Effective Workplace Policies and Practices
Hope is not a strategy for righting gender imbalances that have long been the norm in most businesses and beyond. Instead, a strategy addressing material issues, supported by policies and practices applied internally and externally, can deliver business benefits as well as benefits for individuals. Research shows that a more diverse workforce delivers financial returns […]
Delivering Dignity through Healthcare
Geel Medical Services is a Finalist in the Unilever Global Development Award supported by Business Fights Poverty. We asked them some questions about their programme and the global development impacts achieved. Q) What challenge does GEEL Medical Services (GMS) serve to change? A) The doctor-patient ratio in rural communities in sub Saharan Africa is much […]
Unleashing Inclusive Business Towards the SDGs
The Business Call to Action (BCtA) – a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) hosted global platform showcasing private sector contribution to the SDGs through inclusive business – in collaboration with Inclusive Business Accelerator (IBA), SNV Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), The Partnering Initiative (TPI) and Business Fights Poverty hosted an invitation- only event to discuss how […]
Preparing to Stop Drug-resistant Malaria
By David Reddy, CEO, Medicines for Malaria Venture and Jürgen Brokatzky-Geiger, Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Novartis. No child should ever die from a mosquito bite. Yet, today, in an era of extraordinary medical advancement, a child dies of mosquito-borne malaria every two minutes. Last year, this agonizing blood disease caused by the malaria parasite […]
Pointing the Way for Cross-sector Collaborations
One of the most striking aspects of the current healthcare landscape is the way that the whole world is now so interconnected and so interdependent. This is changing the way we see health, creating a new global perspective that will affect the way we need to act. Against this backdrop, we need to understand better […]
Four Reasons Why GSK and Save the Children’s Partnership Stands Out
In recent years, collaboration between companies, governments and civil society has become an integral part of the development landscape. Its importance has been underlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which all sectors recognise cannot be achieved without partnership and the contribution of the private sector. Growing numbers of businesses are entering into partnerships, whether […]
Moving Beyond Transactional Relationships
Over the last several years, models of business / NGO collaboration have begun to shift quite significantly. Five years ago, the relationship between a company and an NGO was most likely to be transactional in nature: a donation or sponsorship from the company or, in the case of a company’s social investment, a fee-for-service arrangement […]
Tackling Undernutrition for the World’s Poorest
Given that 45 per cent of child deaths (that’s nearly half) are because of undernutriton, tackling it should be the highest of priorities for our decision makers. It is also very relevant to note, that a majority of those deaths are amongst the most vulnerable and poorest communities. With this is mind, as most people, […]
Barriers Facing Rural Producers in Post-conflict Colombia
In May, as part of my role as ACRE’s (Access to Capital for Rural Enterprises) project lead, I spent ten days in Colombia scoping the impact investment space and the barriers facing rural producers in a country that it is now emerging from fifty years of civil conflict. Colombia, a country emerging from 50 years […]
4 Key Trends in Business Action for Global Development
The 2016 Unilever Global Development Award supported by Business Fights Poverty saw an unprecedented number of applications from companies globally. This year was an important year in the Awards as it coincides with the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the start of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The programmes seen in this […]
Unilever Global Development Award Finalists Announced
The Annual Business in the Community Awards programme today has announced the finalists of the Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty. The Award celebrates businesses that are embedding Global Development and the principles of the MDGs into their business models. 2015 marked the conclusion of the MDGs which have now evolved into […]
Sustainability Critical to Future Business Growth
Leading companies increasingly recognize the importance of embedding sustainability into their business models. However, professionals seeking sustainability outcomes face certain barriers. Return-on-investment rules are a long-standing challenge, and overcoming them requires positive engagement with finance teams. Presenting a strong business case is another key challenge, requiring creative work across the organization and often with external […]
A New Plan to Fight a New Health Challenge
While the headlines might focus on Ebola or yellow fever, Africa is slowly winning the fight against infectious diseases. They will remain a challenge for decades to come, but the real threat of the future is expected to come from elsewhere: non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Soon, NCDs are likely to […]
Empowering Women Through Work
One of the first activities we launched in our Challenge on Women’s Economic Empowerment was the business survey created by DFID and introduced in a blog by the UK Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, on 25 April. The survey asked respondents to share both the challenges and successes their businesses have seen […]
Making the Global Goals Our Business
Not everyone gets to live their dream job, but I feel extremely lucky and grateful that I do. I lead GSK’s global employee volunteering efforts, including PULSE, our flagship program. PULSE is a skills-based volunteering program that matches up to 100 high-performing employees each year with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in need of their expertise […]
5 Reasons Social Enterprises are Applying a Gender Lens
Director of Strategic Partnerships, Acumen There is article after article about why businesses and investors should seek new ways to be more inclusive of women in their business models. But what we’ve learned at Acumen, where we invest in business that solve problems of poverty, is that leaders of social-purpose businesses are already doing this, […]
Unleashing Inclusive Business Towards the SDGs
The Business Call to Action (BCtA) in collaboration with the UNDP Zambia Country Office, The Partnering Initiative (TPI), the Inclusive Business Accelerator (IBA) and Business Fights Poverty recently held a high-level breakfast meeting for business representatives in Lusaka, Zambia. The aim of the meeting held on the 15th of April 2016 was to discuss how […]
NGOs Applying Lessons of Market Dynamics
I’ve encouraged all types of mission-driven organizations to explore applying any business principles toward social goals, and NGOs can benefit from a number of lessons from Shared Value, Lean Startups, Behavioral Economics, or Social Enterprises. However, my point in focusing on market dynamics crowd sourcing insights on needs and value is to zero in on […]
Game-changing Ideas to Tackle Drivers of Cassava Loss
Anyone reading this has their own story to tell about food waste. One of the first lessons we are taught – wherever in the world we call home – is “don’t waste food.” And while we all have some sense of our own responsibility for solving this global problem, bigger challenges loom large. Chew on […]
The Global Goals and the Ruggie Principles
“The Sustainable Development Goals represent the biggest opportunity for awareness-raising on business and human rights since the UN Guiding Principles [on Business and Human Rights] were introduced.” So said a respected speaker at the recent Business and Human Rights Symposium organised by the International Organisation of Employers. Equally, there is a consensus that the skills, […]