The Journey of Total to Inclusive Energy Solutions
Over the last decade, many multinational corporations (MNCs) have attempted to set up inclusive businesses of one kind or another, with varying success. Despite good intentions and the investment of significant resources, few of these pilots have been successful and an even smaller proportion has reached significant scale. Conversations with the intrapreneurs who have been […]
Business Fights Poverty Oxford 2019 Women’s Equality Zone Workshop: Preparing for possible new ILO regulation
CARE International UK are delighted to support the Business Fights Poverty Challenge on business and GBV and to host the Women’s Equality zone at the Business Fights Poverty Oxford conference on 11 July 2019. By the time this event takes place, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are likely to have adopted a new international labour […]
Time For A Fresh Look At Inclusive Business
I remember the excitement in the early noughties when I first started hearing about big businesses such as Unilever, SAB Miller and Vodafone grasping the opportunity to reach huge numbers of people previously excluded from their supply chains. It seemed to be such a great win-win. Large companies – and multinationals (MNCs) in particular – […]
Supporting Business Solutions To Poverty
Over the past few decades, much progress has been made on a range of development challenges – including poverty reduction, preventable disease and access to education. Yet much remains to be done and the urgency of dealing with intractable, global problems that put these gains at risk has increased. With so much at stake, the […]
Embracing Corporate Responsibility — For Social and Business Impact
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is necessary vocabulary in today’s corporate lexicon. But what CSR really means within the walls of everyday corporate life remains subjective. As we shift toward more conscientious lifestyles, businesses are searching for a true understanding of the customer, partner, supply chain, and employee interpretation of purpose. Companies are exploring how purpose […]
Business Briefing on Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
There is growing evidence that business leaders and managers understand that the unequal and heavy share of unpaid care and domestic work done by women and girls is an issue which matters for the effective (ongoing) operations of their firms. Some companies have already taken practical steps to address the issue by supporting employees along […]
Doing Nothing is Not an Option
Kristin Komives, ISEAL’s Impacts Director spoke to Arjen, the opening key note at this year’s Global Sustainability Standards symposium, to hear his opinion on what’s needed to have a real positive impact. Companies, and the sustainability standards and NGOs that work with them, need to always be thinking about how they can make a positive […]
How Can Businesses Foster an Enabling Environment that Unlocks the Potential of Social Intrapreneurs to Drive Commercial and Social Innovation?
Ivanka Trump Could Shape African Women’s Entrepreneurship
After decades of working with women entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa, I am hopeful that Ivanka Trump’s initiative will deliver change, provided the interventions are designed for lasting results. To effectively meet the program’s ambitious goal of supporting 50 million women in developing countries by 2025, we will need more than the usual generic, short-term approaches […]
Business Urge for a Robust New Global Law to End Violence and Harassment at Work
30 leading business networks and individual brands are calling for negotiators to deliver a new international law to end violence and harassment in the workplace that genuinely benefits business and employees world-wide. A statement, initiated by the NGO CARE, and supported by Business Fights Poverty, The B Team, BSR and individual brands Unilever, Marks & […]
Pakistani Businesses Need to Hire and Retain More Women to Flourish
Pakistan has made progress in boosting women’s education levels over the past several years—yet less than 8 percent of the country’s workforce are women. Closing that gap will represent a huge economic opportunity for our country. I’m excited that the private sector is taking steps to address the problem. At the Pakistan Stock Exchange on […]
The Business Case for Climate-Resilient Agriculture
In 2018, the World Economic Forum ranked extreme weather events and natural disasters as the top two global risks for businesses in terms of likelihood. Modern supply chains rely on complex and increasingly interconnected global networks, leaving both companies and producers around the world vulnerable to climate threats. But climate change is a local issue just as […]
Plan for the Future
This requires having a clear Purpose, which is authentic and inspiring, explains why the business exists and how it creates value for itself and for society. It is about having a comprehensive Plan, which minimises negative social, environmental and economic impacts, maximises positive impacts and covers all aspects of the business and extends into the […]
No Time to Waste: The Plastic Crisis and the World’s Poorest
Crisis, breakdown, emergency – however you talk about it, the environment is high on media and political agendas across the world. A new cross-organisational report, No Time to Waste: Tackling the plastics pollution crisis before it’s too late, calculates that between 400,000 and 1 million people die each year in developing countries because of diseases related […]
We Won’t Take This Lying Down: Women, Business and Equality in 2019
Based on the current rate of progress, it will take 202 years to close the economic gender gap globally, according to research from World Economic Forum. And so, it was with trepidation that I stepped into the University Women’s Club, London, to learn more about how the Foundation intends to close the gap, faster. If […]
Sweet Dreams: Sweet Story
Readers of Business Fights Poverty have been exposed to the arguments for how business might contribute to peace. They have also seen examples of how music can do the same. Many studies have shown corollaries of how gender equity promotes peace. If you want a film that shows all three of these factors in action, […]
Business Fights Poverty Oxford 2019 – Last Chance to Register
The Unilever Young Entrepreneurs Awards 2019: Open for Applications Until 30 June
The , delivered by Unilever and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, support and celebrate inspirational young people from all over the world who have initiatives, products or services tackling some of the planet’s biggest sustainability challenges. Now in their sixth year, the Awards have reached over 5,800 entrepreneurs, and provided tailored support […]
Corporate/ Impact Enterprise Partnerships – Part 2 – Now for the Hard Part
Last time, I talked about the considerable potential for partnerships between corporates and impact enterprises. In this blog, I’ll focus on the undoubted challenges. Again, I’m building on several published sources, my own experience, and conversations with entrepreneurs, corporate staff and investors. In the opening lines of Anna Karenina (“Happy families are all alike; every […]
Spurring Communities, Confidence and Communication: How Companies are Tackling Gender-Based Violence
Across the world the costs of GBV are staggering. A 2017 study on garment workers in Cambodia reported that nearly one in three female garment workers had been sexually harassed in the preceding 12 months. The resulting turnover, absenteeism and presenteeism at work cost the Cambodian garment industry the equivalent of 0.52 percent of Cambodia’s […]