Are Standards an Effective Tool to Help Improve Production Practices Across Sectors?
As businesses increasingly strengthen their sustainability policies in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many are deepening their sustainability commitments. We know from an AidEnvironment review published last year that upstream and downstream businesses benefit in many different ways from working with sustainability standards, for example, 98% of studies reviewed show improvements in sales and […]
4 Tips for Effective and Dynamic Groups
Call them networks, working groups or knowledge hubs, communities of practice have been flourishing in the international development sector for some time now. Whether you want to influence decision makers, share best practices or connect with professionals within or beyond the sector, communities can help you strengthen your organisation’s outreach and knowledge. And today, thanks […]
5 Ways Local Markets Help Refugees Rebuild Their Lives
For four years, Uganda’s neighbour, South Sudan, has been at war with itself. This has resulted in two million people having had to flee their country, including one million to Uganda. 80 per cent of these are women and children. They are families who have lost loved ones, their homes, their land and their livelihoods, […]
Affordability – Beyond the Buzzword
Affordability is at the core of much of our work as impact investors – from affordable electricity to housing, food, healthcare, education and many more. Yet ask someone to define what it means, and you may be met with little more than a blank stare. We recently conducted a straw poll of 20 impact investment […]
Successful Businesswoman Inspires Entrepreneurs in Tanzania
Fatma Riyami has been named East African Businesswoman of the Year 2017 at the annual All Africa Business Leaders Award ceremony to honour business leaders who have made a considerable impact on their industry and community. The award ceremony, staged in partnership with CNBC Africa, salutes business game changers for their commitment to excellence, and […]
Women Working to Improve Sanitation and Hygiene
Poor sanitation in the peri-urban areas of Maputo, Mozambique, has a disproportionate impact on the lives of women. But women are also playing a key role in tackling the challenge. “We had a precarious latrine that over the course of time became damaged, and collapsed due to heavy rains,” recalls Rute Rodrigues (pictured above), a […]
Women Sea Salt Producers in Indonesia Cooperate to Seize New Economic Opportunities
Traditional sea salt production has been practiced on the island of Lombok in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province for generations. It is labor-intensive work generally done by poor women like Mini Asmayanti. Mini earns less than $2 a day. This modest income, along with that of her husband, a fisherman, provides for them and their […]
Collaboration: How Business Must Lead to Achieve Sustainable Development
How does business lead? When we think of leadership, we often think of a single, iconic leader. We celebrate leading companies for their bold actions on sustainability risks and opportunities; yet one of the most important ways business leads is through collaboration. In the past year, it has become increasingly clear that the world is […]
Time to Re-energise the INGO Model Through Structural Innovation
The international NGO sector faces significant disruption to its business models in the next decade. As IARAN has noted, INGOs must think deeply about what kind of organisation they want to be in 2030 if they are to keep pace with shifts in demography, technology, climate, geopolitics and much else besides. For UK-based INGOs, such […]
Virtual Reality Training in Southern Africa
Every fan of horror movies knows that a person wielding a chainsaw can cause some serious damage. The tool is rated as one of the most dangerous available; one wrong move and its user could lose a limb. In Southern Africa, forestry students don’t have to worry about that anymore. They are now using a […]
Making the Most of Interesting Times – and Achieving the Global Goals
As Robert Kennedy remarked in 1966, “Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.” For many of us, the first months of 2018 will go down in history as a similarly interesting […]
A Nigérien Entrepreneur Finds Her Niche in Camel Milk
Last month, I travelled to Niamey, Niger’s capital, where MCC Country Team Lead for Niger Kristin Penn and our Nigérien partners are hard at work on MCC’s $437 million compact to improve access to water for agriculture and livestock and expand access to markets. Around 80 percent of Niger’s population relies on the agricultural sector for its […]
Female Employees Fast Tracked From Line Workers to Supervisors
The readymade garments (RMG) industry in Bangladesh is the greatest contributor to female employment in Bangladesh; over 3.2 million of its employees live at the bottom of the economic pyramid (defined as people with less than US$10 per day in purchasing power in 2015 US dollars). Recognising this, at DBL Group we have focused on […]
Supporting the SDGs through the Power of Data
To wrap up 2017, GSMA, the UN Foundation and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (the Global Partnership) met in New York with UN agencies and country missions to discuss the actual and potential contribution of partnerships and data to a better world. GSMA shared concrete examples of how an industry sector is using […]
The Transition from Aid: Are Businesses Up To The Challenge?
The fabric that makes up international development has many threads, each making a vital contribution. Fortunately the edges around the boxes of ‘who does what’ are more blurred than they were even a decade ago when the transfer of financial resources and expertise usually flowed from ‘North’ to ‘South’. Further blurring of roles is occurring […]
Meet the Winner: The Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security
Interview with Dr Filippo Bassi of ICARDA and Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security Winner The winner of the 2017 Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security epitomises what is possible when you put the farmer at the centre of all you do. The winning research by Dr Filippo Bassi of ICARDA (the International […]
Meet the Winners: The Louis Malassis Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food Security
Interviews with The Louis Malassis Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food Security Winners Scientists hold some of the key answers to so many of today’s agricultural challenges at their fingertips. Our support for this community is a vital if we are to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Agropolis founder Louis Malassis knew this, long […]
Delivering on the Promise of Inclusive Business
Back in November 2008, on a hot, dusty day in Dar es Salaam, I vividly remember the moment I met Lillian Kessy. I was immediately struck by her confidence, dignity and determination. Only a year earlier, Lillian was in a desperate financial situation. By the time I met her, she was busy building a small […]
A Low-carbon Economy: Technologically Possible, Economically Attractive
Climate change is real. Pacific Islands cannot get out of the way of rising waters. Arctic maritime ecosystems cannot escape warmer waters. People often cannot flee hurricanes in time. And even someone reading the news in an armchair may find it impossible to avoid reports on how a changing climate endangers the lives of us […]
Leveraging the Power of Skillanthropy
A conversation with Marco Ambrosio, North America Growth Strategist for SapientRazorfish. Javier Guerrero of Happy Punk Panda, a Salvadoran digital media company, came to New York through Bpeace’s Fast Runner Program. His top request? To meet with the top digital agencies includingSapientRazorfish. How did SapientRazorfish become a Bpeace Host Company? Before I came to SapientRazorfish, […]