Beyond Dialogue: Corporation and Social Enterprise Partnerships
On April 12th, Acumen and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship hosted a workshop in Oxford, England with representatives from large corporations and smaller social businesses from around the globe. At the workshop, entitled “Beyond Dialogue,” we asked: How can we build business models that truly serve the poor through collaboration among corporations and social […]
Investing in Social Enterprise to Fight Poverty
Rupert Scofield will be speaking at a dinner hosted by Women Advancing Microfinance UK on Tuesday 10th May in London. He will talk to us about the work FINCA does and the impact it’s having, in particular in the social enterprise and innovation space. Tickets to the event are available here. Ahead of the event, […]
How Small Farmers Can End Poverty and Hunger
Private companies are discovering that small farms are big business at the same time as the development community is realizing that they are key to ending poverty and hunger. There are 500 million small farms in the world, and their potential is huge. Indeed, small farms are responsible for up to 80 per cent of […]
Transcending the Boundaries of Business School
In order to transform our world and achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we must look beyond the ‘way we do things’ in our own industries, learn to be adaptive and work in multi-sector teams. In early 2006, I walked into a room where the global CEO of Unilever, Barclays Bank, Porsche and […]
Putting Water at the Top of the Agenda
When COP21 concluded in Paris, I was particularly struck by the lack of any mention of water in the agreement. Here we had the leaders of the world meeting to solve one of the greatest problems facing mankind and there was no evident acknowledgement of the impact that climate change is having on water. This, […]
Transcending Boundaries through Contextual Intelligence
Disruption, innovation, inclusion. These days, there is a multitude of business school jargon used to discuss development, both in the realm of the public and private sector. But here is another one for you: contextual intelligence, achieved through innovation and inclusion. Contextual intelligence is the ability to understand the limits of our knowledge and to […]
Crossing Oceans for Child Health
Transcending boundaries to build a sustainable future naturally evokes different responses in everyone depending on their frame of reference. My own career and early experiences have been focused on child health, first as an orphanage volunteer in Africa, then a nurse, and later on working towards my doctorate, and now as an entrepreneur developing wearable […]
Banking on Change Helps the World’s Poorest Save $34m
More than 5,000 informal savings groups have been linked to formal banking sector Six years ago CARE undertook a pioneering partnership called Banking on Change with Barclays and Plan UK that has since helped more than 758,000 people, who typically live on less than $2 a day. In the past 3 years, we’ve supported 400,000 […]
Business in Support of Public Policy Education
Businessmen support Business Schools. This is perfectly normal since most MBA graduates go on to work for Businesses. But why should Businessmen support Public Policy Schools? What would they gain from providing such support? The simple answer is that they will gain a lot. No business – except corrupt business ventures – can survive and […]
Activating the Power of the Market for Humanitarian Aid
Activating the power and reach of the market for a sustainable future What does it mean to transcend boundaries? The definition of “transcend” is to rise above, or go beyond normal limits. For the purpose of this discussion, consider these boundaries: physical – defined by political/geographical regions; institutional – reflecting rules, written or unwritten, by […]
Transcending Boundaries to Fight Climate Change
Climate change is now at the forefront of the policy agenda. The Paris climate talks have ushered a new wave of urgency; the goal is to decarbonise the world by the second half of the century and try to remain below the 1.5-degree threshold. But in order to ensure this happens, we need everyone’s input. […]
DFID Business Survey on Women’s Economic Empowerment
Around the world, too many women are still locked out of the economy. From the simple right to open a bank account, to securing a seat in the boardroom – too many women still face significant barriers that stop them from reaching their full potential. I want you – and your business – to help […]
IMF Evidence Supporting Financial Inclusion
A recent IMF ‘staff paper’ (i.e. this is not the official view of the organisation, but they’re not disagreeing with it either…) provides additional support to CARE’s fight for financial inclusion by showing that four of the dimensions of financial development – access, depth, efficiency and stability – can significantly reduce income inequality and poverty. […]
Humanitarian Action with Business
Image: Kakuma refugee camp in the desert in NW Kenya, Somali refugee traders’ shop in the Kakuma camp By Dr. Kathryn Taetzsch, Senior Relief Coordinator & Private Sector Partnerships Lead, Global Humanitarian Operations/ Global Rapid Response Team, World Vision International “Ending Need” cannot work without “Connecting Business” from community to global levels, identifying gaps, disaster […]
A Framework for Justice
From the program of the 2016 Skoll World Forum. Justice is our north star. It provides the bearings to guide us through territory fraught with tests of character and will. It steers us to ever more powerful solutions to the pressing problems of our time. It summons in us the courage and fortitude to tackle […]
2016 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
Kicking off this week’s 13th Annual Skoll World Forum, we are pleased to announce the six recipients of the 2016 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations are disrupting the status quo, driving large-scale “equilibrium” change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. This year’s […]
Can Social Enterprises Fill the Aid Gap?
The scale of social enterprises varies around the world, and there is no place where they have had such a long history or have grown to be quite as sophisticated as in Bangladesh[1] and largely without a supportive policy framework. With the country moving towards middle income status and aid money expected to dry up, […]
Four Steps to Help Widen Access to Innovative Medicines
Getting medicines to patients living in the world’s poorest countries is no easy feat. A dearth of trained health workers, out-of-pocket payments, poorly stocked clinics and unreliable transport links can all conspire to keep medicines out of reach from those who need them. When it comes to unlocking such a complex challenge, there’s no single […]
Refugee Crisis, Business and Partnerships
When a natural disaster happens we look to the government, public services, NGOs and charitable organisations to come to our rescue. But as the current European refugee crisis has shown, governments can be slow to react. While bodies of drowned refugees wash up on the shores of Greece and Turkey, the EU country representatives are […]
The State of Responsible Investment
Women Advancing Microfinance UK are hosting a dinner on Tuesday 12th April in London on responsible investment, specifically looking at how we can influence the way global companies act and impact the world. Tickets to the event are available here. On the evening Martina Macpherson will be accompanied by Natacha Dimitrijevic, Associate Director at Hermes […]