Target 4.b: Scholarships for developing countries
By 2020, substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries
This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
Why shareholder democracy is independent
Scholarships for students from developing countries are provided by governments, universities, multilateral agencies and philanthropies. The indicator tracks official flows. Corporate-linked foundations fund some scholarships at scale. The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program has committed over 58,000 scholarships for young Africans. This is charitable giving rather than corporate conduct or political influence that shareholder voting can direct. The Global Partnership for Education describes business roles in education mainly as expertise, community reach and data support, not scholarship finance. We found no shareholder resolution or investor campaign on scholarship provision and no corporate lobbying obstacle. The target sits outside what owners can influence.
How this was scoredIndependent
Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
No shareholder advocacy found yet
We looked and found nothing that met our standard, which is a source we opened and confirmed. The entry names no organizations. Searches returned only scholarship listing sites, NGO grant-writing guides and the unrelated Indian Council for Cultural Relations scholarship scheme, which shares the ICCR acronym. Site-limited searching of the ICCR and As You Sow resolution trackers and Proxy Preview surfaced no proposal or investor engagement on scholarship provision for students from developing countries. Corporate-linked scholarship funding such as the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program is philanthropy by an independent foundation rather than company conduct that a shareholder vote directs, which is consistent with the Independent rating.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.