide networking of business activities (Aremu,
2015). Needle & Burns (2019) suggest that these activities which include innovation, operations,
marketing, human resource management, finance and accounting, often take place in a set of
contexts. The understanding of these contexts help to demystify the complex nature of business
and aid its applicability in salvaging many prevalent social issues.
The social issues, according to Gilligan (2007) are problems related to human
relationships. They seriously threaten society itself or impede the important aspirations of many
people. They are multifarious and pose serious threat and danger on humanity. Some of the
popular social issues are poverty, unemployment, unequal opportunity, racism, and malnutrition
(Glicken, 2010); so are substandard housing, employment discrimination, and child abuse and
neglect. Among all of these, poverty stands out as a menace to human existence. Within the last
ten years, poverty has led to an unprecedented rise in infant mortality, mental health, problems,
and stalling life expectancy, especially for women in the poorest areas and cities (Whitehead,
Taylor-Robinson & Barr, 2021).
While describing poverty, Mustafakulov et al. (2020) note that poverty is a socio-
economic phenomenon which is interpreted as the consequence of inequality in the use of
material and intangible benefits and distribution of income in the process of economic
development. It is intertwined with malnutrition, diseases and death. To salvage the perils of
poverty, some activities, initiatives and programmes such as the UN millennium development
goals have been adopted and launched. In all of these, it is believed that there is a place for
business being a veritable tool for human survival. Thus, this article expounds how business can
be done to reduce or completely salvage poverty, especially in the under-developed or
developing countries.

Why Poverty?

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Poverty and natural hazards are somewhat entwined; the former often informs the latter. That is
why poverty is still currently considered as the worst social issue (Hallegate, Vogt-Schllb,
Rozenberg, Bangalore & Beaudet, 2020). Its consequences and effects on people and the society
are always acute, especially in the underdeveloped and the developing countries (Mustafakulov
et al., 2020). Siddiqui, Salam, Lassi and Das (2020) believe that the conceptualization of poverty
should not and cannot be limited to average income and wealth only but should include various
other deficiencies that are often experienced by people living in poverty.
Poor people, as it were, are more often exposed to natural hazards because they often
have to settle in risky areas, for some reasons (Hallegate, et al., 2020). First, being at risk areas
may be more attractive when they offer economic opportunities, public services or direct
amenities, and higher productivity and incomes (Hallegatte 2012). Second, poor people benefit
less from protection against hazards, mainly because of the lack of infrastructure to protect them
(Hallegate, et al., 2020). By and large, poverty challenges the health, well-being and scientific
potential of the nation. No wonder the scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019
year were also rewarded for their research on the reduction of poverty in the world
(Mustafakulov et al., 2020).

The Role of Business in Poverty

As earlier noted, business plays a vital role in our lives by creating goods and services to satisfy
our needs and wants and by recruiting households as labor and providing them with
compensation, such as wages, salaries, and benefits (Nasrudin, 2023). Thus, it becomes a source
of their income, which can be used to sustain their life. The role of business in life sustainability
has continued to generate attention more so after poverty proves to be the most pervasive and
complex of all social issues (Ipogah, 2022). This is so because poverty affects billions of people
around the world, and can have adverse consequences for individuals, communities, and
economies.
Thus, having been considered as the best alleviator of poverty, various businesses, both
public and private, have continually engendered a series of programmes and strategies which can
further help to reduce extreme poverty globally from 9.2% to 0, if possible, purposely for
development opportunities (Welford, 2013). In her article on www.adecesg.com, Carchman
(2017) believes that businesses can have a positive impact on communities and alleviate poverty
by rendering supports for local community development, investing in expertise and capacity
building, investing in women, addressing water scarcity and unsafe sanitation, creating
innovative social enterprises and inclusive supplying chains that have a track record of success
(Welford, 2013).

What Can and Should Be Done about Poverty through Business?

Over the last one decade, there have been some strategic activities and alleviation programmes
targeted at completely removing poverty and giving it a new definition or description. This is
consequent upon the fact that poverty has deleterious impacts on human well-being (Ayoo,

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2022). Some of the strategies, though targeted at Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia because of
the widespread of extreme poverty in those regions (Kolawole, 2021), include stimulating
inclusive economic growth, economic and institutional reforms, promoting microfinance
institutions and programmes, improving the marketing systems, and cash-income transfer
programmes (Ayoo, 2022). Also, some of the interventions and activities carried out especially
in Africa include the establishment of the National Accelerated Food Production Project
(NAFPP), Green Revolution, Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), National Directorate
of Employment (NDE), People‘s Bank, Community Bank and Small-Scale Industries Credit
Scheme, the Family Support Programme (FSP), Presidential Initiatives on Cocoa, Cassava, Rice,
Livestock, Fisheries and Vegetables, the National Land Agricultural Development Agency
(NALDA), Directorate of Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), Family Advancement
Economic Programme (FEAP), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), National
Economic Empowerment and Development Scheme (NEEDS) and its counterparts at the State
and Local Government levels (Kolawole, 2021).
All of these activities, interventions and strategies have greatly helped to reduce globally
the number of people living with poverty to 9.2% of the world population ( World Poverty
Statistics, 2023). Though all of these alleviation programmes seem exhaustive, there is still more
to be done through business which already entrenches itself in the programmes, giving them
purpose, focus and directions. Small scale business should be more promoted in the highlighted
areas and regions where poverty hitherto holds sway. This could be carried out in line with the
results of the PESTLE analysis first conducted in the selected regions. For instance, the current
political situation, prevalent economic factors, the people’s cultures, current legislations on
businesses, and environmental concerns for the industry must be duly checked and analysed
before small scale business could be launched.
Since poverty parameters include food, shelter and healthy living, small scale business
can help cater for such if it is properly done or carried. This is where the importance of business
orientation, training, constant monitoring and inclusive business models – which include people
with low incomes on the demand side as clients and consumers, and on the supply side as
employees, producers and entrepreneurs at various points in the value chain – can be brought to
the fore and emphasised. For instance, if people with extreme poverty are to be helped with small
scale business without the intention of making money “at all cost” (as assumed in the
Shareholder Theory), they need to be properly trained and monitored, apart from the flexible
credit facilities (with low or no interests) and financial aid provided for them. Largely, directly or
indirectly, the business will do right by all its stakeholders – anyone that is affected by the
activities or workings of the business in any way – and that in doing so, the business will be able
to achieve true lasting success (total eradication of poverty).
Small scale business comes in different categories. They include ancillary small industrial
unit, small scale industries owned by women, export oriented units, cottage industries, village
industries, tiny industrial units, micro business enterprises, and small scale service and business.
But the ideal ones for people living with extreme poverty in the Sub-Saharan Africa and South
Asia are cottage industries, village industries, and small scale industries owned by women.

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Cottage industries use family labour and local talent, simple instrument and indigenous
technology, and produce simple products; village industries perform any service with or without
the utilization of power; and small scale industries owned by women often opt for special grants
from the government, with low-interest rates on loans.

Conclusion
Business is life. Much may not be achieved without business. That is why it is often described as
the livewire of the society. That means without business, the society may collapse due to myriad
of social issues waylaying countries and devastating continents. The worst of all these issues is
poverty, but it can be surmounted with proper allocation and management of resources in
businesses.

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