Lightening the Load of Women’s Unpaid Care Work
We’re excited to announce a three-year partnership with Unilever’s Surf brand that aims to recognise, reduce and redistribute the amount of time spent by women and girls on unpaid care work. In some parts of the world women and girls currently spend as many as six hours a day on unpaid care work – a […]
Corporate Volunteers from Syngenta are Honoured at First Ever VSO Volunteer Awards
A team of volunteers from global crop science company, Syngenta, have won an award for transforming the lives of marginalised farmers in Bangladesh. Team Leader, Anna Maria Klimza, picked up the award on behalf of her colleagues at a prestigious event in London earlier this month, hosted by leading international development charity, VSO. This award […]
A Call for More Entrepreneurs to Focus on Toilets
Entrepreneurs are everywhere these days, not just in the purely for-profit world but also those looking to create social, as well as financial, gain. As the international development community grows, entrepreneurial thinking is becoming ever more mainstream, with social enterprises demonstrating how to create businesses that deliver social benefit. As Naveen Jain, technology and spacecraft […]
Emerging Lessons on Scaling Inclusive Distribution Networks
One of the most difficult and underestimated hurdles to doing business in low-income markets is figuring out how products make their way from production to the final customer. In India, more than 90 percent of all retail purchases are made in 12 million kirana stores and in Mexico, more than 50 percent of retail business […]
How Do You Incentivise More Businesses to Operate More Responsibly?
Last week I joined Chatham House at their Responsible Business Conference, alongside representatives from across the public, private and NGO sectors, including Vodafone, Nestle, the UN Global Compact and the UK Minister for Corporate Responsibility. Together we considered a broad range of questions, starting with: How do you incentivise more businesses to operate more responsibly? […]
Breakthroughs in Fertilizer Can Unlock the Riches in the Soil
Throughout history, the relationship between a farmer and his land has been symbiotic. As long ago as 6,000BC, Neolithic smallholders in Europe used nitrogen-rich manure to maintain the soil’s fertility, understanding that the land provides but it must also be “fed”. Later, soil health became so important that countries were prepared to go to war […]
World AIDS Day 2016: Thoughts from Mark Cutifani
By Mark Cutifani, CEO, Anglo American This World AIDS Day, Mark Cutifani reflects on the HIV/AIDS work Anglo American currently conducts and the role that partnerships can play in ending the epidemic. “I know my status, my family loves me, and I am living my life. What has been created here by Anglo American is […]
The Inclusive Innovators
Inclusive business — the pursuit of opportunities in traditionally unattractive or currently unprofitable market segments – is, increasingly, a strategic imperative for companies. Foregoing such segments could mean opening the door to disruption and closing it to options for future growth; this is an especially crucial concern that relates to developing economies, which represent the […]
What Does “Good” Look Like for Companies Trying to Address Modern Slavery?
As the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights opens today in Geneva, Quintin Lake, Research Fellow at Hult International Business School, discusses modern slavery. Addressing modern slavery is becoming a business-critical for companies – for credibility with customers, investors, NGOs and the public – according to new research by Hult International Business School and […]
A Conversation with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Internationally recognized development economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala served as Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and twice as Nigeria’s Finance Minister — the first woman to hold either post. She has held several key positions at the World Bank, and in 2014, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Currently, […]
Addressing Social Norms to Stop Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Factories and Farms
“The workload is tremendous here. They swear at us when we fail to complete the work. … They scold. They say, ‘Hey you! Daughter of a bitch, daughter of a pig! How come so much work has been piled up?’ …At such times I feel really bad. … I cannot stand this. I cry. I […]
Social Entrepreneurs Beware – Don’t Ignore those Institutional Forces
Social entrepreneurship is on the rise in emerging economies. More and more, established firms and start-ups are seeking to position themselves to address the world’s most pressing problems and environmental concerns via enterprise structures that focus equally on commercial and social goals. However, much of the mainstream literature has emphasised management, innovation and investment toolkits […]
Can Complex Development Be Explained on a Bar of Chocolate?
How can Mondelēz International – the world’s biggest chocolate company – show their consumers that their chocolate is produced in a sustainable way? I was recently in Ghana with a group of Mondelēz’s European staff, seeing for themselves how their company is working with cocoa farmers through its Cocoa Life sustainability programme. The purpose of […]
Future Perspectives
The Financial Inclusion Forum’s flagship event in 2016 was hosted during Financial Inclusion Week. The gathering, organised with the EBRD, provided an opportunity to reflect on the past, present and future of financial inclusion. If you missed the event, you can watch the recording and read highlights below. Technology was a recurring theme during the […]
2016: No More Business as Usual
One of the many factors in the election of Donald Trump as US President was a rejection of the status quo. In response, we need to re-think business, with human rights at the forefront. In September, US President Obama called in an address to the UN General Assembly for a different path from “soulless capitalism […]
How Can Businesses Know What Impact Their Sustainable Sourcing Decisions are Having?
By Lara Koritzke, Director of Development and Communications, ISEAL Alliance Many businesses have publically committed to sustainable sourcing targets and regularly report on their progress towards these targets. The aim of course, in choosing to source raw materials that are sustainably produced, is to create a sustainable supply and have a positive impact on environmental […]
Business Fights Poverty NYC 2016: Video and Summary Report
Businesses are More Sustainable than Projects
In Britain, everyone has to pay their Council Tax, and that covers the cost of collecting rubbish. We moan if the bin men miss a week. In informal urban settlements in many developing countries, there’s no waste collection service. I recently visited Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, where in 2015, 70% of its 2 million […]
Investing in Malawi’s Power Sector
MCC’s $350.7 million compact with Malawi, signed in 2011, is designed to revitalize the country’s power sector to improve the availability, reliability and quality of the power supply and promote economic growth. MCC is investing in infrastructure to increase the capacity of Malawi’s electrical grid while also working with the Government of Malawi and the […]
10.5 Million Opportunities – Leveraging Savings Groups with Business Training
Hand in Hand International Ten-and-a-half million. That’s the number of Savings Group members worldwide. For more than two decades, in 70 countries, the groups have been credited with banking the unbanked, improving women’s economic empowerment and strengthening social cohesion. Now, according new research, another triumph can be added to the list: boosting business incomes by […]