Keeping Our Promise to Every Woman, Every Child
Each of us has felt the sting of a broken promise, most likely in our early childhood. The lesson leaves a lasting impression, teaching us that when we make a promise, we must honor it. The launch of Every Woman, Every Child by the United Nations three years ago sparked a series of promises to […]
New Approaches to Financial Services for the Poor
The vast majority of poor people live and work in the informal economy. In economic terms, they are producers and consumers at the same time – not by choice, but by necessity. As such, they have to lead very active financial lives to create livelihoods for themselves, build assets, smooth expenditures and manage risks. The […]
Building Partnering Capacity: Investing in Success
If you ask a room full of people to rate how good they are at partnering, the chances are that most will rate themselves very highly. After all, it’s a natural human instinct, isn’t it? We do it all the time in our personal relationships, with our colleagues at work, in sports teams. From The […]
Critical Skills for Employability in Africa
Two days before our international participants were due to travel to Nairobi, Kenya for the ISESE Africa Skills Development Conference, I woke up to the headlines: “Flights suspended after fire destroys Jomo Kenyatta International Airport terminal.” Our team had planned for all sorts of logistical hurdles from visa hiccups to yellow fever vaccines, but we […]
Developing the Fashion Sector in Bangladesh
Attending London Fashion Week brings you up close with the latest luxury brands’ collections, premium quality accessories & apparels and beautifully designed and crafted goods. As human needs and desires go, one could say this is quite removed from the reality of what we have come to know about what is available on the high […]
Doing Well By Doing Good In Colombia
The EPM Group is a Colombian utility company that provides water, domestic gas and electricity in Colombia and other countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico and Chile. Many of our clients belong to the low-income segment of the population. Instead of discouraging us, this reality has become a challenge in which innovation and, above […]
A New Global Partnership with Business, New York, 19 September 2013: Panel Part 1
A New Global Partnership with Business, New York, 19 September 2013… from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo.
Empowering Women through the Coca-Cola Value Chain
Photo: Regina Maria Silva Gomes, Recycling Cooperative Founder, Brazil The CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School and Business Fights Poverty Release New Study of The Coca-Cola Company’s 5by20 Initiative Women’s economic empowerment is a powerful development driver. For instance, Goldman Sachs estimates that closing the gender gap in 15 high potential emerging markets could […]
Helping Women Overcome Cultural Norms to Become Innovative Entrepreneurs
With a focus in economic development in Africa, I decided to spend my summer interning with a nonprofit organization in Ghana. The organization addressed development issues from the aspect of women empowerment, by creating a global market for the goods produced by women entrepreneurs. They were seamstresses, bead makers, and batik makers; batik is an […]
A School Food Revolution
Ten Education Lessons from Tunisia
g.Maarifa aims to develop human capital in emerging markets where it is usually hardest to do so. We develop customizable and interactive platforms that increase access to educational and training content via mobile phones. Our platforms: deliver content, evaluate through testing, track performance, and manage data on a range of mobile phones. I went to […]
A Unique Opportunity to Reach the Rural BoP
The significance of harvest time for farmers is not going to shock many but less obvious, perhaps, is its importance for those trying to reach the rural BOP. Through its social enterprise, SunnyMoney, SolarAid has now reached over 3 million people with pico (<10 watt) solar lights, selling over 670,000 in East Africa and eradicating […]
Business Call to Action Annual Event
Education and the Global Jobs Challenge
In preparation for the recent 2013 Annual Conference and 10th Anniversary celebration, the Global Business School Network produced a research paper, putting the global employment crisis into context, titled “Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship: A Snapshot of the Global Jobs Challenge.” Employment has always been a central issue in development. In recent years we saw a […]
Designing Products and Services for Illiterate Users
Designing services and communications for illiterate people is a common challenge for many businesses operating in rural areas in emerging countries. In Ethiopia, M-Birr is currently in the final phase of piloting the country’s first mobile money service, in collaboration with several micro-finance institutions. The service enables people to conduct basic financial transactions from their […]
Save the Children Looks to Scale Up its Business Partnerships
Save The Children has had a long standing relationship with a number of corporates since its inception. Historically that relationship was predominately a traditional CSR relationship where businesses gave us a grant to either to contribute to our core costs as an organisation, or to implement a project in a specific country around health, education, […]
The Power of Insurance and Haiti’s Future
The Haitian people face repeated natural and man-made disasters every year – just last week a tropical depression hit the island bringing heavy rains. Haiti is not the only Caribbean country exposed to extreme weather events, but we are the most vulnerable and terribly ill-prepared. What would pass as a shower in the Bahamas leads […]
HOW-TO SHUT THE HELL UP & CHANGE THE WORLD
“If you’re early in your [social justice] career, just shut the hell up and…and work really, really hard,” John Anner, Executive Director of the East Meets West Foundation, tells new social change agents. What in the world is he talking about?!?!? He can’t really mean that, can he? After all, the challenges are huge and […]
From Money to Meaning and Three Themes in Between
Enterprise-Driven Innovation in South Africa
Encouraging and fostering entrepreneurship is increasingly viewed as the best way to empower communities and bring about social change. Large corporations are joining in cross-sector collaborations with public bodies to support impact investment projects that accelerate social and environmental improvements. SABMiller has long placed Enterprise Development at the core of its long-term Sustainable Development strategy. […]