A Collective Approach for Last Mile Distribution
By Emma Colenbrander, Practical Action Billions of people worldwide lack access to everyday products that are fundamental to a better life. Products like solar lights, water filters and clean cooking solutions are transformative for poor families, and essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. A range of businesses – called ‘last mile distributors’ – work […]
Apply Now for the 2018 Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty!
Do you work for, or in partnership with, a business having a positive impact on one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Are you particularly proud of one your initiatives? If so, be sure to apply for the Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty! I’m proud that for the […]
New Resources to Speed Employees Up the Intrapreneurial Learning Curve
By Beth Jenkins, Challenge Director, Business Fights Poverty At any given time, in any given company, there can be hundreds of employees with ideas for profitable new products, services, and business models that also create value for society. These would-be “intrapreneurs” come from all different backgrounds and roles, and many have never started a new […]
WASH: Solving the Global Sanitation Crisis
As a global crisis that affects over two billion people, water sanitation has turned into the first and primary concern of many of the world’s leading organizations. In fact, the CDC considers water sanitation an essential problem that needs to be solved by the end of this century. Today, there are about 2.4 billion people […]
Supporting Entrepreneurs in the Pursuit of Peace
As a marketing executive, New York advertising executive Sabrina Prince has launched many brands. And after 15 years in the field she was looking to contribute her expertise to the global good. A Google search for “entrepreneur, peace, volunteer, women,” brought Sabrina to Bpeace, a nonprofit that matches business experts with entrepreneurs in challenged economies […]
Land Rights Open Economic Opportunities in Cabo Verde
In Cabo Verde, tourism comprises as much as 40 percent of gross domestic product. However, a lack of conclusive information about land rights and confusion over ownership has resulted in unauthorized land sales and delays and cancellation of public and private investment projects damaging the growth potential of the island nation. Residents have been wary […]
NGO Partnerships Give Businesses the Teeth to Be Social Activists
Let’s start with the obvious: your average ice cream company doesn’t have much to say about the refugee crisis in Europe. Equally obvious: Ben & Jerry’s is not your average ice cream company. We mix activism and a social mission in with our famous chunks and swirls. And we know that to drive real change, […]
SDGs: What Part Do Forests Play?
Deemed as the ‘lungs of the planet’ and covering 30% of the earth’s surface, forests are essential to supporting all life on Earth. Not only do forests provide a wide array of ecosystem services, such as absorbing greenhouse gases and regulating water quality, there are also over a billion people who depend on forests for […]
The Agricultural Models We Want Tomorrow
Rana, 45-year-old Egyptian mother of three, sells her vegetables on a wooden cart at the side of a dusty and bustling road in the heart of the Sayeda Zeinab district of Cairo. She stands there from sunrise to sunset every day to earn enough money to feed her children. Despite a relatively steady flow of […]
Access to Energy Through Mobile Is Changing Lives
Over the last decade, the rapid growth of the mobile industry in developing countries has surprised observers. Access to mobile has increasingly outpaced access to basic services such as energy, water and sanitation. In fact, due to the slow expansion of the traditional energy grid, 1.2 billion people around the world still live without access […]
In Solar Supply Chain, Women Entrepreneurs are Key to Reaching Remote Areas
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people don’t have access to electricity. Eighty percent of them live in rural areas that have no grid electricity. Moreover, a dispersed population makes grid expansion financially and logistically challenging. With seemingly few alternatives, the majority of the population in the region turns to fuel-based energy such as kerosene for […]
Business Fights Poverty NYC 2017: Watch the Event Videos
Last week, 150 people came together in New York, at an event timed to coincide with the UN General Assembly, to explore the theme, “Rethinking Collaboration for the SDGs”. The event was co-hosted with Barclays and the Harvard Kennedy School Corporate Responsibility Initiative, and with the support of CDC Group, the UK’s Development Finance Institution. […]
Rethinking Collaboration: Collaboration in Action
On July 10 and 11, over 300 people came together for our annual flagship event, Business Fights Poverty Oxford 2017 at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The headline sponsor for the event was Mars Inc. It was held in association with the Center for Business and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin Madison and […]
Rethinking Collaboration: Research Perspectives
On July 10 and 11, over 300 people came together for our annual flagship event, Business Fights Poverty Oxford 2017 at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The headline sponsor for the event was Mars Inc. It was held in association with the Center for Business and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin Madison and […]
In Defence of Aid
As Britain embarks on the process of leaving the European Union, and as we prepare to stand up as a “Global Britain”, we need to decide what it is we stand for. Our values will define and give weight to our leadership on the world stage. All of us, whether on the left or the […]
The Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty
The Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty, recognises businesses that can demonstrate positive impact against one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Awards close on 17 February 2017, 5pm GMT. Don’t miss the deadline! To find out more and apply, click here. Adopted on 25 September 2015, […]
The Year Ahead and the Need to Rethink Collaboration
2016 convinced me of the need to collaborate more deeply than ever: to deliver on the bold future envisioned in the new Sustainable Development Goals; to protect past progress made towards equality—now threatened by the politics of division; to tackle the deep social exclusion that has at least in part driven the political turbulence of […]
Top 10 Discussions of 2016
2016 saw our 100th online discussion, with over 1,300 comments posted over the course of the year! Online discussions have played a central role in our new Challenges as a way for members to share insights on the Challenge question. From next year, we will be upgrading our discussion forum to make it easier to […]
Top 10 Blogs of 2016
Over 2016, members and Content Partners shared over 430 articles on Business Fights Poverty – valuable insights, cases studies and reports. We now have an archive of close to 5,300 stories! To help you find content most relevant to you, we are rolling out a new personalised newsletter that will prioritise articles relevant to the […]
Business Must Stand Up as a Champion of Progressive Values
Recent events in the US and UK have reminded me of a love story. When I was 12, I vividly remember my grandmother telling me the story of how in her early 20s she met and fell in love with my grandfather. But theirs was no ordinary love story. You see, she was an Anglo-Irish […]