Business for development : a case study of the Noozon Zangilaa Cooperative Union in Mongolia

Masteroppgave i development management- Universitetet i Agder 2010According to Norad (2009:51) there is an increased focus on value creation and facilitation of private businesses within development, thanks to wider acceptance of the notion of profit as a driver for development. The UN Global Compact (2010:5) argues that business, as the world‘s main source of economic growth, is at the heart of virtually any widespread improvements in living standards, and that profits and development priorities have the potential to mutually benefit one another. The former by creating job and income opportunities and the latter by improving peoples quality of life. Fact is that business development has moved centre stage in the fight against poverty and, as the UNDP (2004:ii) phrases it, ―the objective of poverty alleviation leads us to focus on developing businesses that create domestic employment and wealth‖, to unleash the potential of the private sector and entrepreneurship, in order to make business work for development of the poor. This thesis explores how business has facilitated development in the case of the Nooson Zangilaa Cooperative Union (CU) in Mongolia. The CU is the result of the Wool Processing and Marketing Project (WPMP) that was implemented by the Norwegian Lutheran Mission (NLM) in Mongolia from 2005 – 2008. The study identifies contextual factors that have facilitated, as well as challenged, business development in the case of the CU, and makes a link between the concepts of business and development aid. Fieldwork for this thesis was carried out in the Ulaanbaatar and Darhan districts in Mongolia in June 2010, where a qualitative research methodology, based on semi-structured interviews, a focus group discussion and data analysis was deployed