May 28, 2013 Leave a Comment
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Corporate Social Responsibility

Business Innovation Meets Social Transformation at the United Nations

Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the sponsors of the Social Innovation Summit (SIS) at the United Nations in New York City this week. The summit connects global leaders in the corporate, investment, government, and nonprofit sectors and helps them collaborate to multiply the positive impact they can make in the world. The agenda includes presentations and discussions on key strategies and best practices for creating social transformation.

Cisco’s approach to creating positive social change has long involved collaboration with our partners and peers. By combining the power of human and technology networks, Cisco multiplies impact and helps accomplish extraordinary things, even under the most difficult circumstances.

 

We work with nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, foundations, and other businesses to create and implement programs that produce results bigger than one person or organization could create on their own. We are looking forward to participating in SIS because it promotes cross-sector global collaboration to maximize social impact.

At the summit, Cisco is focusing specifically on sharing our understanding of the social impact of mobile technology. Charu Adesnik, who leads the economic empowerment investment portfolio for Cisco and the Cisco Foundation, is moderating a panel on Mobile Technology & Global Poverty: Impacting the Base of the Pyramid. The base of the pyramid refers to the largest, but poorest, socio-economic group in the world:  the approximately 4 billion people who live on less than US$2.50 per day. Cisco supports organizations that are developing new models of doing business designed to help this demographic use new technology.

Two of our leading nonprofit partners will also speak on the panel: Steve Wright, Vice President of Poverty Tools and Insights of the Grameen Foundation, and Heather Franzese, the Director of Good World Solutions, will highlight the ways in which mobile technology is used to improve economic development.

How you can engage in the Social Innovation Summit: