"Making sustainable development a good business" has been the motif that runs continuously through this newsletter ever since it was launched more than twelve years ago. Indeed, it is the basis of the entire work of the Development Alternatives Group.

This is not the philosophy of what one might call the mainstream, in any major sector of society. The policies and programmes of government rest on the premise that taking care of basic needs and environmental resources is not only the responsibility but the prerogative of the public sector, occasionally with a little help from non-governmental organizations. Civil society generally acts on the premise that the central thrust in development action has to be on voluntarism and charity. And, with rare exceptions, the private sector is generally not concerned with these issues in the first place. All seem to agree that the poor cannot take care of themselves and must be provided with massive supports from society.

Since such supports do not seem to be forthcoming, it is obvious that the poor will have to stay poor for a long time to come.

The "Independent Sector" or "Social Enterprise" approach advocated by Development Alternatives to speed up the sustainable development process needs a whole new way of thinking: that social objectives can be met, and in many spheres can be best met, through business-like approaches. That the lives of those who occupy the bottom half of the nation’s economic pyramid can only improve if they learn to stand on their own feet. And that technology based enterprises can help create the sustainable livelihoods that will be the platform on which these feet can rest.

Social enterprises also need structures for managing their people, organizational resources and finances that are different from those of conventional sectors. Attracting and retaining qualified staff without the security of a government job or maintaining high levels of motivation without corporate incentives needs a whole new type of management practice. Mobilising financial capital while adhering to social objectives requires totally new relationships between managers, financial shareholders and other stakeholders.

Existing legislation does not cater well for the particular needs of social enterprises. Today, apart from government agencies and political parties, it is possible to formalize and register organizations only as companies, societies, trusts, cooperatives and labour unions. Much of the legislation under which any of these entities can be set up is more than a hundred years old, designed for times when motivation for association could be simply stated: greed, need or common purpose. None of it is geared to the complexities of today’s organizational requirements where motivation can be mixed and sources of capital have to be diverse.

Under these circumstances, TARA – Technology and Action for Rural Advancement – was set up under the Societies Act (of 1860!) to have the heart and soul of a non-profit organisation but with the mind and body of a company. TARA itself, therefore has no shareholders and is managed by a governing Board whose responsibility it is to ensure that the organization stays true to its social mission and yet be financially viable.

Under the primary ownership of TARA, several corporate entities have been set up, registered as companies, to carry out specific tasks to help meet the overall mission of the Development Alternatives Group — creating sustainable livelihoods on a large scale.