Living Wages: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Oxfam’s Work
Living wage has been a key focus of Oxfam’s work on labour and human rights. We published a series of briefing papers that captured common challenges and promising solutions. Living wage has also been part of the scorecard indicators for Oxfam’s Behind the Brands and Behind the Barcodes campaigns. Importantly, we have worked with companies […]
The importance of ‘tri-partite’ partnerships between business, NGOs and government
In the middle of 2020, Fairtrade and Mondelēz International expanded their existing partnership to include the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), winning a one year grant from the Business Partnerships for Global Goals (BP4GG) programme[1]. The three partners collaborated to launch the Cadbury Farmer Resilience Fund, designed to accelerate and deepen existing work […]
Why Gender Inequality In Your Supply Chains Matters – And What You Can Do About It
Gender inequality in global supply chains is not a new issue for the private sector though the ongoing impact of Covid-19 has seen conditions worsen for workers, particularly women who are often found in the most insecure and lowest paid jobs. The most recent Oxfam Behind the Barcodes report, ‘Not In This Together – How supermarkets […]
How to enhance innovation and intrapreneurship in your organisation
Lorena Guillé-Laris is Executive Director of Fundación FEMSA and Global Fellow at the League of Intrapreneurs works to unlock the human innovation potential inside our most influential institutions to change the world for the better. In this session, Lorena explained why intrapreneurship is so critical for our current reality and she shared her advice with […]
Transitioning to net zero whilst economically empowering women in supply chains
The climate crisis is accelerating faster and is more severe than previously anticipated – to avoid the destructive consequences of a world warmed by more than 1.5°C, we must decarbonise the global economy to reach net zero by 2050. At the same time COVID -19 and measures to prevent its spread are driving a disproportionate […]
How to respond to gender inequality issues in global supply chains
Jiselle Steele is Private Sector Gender Advisor at Oxfam Business Advisory Service. Oxfam is an international organisation that works to end global poverty and help to build a world less divided by money, race, borders or gender. In this session, Jiselle explains what has been the impact of COVID-19 on inequality and gender gaps in […]
How to put intergenerational fairness into practice
Julie Jenson Bennett is Practice Lead for Intergenerational Fairness at the School of International Futures (SOIF), an institution that helps policy makers and business leaders to make their organisations future-ready. In this session, Julie explained why intergenerational fairness is important to business and how companies can put intergenerational fairness into practice. RESOURCES Intergenerational Fairness Observatory […]
4 Pillars for Rebuilding Better
Over half of young people think that humanity is doomed, according to a new climate change survey. Since I was born just over 50 years ago, global surface temperatures have risen faster than in any other 50-year period over the past 2,000 years. Clearly, my generation has a lot to answer for. At the same time, the pandemic […]
Family Planning is an Essential Healthcare Service and Businesses Must Make It a Priority
Around 218 million women in developing economies are unable to access effective family planning, with potentially devastating impacts on their health and wellbeing, as well as their opportunities for education and employment. This matters now, more than ever: during the COVID-10 pandemic women and girls are living with an increased risk of domestic violence, early […]
Driving social impact for women in the RMG industry in Bangladesh
The ready-made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh has been a catalytic engine of economic development and social impact for the last four decades. It contributes 83% share of the country’s total exports[1] and has been a consistent force behind an impressive GDP annual growth of over 6% since 2005[2]. It has also been a driver […]
Gender equality and a human centric approach to the COVID-19 pandemic: Is there a link and is the fashion industry doing enough?
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the world’s most loved fashion brands were quick to cancel or postpone their orders due to a shortfall in consumer demand. With high-street shoppers in lockdown, companies made dishonourable use of their force majeure contract clause to delay or avoid payments to suppliers; leaving the thousands […]
Responsibility in rum
A stormy history It’s widely believed that rum as we know it today, was first distilled on sugarcane plantations in the 17th century. The history of sugarcane and its by-products, including rum, is closely entwined with the slave trade. Enslaved people were made to grow and cut sugarcane in appalling conditions, work tirelessly to ferment, […]
World Population and Gender Equality in the Post-Covid Era
The pandemic has caused international upheaval in terms of development aid and gender equality. At a time when low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) need more support than ever before, it has been even more challenging to get the needed funding and assistance. Girls and women in LMICs have been the most impacted, facing challenges ranging […]
Community-based healthcare for COVID response: option or necessity?
When COVID-19 hit a population of 170 million in Bangladesh, the consequences undoubtedly seemed grim. As of 11 March 2021, there are almost 600,000 confirmed cases of infection and 8,489 deaths. Yet transmission control remains a challenge and cases remain underreported, mainly due to the following three factors: (i) Lack of awareness and COVID-19-compliant behaviour: Afzal, […]
Business Fights Poverty Fortnightly Round-Up
The last couple of months have been event-ful in the literal sense! At the end of May, we held our Build Better Summit on Partnerships, followed by our week-long Global Summit in June – thanks to sponsors you can now register to access the events’ digital learning materials. And just last week, we partnered with […]
Survivors of Domestic Violence Need More Than Sick Days; They Need Practical Tools to Break Free
The Problem: Today nearly one in three women and one in seven men experience violence inflicted by an intimate partner during their lifetime.[1] [2] Tragically, the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders have fostered a dramatic increase to these already shocking rates of domestic violence across the globe. A variety of factors such as the […]
An innovative use of a traditional technology: how can we ensure Farmer’s Voices are heard?
More than 80% of the world’s farms operate on less than two hectares of land[1] and the smallholder farmers who work on them are essential partners in international supply chains. Yet even before the COVID-19 pandemic, smallholders were facing increasing challenges from climate change, intensive cultivation and degraded land, invasive pests and disease, poor infrastructure, […]
Rethinking global primary healthcare worker education: the value of multi-directional learning
What does it mean to ‘build capacity’ of healthcare workers globally? We know that clinical expertise must be matched with knowledge and appreciation of context – politics, policy, economy, culture. As resources are redirected to economic recovery from COVID-19, most obviously demonstrated in the recent dramatic cuts to UK development assistance, there is now an […]
Collaborating beyond COVID-19: How Business Can Go Beyond the Bottom Line
In our current times, the balance between profit and purpose has never been more tested than during the current global health crisis which we presently face. As much as the pandemic has affected communities, cultures and countries across the world, it has impacted people on a personal level and shifted the perspective on international cooperation, […]
5 Principles for Powerful Partnerships: Where Profit meets Social Impact
Know your partner AND Your value proposition Secure buy-in at multiple levels: from front-line staff to the boardroom Unite your business & social goals Define roles and responsibilities Adapt to market shifts A catalytic collaboration here in Vietnam is stimulating business growth for women entrepreneurs by challenging misconceptions and improving access to finance, networks and […]