Seminar Video: What is Driving the Purpose Debate?
Ben Kellard Director of Business Strategy at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Ben leads CISL’s business strategy advisory work. He has a passion for shaping organisational purpose and strategies that unlock people’s desire to improve their own and others wellbeing, while sustaining the environmental systems the organisation relies upon. Doing so prepares organisations […]
Rebuild Better. Rebuild Now
Hand in Hand, an NGO specialising in women’s economic empowerment, recently polled 800 our members in Kenya to find out how Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown measures were impacting their businesses. The results, if not entirely surprising, still managed to shock. Incomes had dropped by an average of 67 percent. Savings were down 69 percent and on course […]
How companies can take action to address white privilege
Like many, I have been reflecting on the injustice of racism since the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests and considering how my own actions might be perpetuating the interests of dominant white power structures within business. Over the last year the majority of my time was spent producing two Business […]
Three ways sustainable supply chains can help build better business in a COVID-19 world
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world in profound and unexpected ways. More than six million people have fallen ill from the virus and nearly four hundred thousand have died from it. The livelihoods of millions of farmers and workers have suffered, normal business has been disrupted, and the impacts continue to rise as the virus shifts to new regions. The jury is still out on how severe and lasting the economic damage will be, or whether the pandemic will spur urgently needed action on climate change, rising inequality and sustainable development. One thing we […]
What smallholder cotton farmers need to build financial and agricultural resilience
During my journey of working with smallholder farmers I have observed that farmers in South Asia face many challenges related to climate change, increased cost of production, lack of awareness of sustainable agriculture practices, and marketing of crops. The COVID-19 pandemic has added new challenges to farmers’ lives. As an organisation, we have kept in […]
Indigenous Perspectives on Poverty Eradication, Corporate Engagement and the SDGS
Indigenous Peoples play an essential role in land management, clean water and in maintaining the diversity of global food systems. Even though they make up less than 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous Peoples manage more than 28% of the globe’s land surface. They continue to use traditional methods that have evolved over centuries that […]
Can We Leapfrog Once Again With Smart Solutions and Cross-Sector Partnerships?
The COVID-19 pandemic is imposing itself as the greatest crisis since the Great Depression. It is affecting – and revealing structural socio-economic weaknesses in – all regions of the world. Responding to COVID-19 is not only a question of preparedness, it is fundamentally a question of peace and security, and of political and financial decisions […]
Collaborations and Partnerships – The Way Forward for Building an Equitable and Resilient Future
In the current challenging times of Covid-19 pandemic, which has severely impacted millions of lives and livelihoods worldwide, the role of collaborations and partnerships in binding the nations together for international solidarity, has become much more critical, than ever before. A clarion call for global community is evident from the prevailing catastrophe, that clearly highlights […]
Which supermarkets are doing the most to protect the rights of food workers?
As the Coronavirus pandemic drives home the importance of the frontline workers producing and supplying our food, Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign to improve the conditions of people in supermarket supply chains is more relevant than ever. And yet, the 2020 Supermarket Scorecard highlights that no supermarket is doing enough to combat human suffering in […]
To find out what ‘better’ looks like we must listen to those most affected
Plan International UK is responding to the global coronavirus crisis in over 50 countries; from delivering hygiene kits and life-saving public health information to vulnerable families and communities around the world, to ensuring children can continue their education when schools are closed. While the coronavirus crisis is having a devastating impact right across the world, […]
Financing impact start-ups: two solutions, two challenges
Way back at the dawn of the Internet age, a shiny new thing transformed start-up finance. Until then, entrepreneurs relied on friends, neighbours and family for loans, ideas, market research, help with a variety of tasks and first customers. Now you can do all these things by talking directly to 4.6 billion people who are […]
COVID-19: A Proposal for a Better World and an Opportunity Not to Be Wasted
The COVID-19 pandemic has given us a new purpose. We now have a rare opportunity to affect positive change. Beyond dialogue for creating awareness, it’s time to develop and implement tools that empower us to take committed action and credibly measure our progress toward affecting long-overdue transformations. The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a stark reminder […]
Going beyond the poverty line
Ensuring resilient livelihoods and sustained employment for vulnerable communities was already a stretch pre-Covid-19. For those communities lacking a stable income, the impact has been inconceivable. With border closures and travel restrictions, the downturn in trade has massively affected the income and employment of these vulnerable communities, especially the self-employed. Currently, more than 475 million […]
Digital innovation to support African SMEs
COVID-19 may significantly hinder economic and social development across Africa. If the continent is to recover, then micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs will be the engine of growth. Local businesses will provide livelihoods for millions of people and goods and services to a growing consumer base. At the heart of this business-led recovery will be digital technology; […]
Bold choices required to move from crisis response to future pandemic preparedness
At the recent UN Global Compact Leaders’ Summit, leading voices from business, government and the UN discussed how to “recover better, recover stronger, and recover together.” Part of that recovery must be to invest more in pandemic preparedness and disease prevention. With more than 400,000 deaths worldwide, in less than 6 months, COVID-19 has given […]
Join Us for Business Fights Poverty Online 2020: Rebuild Better
COVID-19 has had, and continues to have, devastating impacts on the lives, livelihoods and learning of millions of people, particularly the most vulnerable. While efforts have rightly focused on mitigating the immediate impacts, we need to start thinking about efforts to recover and rebuild, because action taken now will have long-lasting effects on people’s well-being […]
The Business Fights Poverty Magazine: Issue 5
The Business Fights Poverty Fortnightly Round-Up
The team is a hive of activity this week, in preparation for Business Fights Poverty Online 2020: Rebuild Better. Taking place 13th – 17th July, it will be a week of inspiring and engaging content, live events, peer networking and structured learning to explore how we can “Rebuild Better”. Of course, this year we are […]
Developing Skills and Quality Jobs for Young People
The creation of jobs for young people may now be an even greater challenge than before the pandemic hit, with competition for positions being all the more fierce once economic activity resumes. In light of the enormous shock that COVID-19 has had on our economic system, how can we think differently about what is required […]
Why some companies leapt to support the COVID-19 response
Many companies acted to assist the public response to the pandemic. Companies that already had established relationships with community organizations, governments, business partners, or others, leveraged those connections to channel resources. High risk and poor coordination impeded many companies’ early response. The first phase of the COVID-19 crisis posed an unprecedented challenge for the private […]