Inclusive Capitalism in the Global South

Development of the Global South has been a central topic of academic discussion for the last couple of decades now. There have been numerous initiatives to address and fight poverty and its multifaceted dimensions such as disease, lack of education, digital and social inclusion that the majority of the people living in the less developed countries face. In spite of all these attempts, one tenth of the world population still lives below the poverty line in extreme poverty. Hence, the fight for equal development continues and in the age of new technologies, digitization and constant information flow, the need for a currently adequate approach to poverty and development is highly urgent. New business models based on the utilization of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) are increasingly starting to emerge and apply the benefits from the current Internet and mobile technologies to executing social good in the Global South. The goal of this Master’s thesis is to explore the nature of these new business models for social change that are based on utilization of new technologies. The arguments will be built around the analysis of four case studies – NextDrop, Ushahidi, Kiva.org and Internet.org. These four models share a common mission to contribute to the development and poverty alleviation in the Global South, while in the same time pursue their business interests. All four of them fall under the umbrella of inclusive capitalism as they aim to combine their social mission with making a profit or being financially sustainable. By analyzing qualitatively the content from media, academic and the initiative’s own coverage, the research aims to draw conclusions about the extent to which such models are actually beneficial and empower the poor. The results have shown that just like the coexistence between profit-making and the social mission to help the poor, the consequences of these models on the poor are also binary. Traces of both empowerment and exploitation of the poor have been found, but it could be concluded that the empowering nature of the initiatives is stronger and of bigger significance for the overall development of the Global South. The conclusion reached is that the existence and the constant improvement of such models of development outweighs their negative implications.