The sobering reality of the UN’s Global Goals
The sobering reality of the UN’s Global Goals Remember the Sustainable Development Goals? It’s not a facetious question. Amid all the other corporate sustainability priorities of the past few years — net zero, ESG, the circular economy, social justice, resource constraints and all the rest — not to mention a seemingly never-ending drumbeat of political upheaval, […]
Turbo-charging D2C sales for an impact sanitation product
Our client: SATO by LIXIL, creating sustainable, affordable hygiene solutions LIXIL designed its SATO product range to improve sanitation and hygiene access for communities without access to sewer systems, via affordable and easy-to-install systems. SATO has impacted over 25 million lives to date, shipping over 5.1 million units across 38 countries. The blue SATO pan, […]
Levelling the playing field – Developing market systems that support regenerative agriculture
Market systems have driven the development of an industrial agricultural system that has excessively low unit costs, at the expense of environment and people. For transformation to happen, we need market systems to drive agriculture that is regenerative. How does regenerative agriculture differ to ‘conventional’ agriculture’? Regenerative agriculture aims to optimise production whilst looking after […]
Supporting Waitrose Workers in Kenya Through the Pandemic
Farm Africa has been partnering with the Waitrose & Partners Foundation in Kenya since 2017 and supports the delivery of projects with 12,000 workers across seven vegetable and flower farms in the Waitrose supply chain. Projects are funded by sales of Foundation produce and supplier farms in the UK and it is the workers themselves […]
How important is protecting the environment to you?
Most of you would probably answer that environmental protection is very important. Now, consider the following question: What actions do you take for protecting the environment? Discussions on how to address climate change often present disparate views. On the one hand, some argue that actions at the individual level – such as reducing the use […]
Six ways social entrepreneurs can step up to help refugees
Half of refugees in the UK struggle to get employed. What can those of us working in the social impact space do to help them find meaningful work? In the recent WISE Ways to Lead webinar, hosted in partnership with NatWest, we heard from social enterprises working with refugees to answer just that. Read on […]
5,000 miles of connection – why the war in Ukraine is causing starvation in the Horn of Africa
The last two years have reminded us how connected the world is and how our lives and livelihoods depend on one another. Disruptions in supply chains during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and now the war in Ukraine continues to demonstrate that what happens in one part of the world can have severe consequences […]
Supporting refugees through financial inclusion
On Monday, World Refugee Day marked the start of Refugee Week (20-26th June) – a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. That sense of creativity and resilience has been embodied by thousands of people living in Zambia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, who have benefitted from a joint […]
NaTakallam – where language learning meets social impact for refugees
Today, there are over 100 million forcibly displaced people in the world. They face not only the loss of assets and livelihood but also of their agency. Mobilizing displaced individuals to regain their agency and earn an income is at the heart of NaTakallam’s mission. However, xenophobia is becoming more widespread – given a microphone […]
New research finds solutions to farmer resilience amid global crises
This year’s Business Fights Poverty Global Summit is warning of the tsunami of poverty created by COVID-19, climate change and conflict that our community is striving to resist. For the people working in global supply chains, in agriculture, fashion, extractive industries in low-income countries, and who often experience entrenched social inequality, crisis is all too […]
Making community and collaboration the route to climate justice
Eight of the ten most severe global risks identified over the next ten years are related to environmental and societal risks, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022. Of these, the five environmental related risks are climate action failure, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, environmental damage and natural resource crises (which include […]
Boosting young Kenyan farmers’ incomes through climate-smart agriculture
A six-year partnership between Farm Africa and the supermarket Aldi UK has enabled hundreds of young farmers in western Kenya to develop thriving horticulture businesses and build their resilience to climate change. The Growing Futures project was first launched in 2016, when Aldi UK teamed up with Farm Africa to launch a three-year initiative enabling young farmers in the northern Rift […]
Combating rural poverty through Inclusive Business
Maize is the staple crop for 1.6 million smallholder farmers in Zambia. It is their main food, their source of cash – and their nemesis. Growing maize in monoculture, lacking access to inputs, and relying on traders to reach markets, most smallholder farmers stay desperately poor. According to the World Bank, more than three out […]
Honduran coffee farmers hope for a brighter future
Anyone working in coffee will know that Honduras is an important origin. Honduran coffee has been a good news story, it is an important export, and it is well regarded worldwide for its flavoursome speciality beans, but it is under threat from climate change. According to the World Bank, Honduras remains one of the poorest […]
The Global Impact of War in Ukraine
For several months we have witnessed horrifying scenes from Ukraine, playing out daily in news and social media. From entire communities shelled to rubble in Mariupol, to millions of refugees searching for safety, the stories are shocking and stirring. Businesses responded by providing unprecedented support to people fleeing the country. Yet, the war is impacting […]
Driving Social Entrepreneurship and Nature Conservation in Mexico
The Copalita-Zimatán-Huatulco watershed in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico is home to one third of the country’s biodiversity and equally rich in culture. Zapotec indigenous communities have lived in the upper and middle parts of the watershed for centuries, since pre-Hispanic times. As in many rural areas, women in the Copalita watershed play a key […]
Are you integrating your brand purpose into tangible strategic action?
Your marketing team has, no doubt, done a stellar job of defining your brand purpose. It’s embodied in a bold, well thought out purpose statement, which illuminates the real societal need you’re going to address. It’s woven into your organisation’s marketing and CSR strategies, too. Now, however, is when the hard part starts. How do […]
Nudges & Bridges: The Sporting Life – How Sports Bring us Together
These early podcasts will focus mostly on sports as the cultural artifact that can bring people together. Simply put, sports are popular and a lot of people around the world follow sports and often participate in them. When I ask my students of how they have been able to find common ground with others with […]
NEW REPORT – The Case for Living Wages
Work is often lauded as the most important route out of poverty. There is little doubt that work can and even should provide a way out, but for hundreds of millions of people, this is simply not the case. In the lower-income countries that make the biggest contributions to global supply chains, large numbers of […]
COP15: Businesses Commit to Helping Grow a World Wonder
Business Fights Poverty joined with the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire this week to launch the Great Green Wall (GGW) Sourcing Challenge. The Challenge aims to bring together companies and other partners to help unlock the potential of the Sahel, the semi-arid region stretching across Africa just south of […]