Pangea is an opportunity to open the doors to the neighboring community, allowing them to learn more about IFC and World Bank Group, and what the institutions do to foster sustainable private sector development that benefit the poor.Up until now, IFC has not had a good medium to tell the stories of its role, clients and partners; Pangea will provide such a space.
Pangea is also an opportunity to provide many of the IFC affiliated grassroots enterprises with a first taste of what it means to be a supplier in the market. By also engaging these enterprises, as well as the non-IFC related suppliers, in the Sustainable Trade Program, Pangea – in collaboration with IFC – will help build local capacity in product development, marketing, business management, as well as good social and environmental practices. Part of the mission of the Sustainable Trade Program is also to contribute to the field of corporate social responsibility, ethical business, and environmental and social performance. IFC and Pangea will be able to contribute to this field, based on practical hands-on experience.
Finally, Pangea is a great vehicle for establishing new partnerships-around events, themes, merchandising, and operational cooperation. Good partners/events should improve IFC's outreach, public image and standing in the development and local communities.

Pangea is a partnership between an independent commercial operator and an educational and outreach program managed by IFC.
Sustainable business means letting the operators run the business commercially; this is indeed part of the storytelling. Only thus can producers establish durable access to markets, and can Pangea provide producers with valuable market feedback.
The inventory will rotate periodically, to reflect seasonality, and also which products sell -- a good discipline for the suppliers, also creating space for a steady supply of new suppliers.
So far, the operators are approaching the business with the energy and rigor of a commercial operation, providing useful input for our capacity-building work with the suppliers.

We have applied the WB procurement process to choose the commercial operator (as well as the construction contractors).
The operator is energetic, commercially minded and is good about accommodating IFC/ WBG interaction, while keeping its commercial orientation.
The Operator is also willing to recognize their own gaps, and have brought in experienced help to address any such gaps.
The Operator's experience is in the food service business, where they have done a good job. For Pangea, they have teamed up with experienced crafts partners, and brought in experienced consulting on merchandising, design and product selection. IFC General Manufacturing Dept. reviewed the operator’s plans, and found them sensible and the operator adequate.

Most producers in the facility are highly ethical, but still we are ensuring they are compliant with accepted good practice in ethical areas.
We have developed "ethical and sustainable" trading policies, in consultation with WBG experts and outside partners.All products in the shop will be required to use good practice regarding social matters, worker treatment, and environmental procedures.
We are applying standards/practices which ensure good ethics in individual producers on sale in Pangea, and which will more generally contribute to the field. These practices are being built into our capacity-building work, as is verification to ensure compliance, and some support to follow through on any needed improvements.
On March 15th, we're hosting a meeting with civil society organizations, to review Pangea’s “ethical and sustainable” policies, and also to explore areas for cooperation.

The Educational and Outreach Program will consist of the following components: 1) interactive multimedia kiosks placed throughout the retail space allowing visitors to learn about the grassroots enterprises behind the products, as well as IFC and its partners’ work to promote micro-, small and medium enterprise development 2) story tags attached to each product telling the story of the artisan behind it 3)a program of thematic events which is substantive, tasteful and engaging.
The Thematic Events during the first months include "Womens' Economic Empowerment", and country/ region-focused event (e.g. West Africa, Bolivia, Indonesia). Modalities include lunchtime discussions, special speakers, and evening events co-sponsored with external stakeholders with expertise in the subject matter in focus.

As in other activities run by IFC’s Grassroots Business Department, we are putting considerable effort into monitoring Pangea's results and impacts.
A Pangea scorecard has been developed to lay out objectives, and measure results against them.
Tracking will include outreach, building the capacity of the suppliers, and also the financial results of the shop. Longer term benefits to be measured include improvement of WBG PR and standing, and building interest/awareness/relationships relating to the base-of-the-pyramid work being done by IFC/WBG.