Congressional Briefing for Benefit Corporation for Africa Initiative 2017 | ExL Events, Inc. | 15 September 2017 | Rayburn HOB, Room S 215, Capitol Hill, 45 Independence Ave, Washington DC, DC 20515, United States

CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING FOR BENEFIT CORPORATION FOR AFRICA INITIATIVE
leveraging the power of social Business to impact development & grow US-Africa Trade

In 2010, Maryland was first in the Nation to pass a legislation titled Benefit Corporations (B-Corp), to create a new class of corporation that is explicitly formed to create a material, positive impact on society and the environment. To date, more than 31 states, including New York and California, have enacted similar legislation.

BCAI aims to establish a social infrastructure to support the growth of the Benefit Corporation throughout the United States. The briefing will be discussed – the positive economic impacts that benefit corporations bring to their communities, and the development of the dynamic social business model, Virtuous Exchange (VE), that is better than fair trade. It will also bring focus to the massive untapped human and financial resources in the U.S.-Africa immigrant diaspora that may be utilized to positively impact social and economic development in the U.S. and Africa.

One such example of the use of VE is the creation of an investment and profit sharing partnership between Blessed Coffee, founded by panelist Tebabu Assefa and his wife Sara Mussie, and over 300,000 coffee farmers in Ethiopia representing over 1.5 million families organized by a coffee farmers’ cooperative union to drive economic and social development and environmental stewardship in the region.

The US-ADBC was established in 2014 to inspire, inform and empower the African Diaspora communities to utilize the Benefit Corporation for Africa Initiative and leverage the power of social business to impact social and economic development in Africa and redefine and grow the US-Africa Trade.