Supporting the Economic Empowerment of Women in Coffee
To Support the Economic Empowerment of Women in Coffee, We Must Make Their Work Visible. “We didn’t understand that we could do it, that we [as women] could go out into our communities and be ourselves,” says Nay Aponte, a coffee grower in Peru’s Monzón Valley. She worked hard on the family coffee farm, but […]
How Can Businesses Tackle the Digital Divide to Drive Social Mobility?
Limited internet users are five times more likely than extensive users to be from a low-income household, according to 2023 data from Good Things Foundation. However, having the means to engage effectively online is key in improving education and employment opportunities for those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Social mobility in the UK, which refers to […]
3 Proven Strategies that Create Impact for Women Entrepreneurs
Women entrepreneurs represent a trillion-dollar economic growth opportunity with benefits that ripple through households and communities – this should be enough to inspire action, but sadly it’s not. And despite the proliferation of gender equality strategies, gender-focused financial inclusion policies, entrepreneurship support programs, and extensive evidence that women are worth investing in, we’re still only […]
FemTech and the Gender Health Gap
Healthcare serves women less well than men. Women live more of their life in poor health than men and they are also more likely to report a negative experience of accessing healthcare. FemTech and the Gender Health Gap FemTech also aptly illustrates the way in which healthcare more broadly will evolve, as health, tech and […]
The Global Pursuit of Equity: A New Stanford Social Innovation Review Article Series
Social and environmental inequities exist in every pocket of the world, without exception. They often form across familiar lines, including race, gender, or physical ability, and manifest in familiar ways, including greater or less access to education, employment, technology, security, and a healthy environment. However, the severity, entrenchment, and complexity of these inequities are unique […]
Integrating Gender Equality into Sustainability Standards: A Strategic Approach
Tackling gender inequalities in supply chains through sustainability systems The world won’t meet its sustainability goals without addressing gender issues – and sustainability standards and similar systems have an important role to play by setting gender responsive standards. The world won’t meet its sustainability goals without addressing gender issues – and sustainability standards and similar […]
Redefining Women’s Leadership in the Garment Industry
RISE: A Reflection on Women’s Advancement Beyond Supervisory Roles in the Garment Industry Key Points Women workers are underrepresented in leadership roles within factories in the Ready-made-Garment (RGM) supply chains Existing activities focused on workers’ and supervisors’ capacity building to promote women to supervisory roles don’t fully match the expectations of workers or address their […]
Investing in Women Entrepreneurs: Nepali Childcare Center Gives Mothers More time
Two-year-old Hanvi Rana giggles as she pushes herself forward on a plastic motorcycle, weaving between the other toys scattered across the playroom. As one of 15 small children dropped off at this Nepali childcare center, the cheerful toddler is developing important cognition and social skills as she busies herself with playthings and educational games. Just […]
Mainstreaming Gender to Power Sustainable Business Growth
Gender equality is one of the essential pieces of the global prosperity puzzle. Women represent almost half of the global population and thus, also possess half of its potential. Yet inequalities faced by women are so deeply rooted and persistent, that we are lagging behind in our progress towards the gender equality targets set out […]
New Research Sheds Light on the Digital Gender Gap
Digital inclusion is crucial for economic justice, but women lack connectivity The complex issue of women’s economic justice is often reduced to conversations on equal pay or boardroom representation. As a woman leader, I of course see the value in these topics. However, the intersections of patriarchal structures, systemic inequalities, sexist attitudes, and access to […]
Delivering Healthier Futures for Women, Children and Young People
The Future Imagine for a moment a world in which every woman, child and young person enjoyed their right to the highest attainable standard of health, regardless of where in the world they lived. Pregnant women in the poorest communities are cared for by qualified midwives and healthcare professionals, with access via digital apps to […]
Safer Workplaces – How Companies Can Support Survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse
A few years ago, companies wouldn’t want to talk about domestic violence and abuse. What’s changed, andwhy are companies increasingly looking at this issue? It’s broadly three things. First, companies have more awareness of the workplace impacts of domestic violence and abuse, which increased dramatically during COVID-19. We know that as many as 90% of […]
Stop Talking and Start Listening: Women Respond in Crisis
There are few certainties in life, but one I have come to recognize, is that women in crisis will always take incredible action – whether there is outside intervention or not. As we release the latest findings of our Women Respond survey – a major listening exercise with thousands of women in our Village Savings […]
Can Training Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace?
It’s rarely big news when companies make commitments to greater diversity and a higher representation of women in leadership teams. They do so for various reasons. Some believe diversity and inclusion (D&I) is a corporate performance driver and boosts financial performance, allows companies to choose from a wider swath of talent to solve problems and […]
Business Fights Poverty Global Equity Summit 2024
Bridging Kenya’s Gender Digital Divide
How M-KOPA’s “Kuza Chama” Initiative Helps Bridge Kenya’s Gender Digital Divide Monicah Mutio Mangi, an entrepreneur with a small convenience shop and a mother of one, is finally the proud owner of an M-KOPA smartphone. “I had a phone before, but it had some problems,” Monicah shared. “I was arranging my [finances] to buy another […]
Why Empowering Women is Smart Economics
A 34-year-old mother of five, Mestawet lives in the town of Wendo Genet, in Ethiopia’s forested highlands. She had long earned a small income for her family by handwashing other people’s clothes. But her life changed for the better when she became a sales agent for Kidame Mart – a social enterprise that empowers female […]
Evidence-Based Decision Making: Programs for Women-Owned Small Businesses
Despite its value, evidence-based decision-making may often be overlooked due to its complexity. It requires a lot of thoughtful consideration. For instance, to use evidence effectively, we need to understand the impact of research designs on the quality of the results, recognize potential biases that may lead to over-reliance on a single perspective, and learn […]
Supply Chain Decarbonisation with a Gender Lens
The urgency of the climate crisis means that a growing number of companies are investing resources to better understand and reduce emissions across their supply chains, including indirect or Scope 3 emissions. Frameworks – such as the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard – have been developed to help support this process; however, […]
Business Fights Poverty Climate Justice Summit 2023, Online and In Person
