Why Does Africa Need Innovation?
Africa is standing at a turning point in its socio-economic history. Never before has the continent’s economy thrived as it is today and things can only get better. While most Africans will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by the 2015 deadline, they are determined and are implementing measures to ensure […]
Investing in African Ingenuity
The best way to build Africa’s capacity is to invest in local innovation and entrepreneurship. Africa is at a developmental turning point and Africans have stepped forward to be the leaders of the continent’s development in all facets of the economy. African innovators and entrepreneurs are creating solutions to our continent’s everyday challenges. By providing […]
Innovative Public-Private Partnerships for Education
The achievement gap between rich and poor is a complex and global challenge. Schooling alone is not meeting the needs of the poorest children. Innovative public-private partnerships for education could be part of the solution. South Africa’s schools face considerable challenges. The national average of 27 percent functional illiteracy masks significant and entrenched wealth and […]
How to Solve India’s Poverty Crisis
Economic debate swirls around the question of how to end poverty, and no wonder: today there are still 2.7 billion people living on $2 a day or less. How should a nation that contains nearly one in three of the world’s poorest people address this very real problem? At one extreme among Indian observers, Nobel […]
Tackling Climate and Development Challenges
I was privileged to be invited to speak at the recent Bond Annual Conference, sharing experiences from the ClimateCare team, about how we have engaged the private sector and unlocked funding for sustainable development. For those who don’t know ClimateCare, we are a profit for purpose organisation with twin aims to protect the environment and […]
Healthcare Innovations Through Inclusive Business Models
HOW-TO USE AMBIGUITY TO PIONEER CHANGE
Despite crushing student loans and a miserable job market, this Millennial Generation is the most socially conscious, most globally aware and most actively committed to careers of conscience to come along in decades. College students and young professionals are eager to confront some of the world’s most intractable problems — a deteriorating environment, implacable poverty, […]
HOW-TO FIGURE OUT YOUR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
“We gain something profound when we stand up for our beliefs, just as part of us dies when we know that something is wrong, yet do nothing….We don’t have to tackle every issue, but if we avoid them all, if we remain silent in the face of cruelty, injustice, and oppression, we sacrifice part of […]
Creating a Runway for Multinationals with Impact
Five years ago, Steve Bachar and I decided to create a venture capital fund that would only invest in companies capable of achieving three goals: Transforming the livelihoods of at least 100 million customers living on $2 a day or less; Generating at least $10 billion in annual revenues; and Earning sufficient profits to attract […]
Aviva Carbon Offsetting Projects Improve 200,000 Lives
Aviva and ClimateCare are applying a new methodology to their projects in India and Kenya, which measures the benefits of carbon offsetting for society as well as the environment. The LBG Framework, a peerreviewed international standard for measuring corporate community investment which started life as the London Benchmarking Group, has allowed the organisations to identify […]
Going About the Business of Creating Social Change
There’s an inescapable buzz around the role of business in international development. Everywhere I go—from Bangladesh to East Africa, from the flurry of activity of the UNGA or CGI in New York to the WEF Annual meeting in Davos—it’s a topic that has risen to the very top of the development agenda. To be clear, […]
Pitch Lessons from a Cubicle Warrior
In the world of social good, pitching is 90% of the battle – enrolling others into the change you believe. Gandhi did this. Martin Luther King shined with his ability to create a bridge into a tolerant and diverse future. Florence Nightingale wasn’t just a nurse, but a master storyteller. But what happens when you […]
Sumitomo Chemical and the Market for Bednets
When I first learnt about the partnership of Sumitomo Chemical and A to Z Textile Mills Ltd. in Tanzania it seemed like pure success. In 2007, I was working on the UNDP report “Creating Value for All”, and the story about local manufacturing of mosquito nets was one of my favourite case studies. Sumitomo Chemical, […]
A Story About Sumitomo Chemical and the Market for Bednets
When I first learnt about the partnership of Sumitomo Chemical and A to Z Textile Mills Ltd. in Tanzania it seemed like pure success. In 2007, I was working on the UNDP report “Creating Value for All”, and the story about local manufacturing of mosquito nets was one of my favourite case studies. Sumitomo Chemical, […]
The Challenges of Going to Scale
In our latest BIF insider “Scaling Inclusive Business – Why do some successful IB pilots fail to scale”, Jack Newnham identifies and examines seven broad reasons why some inclusive businesses do not go to scale. The publication draws on a range of examples (mostly not related to BIF), illustrating which hurdles could and could not […]
The Story of How Big Business Can Fix the World
Writing Everybody’s Business took us on a two-year journey through the world of business. We met people in boardrooms and on the front-line of operations – in mines, factories and farms, in data centres and distribution hubs. We saw first-hand how big corporations are taking on some of today’s toughest challenges, mobilizing the vast resources, […]
Benchmarking Agriculture: Lessons from Doing Business
The proposed Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture (BBA) is a joint effort of the Doing Business and agricultural development teams of the World Bank and is partly based on the (in)famous Doing Business project. Doing Business is arguably the Bank’s highest profile publication and ranks countries’ business regulations and laws across ten key indicators, but […]
The Business of Agriculture: What’s missing?
By Alison Griffith,Senior Policy and Practice Advisor, Private Sector and Markets, Practical Action, and George McAllister, Director of Programmes, Garden Africa Smallholders have the potential to become the backbone of agricultural growth in Africa and to supply our growing demand for food – if they have the right environment. The World Bank’s proposal to develop […]
Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture
Smallholders have the potential to become the backbone of agricultural growth in Africa and to supply our growing demand for food. As Kato Lambrecht said in her blog yesterday, the policies and practices of governments can have a huge impact on whether or not they can realise that potential. The African Smallholder Farmers Group have […]
Making Markets Work for Smallholder Farmers
John Ngari farms a seven acre plot in Mbere Kenya. In a recent conversation he remarked that ‘It is an eye opener for us that farming can be a business. My sons can enter farming as a business just like any other. What I am looking for is to have my own, small-scale industry so […]