How Tech Investments Can Help Smallholders in India
Inequality in income and availability of work between rural and urban areas are large contributors to a country’s overall economic inequality. In India, agriculture still employs more than half of the workforce, but wages are low and with rising education levels many young people no longer aspire to take over the family smallholder farm. Instead, […]
Buy Leadership, Sell Poverty – How Finance Can Boost Value in Agricultural Supply Chains
Financial access and inclusion continue to be sold to farming communities in the world’s leading supply chains at the very price of poverty. How do we reduce this toxic trade-off, why is it taking so long and how does it impact the planet’s future? Tasneem Mayet, Business Fights Poverty Ambassador, shares insights from conversations had […]
The Coffee Price Crisis: How to Support More Sustainable Livelihoods for Farmers
The world is starting to wake up to the difficulties facing coffee farmers. As global prices hover near historic lows, the media has shared stories of coffee growers struggling to keep their farms afloat or abandoning their crops to seek other sources of income. Governments, international organizations, private companies, and nonprofits have made public calls […]
What Difference Can a Multinational Make? With the Right Management Practices in Place, a Lot.
In the latest Business Call to Action (BCtA) report, launched at the BCtA 9th Annual Forum, we examine how to overcome these organisational barriers, drawing from examples of successful companies who are already doing this, and offer steps that companies can take to adapt their management practices to become more inclusive business friendly. Business experts predict that […]
Businesses Share Employment Practices to Eradicate Poverty
Last Thursday was International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Whilst ending poverty is a motivating goal, it is not always clear how to work towards this lofty ambition through day-to-day business operations. In a new toolkit, Reducing Poverty through Employment, members of the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition (GISC) have collaborated to share their experience […]
5 Reflections on How International Donors Help Businesses Scale their Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals
The session was part of a wider Challenge supported by the UK’s Department for International Development. In this article, I summarise some of the key themes that came out during the conversation in New York. 1. The Urgent Need All participants recognized the significance of this moment – in which no country is currently on […]
How Can Business Accelerate Career Opportunity for Entry-Level Workers to Ensure the Future of Work is Strong and Inclusive?
During Business Fights Poverty New York, a select group of professionals from the business, academia and the international development community explored how companies are responding to disruptive trends affecting the Future of Work, such as automation, the rise of artificial intelligence, and new forms of independent employment and how companies are preparing their workforce for […]
How to Take Donor Partnerships with Business to the Next Level of Scale and Impact?
It is now generally acknowledged that the additional $2.5 trillion annual investment in developing countries needed to achieve the Global Goals cannot be delivered without the active engagement of the private sector. All sectors with a stake in the Global Goals, including governments, development organisations, business and civil society are therefore increasingly focused on unlocking […]
In Memoriam: Tribute to Paul Polak – Market-Based Development Pioneer 1933 – 2019
We were greatly saddened to hear the news of the death of Paul Polak, a pioneer of market-based development, on 10 October 2019. Paul’s mission was to inspire a revolution in how we tackle poverty – showing how market-based approaches to development can benefit the 2.7 billion customers who live on less than $2 a […]
How Can Companies and Investors Collaborate to Embed Purpose Authentically into Business?
“How can companies and investors collaborate to embed purpose authentically into business?” As part of our Challenge on Purpose supported by GSK, VISA and Unilever, Business Fights Poverty convened a meeting of around 30 representatives from companies, financial institutions, NGOs and development institutions to discuss this pertinent topic. The benefits of business purpose – for […]
How Can We Better Support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Large Company Value Chains Through an Ecosystems Approach?
Business Fights Poverty has been running a Challenge to find out how business can take an ecosystems approach to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in their extended value chains. To ensure MSMEs thrive, large companies, governments, donors and funders and NGOs need to move towards a holistic and joined-up approach to enterprise support. […]
How Can Technology be Utilised by Businesses to Tackle Modern Slavery in their Global Supply Chains?
Our New York Conference provided an opportunity to explore how strengthening companies’ two-way, real-time engagement with workers in their supply chains is improving worker well-being, and helping to address modern slavery. During the discussion, we uncovered emerging examples of technology assisting in this process, and asked what lessons we can learn from companies’ experiences to […]
A Conversation on The Future of Work at the 2019 Concordia Annual Summit
To mark the launch of a new Challenge supported by Walmart on the Future of Work, Enrique Ostalé, Regional CEO of UK, Latin America and Africa at Walmart International, and Zahid Torres-Rahman, Founder and CEO of Business Fights Poverty joined Brad Staples, CEO of APCO at Concordia’s 2019 Annual Summit, to speak about International Future […]
Watch the Videos: Business Fights Poverty NYC 2019
Timed to coincide with the UN General assembly Week, our annual event has become a popular, high-energy gathering that brings together a select group of senior professionals from business and the international development community. We recognise the power of bringing together the right people in a focused and action-oriented way. That is why our audience […]
How Can Business Address Gender Equality Challenges Through Business Aware Practices?
This year, the first SDG Gender Index, produced by Equal Measures 2030, found that 2.8bn women and girls are living in countries that are ‘failing’ or ‘barely passing’ on gender equality, and no country is on track to achieve full gender equality by 2030. Even the higher-scoring countries were unable to make significant progress on […]
The Most Important Job in the World
Teaching is the most important job in the world. The quality of any nation’s education cannot exceed the quality of its educators. Each teacher has the opportunity to shape and impact tens of thousands of young lives over the course of their career. It is not unusual to hear someone reflect on a favourite teacher […]
Advancing Gender Equality Across the Value Chain: Engaging Men as Allies
Following international movements such as UN Women’s #HeforShe campaign, there is growing awareness of the need to engage men as allies for gender equality. What is less clear is what this might mean in practice for businesses in their efforts to advance gender equality. Business Fights Poverty has launched a Challenge, supported by AB InBev […]
Time to Unstereotype? How Brands Are Reimagining Gender Norms Beyond the Screen
“These images are part of our past … but the world has evolved, and so has Skol. This doesn’t represent us anymore.” Now that’s something refreshing. Skol’s reimagined campaign employs female artists to tear down and reinterpret their typically sexist branding in a truly literal sense. We’ve seen for so long a familiar dialogue running […]
The Rise (and Rise) of the Gig Economy in Kenya – And How to Take It to the Next Level
Nzelu has not only found regular employment, he has also hired an assistant and invested in a motorcycle to help him to move from client to client more quickly. He is part of the gig economy, a set of online marketplaces for short-term and freelance jobs, which has mushroomed in the last decade – not […]
The Next Big Revolution: Off-Grid Solar Powering Mobile Phones
In 2011 I was in Uganda, in a village without power, near the border of Congo. There, I was surprised to see many locals with mobile phones, as there was no way they could charge them in the village at that time. There was mobile coverage though! Then I learned that they walked to the […]