Communicating Sustainable & Inclusive Growth
As 2014 comes to an end, companies are beginning to reflect on their achievements from the past year and are already planning for their 2015 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. CSR reports have become the norm among Fortune Global 500 corporations to communicate about successes and challenges associated with reaching sustainable and inclusive growth goals. […]
Insights on Scaling Corporate Social Enterprise
On November 20 and 21 in Santiago, Chile, leaders and experts from the corporate, government, academic, consulting, civil society, and impact investing worlds came together for an engaging discussion on scaling corporate social enterprise. The Inter-American Development Bank believes such enterprises offer huge potential as sustainable drivers of development, growth, and job creation. But, like […]
Giving Through Consumption
The weakest in Africa are predominantly rural and constitute approximately 70% of the population. They are often forced out of their habitat to give way to large scale investments only to return to their ancestral lands as cheap labour earning wages that are barely sufficient for their basic needs. They go hungry in presumed resource […]
An Anticorruption Agenda for Business and Development
This week marks International Anti-Corruption Day. It is also the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) 10th Principle – a welcome signal from the thousands of UNGC member companies that they recognize the importance of combating corruption. This may induce a shrug of the shoulders from many. Of course […]
Flying the Flag – Protect, Respect, Remedy
I couldn’t help but marvel at it – the rows of colourful country flags lining the approach to the UN’s Palais de Nations in Geneva. Such an iconic image, symbolising global unity over principles of peace, security, cooperation and respect for human rights. I was in Geneva for the 3rd Annual Forum on Business and […]
A New Approach to Sustainable Global Development
By Mark Stafford Smith, Future Earth There is no escaping the fact that our world is changing fast. A global population of 11 billion by the year 2100. ‘Severe and irreversible’ climate change. Demand for efficient renewable energy sources and more sustainable consumption. Escalating concerns for food and water security. How can science, policy and […]
How to Create a Transformative Business Model
On 2 December 2014, the Business Call to Action (BCtA), in partnership with the Business Fights Poverty (BFP), hosted a webinar discussion addressing the question, How Do You Create a Transformative Business Model? During the webinar we discussed challenges and opportunities that companies face in developing, sustaining and scaling successful inclusive business models that achieve […]
Closing the Early-Stage Financing Gap for Entrepreneurs
Picture your favorite startup company operating in the developing world. It might be selling solar lanterns to off-grid communities, providing transportation services for agricultural commodities, or perhaps operating a chain of grocery stores. Regardless of its sector or location, like any startup it probably did not follow a direct path to scale and success. It […]
How will you Step Forward in 2015?
Friday 5 December marks International Volunteer Day and to coincide with this, VSO is launching a new global campaign inviting people to pledge to #StepForward and raise the profile of volunteering for development in 2015. This campaign builds on recent research conducted by VSO and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) demonstrating that ‘human-capital’ is […]
How to Integrate Social Entrepreneurs within Corporate Value Chains
Increasingly, corporations want to work with social entrepreneurs to secure their supply chain, demonstrate their commitment to inclusive business, and strengthen trust and brand in the communities in which they operate. Social entrepreneurs are seeking to partner with corporations seeing them as first customers paving the path to scale, ever elusive in the world of […]
Towards a 4th Sector in Global Development
A podcast with Gib Bulloch and Louise James about the new report from Accenture Development Partnerships, The Convergence Continuum: Towards a 4th Sector in Global Development. The digital revolution and innovative financing are reshaping the convergent forces that define international development. The international development landscape is evolving. From the individual sectors—public sector, private sector and […]
From Philanthropy to Social Business
There’s a shift happening in south Asia as corporations transition from philanthropy to a results-based and longer-term approach to sustainability Across south Asia, philanthropic giving has a long tradition. The transition from that philanthropic activity to strategic sustainability is happening but at different rates and in different ways across the region. The past two decades […]
Unlocking Equity For Early-Stage Entrepreneurs
Is it possible to invest equity in African early-stage companies in a sustainable manner? Has anyone ever invested equity and provided support to early-stage companies in West Africa in a sustainable manner for amounts as low as EUR 50,000? Why not and why is it so hard? Another way to see this question is to […]
Economically Empowering Women at Scale in South Africa
Ngoetsana Sehlabo is known by her community in Orange Farm, South Africa as Mampho. For many years she was a hawker, on the streets selling a local dish called ‘atcha’. In 2012, she branched out and set up her own store – Mampho’s Fast Food – to sell food, drinks and snacks. After a year, […]
Innovative Partnerships to Empower Girls
Across the developing world, adolescent girls face the triple disadvantage of living in rural areas where education isn’t a priority; having limited power and access to resources; and being undervalued by their communities simply because they’re girls. While there is recognition that investing in girls is key to fighting poverty, not many know just how […]
Examining the Keys to Power
Along with all good Plan employees, the belief that education can lift children from a future of poverty to one of opportunity is one which I firmly hold. We should all know the facts; that a girl who makes it through both a relevant and quality primary and secondary education is: less likely to experience […]
Girl Power in the Pipeline
Meet Laxmi: an ambitious young woman from India, netball player, confident leader and now, aspiring lawyer. Just three years ago, the introduction to Laxmi would have been a bit different. Coming from an underserved community in Delhi, her chances to go beyond basic public primary school were slim. So, what changed? She enrolled in Goal […]
Women's Economic Empowerment Key to Alleviating Poverty
Around the globe, women and girls make up 70 percent of the 1.5 billion people living on less than a dollar a day, and the key to addressing this issue begins with their economic empowerment. Business ownership is a powerful vehicle for women to build more assets, but, perhaps more importantly, investing in women yields […]
Sport as Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls
Head, Education and Girls Programmes, Standard Chartered No single entity can address an international development challenge in isolation. Effective interventions require a suite of resources, networks, expertise, and experience, and no one institution has the human and financial capital required. The challenges girls and women face are no exception. Any sustainable, truly impactful effort to […]
IFC’s New Report on Inclusive Business
About 4.5 billion people in developing countries are low-income, living on $81 a day or less. They are the so-called base of the economic pyramid and constitute a $5 trillion consumer market. However, the success of local businesses has often been lost in the discussion of ‘BOP business’ to date. While case studies abound on […]