iDE and innocent foundation: Creating successful NGO-Business Partnerships
Since 2006 non-profit organisation iDE UK and the innocent foundation have achieved a major impact in some of the world’s poorest communities in Africa and Asia. They have found new, innovative ways to create shared value that can offer insights into creating successful partnerships between NGOs and the business world. Creating shared value starts with […]
Product Paternalism – Consumer Choice at the BoP
Women’s empowerment means voter choice, partner choice, healthcare choice, reproductive choice, career choice, and consumer choice. Who would argue that a shovel, seeds, and a watering can are not useful and important products to sell in impoverished communities? Or school supplies, study aids, pens, and paper? Or a mattress to lift children off a dirt […]
Meet Anowara Shuley: Sewing Fabrics and Reaping Success
Anowara Shuley is challenging traditional beliefs, empowering destitute women and educating the poor. Following a family dispute which left her destitute, she embarked on a self-funded tailoring course. At the age of 24 she launched her business, Shawon Hosto Shilpo, producing fashion and handcrafted products for sale in Dhaka in Bangladesh. However, due to a […]
Leveraging the Potential of Green and Inclusive Businesses
The greatest global challenges of today – poverty, pollution, and climate change – are closely linked. People living at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) are the most vulnerable to environmental pollution and suffer most severely from the consequences of climate change. Achieving green and inclusive growth has become an urgent and challenging priority in […]
Harnessing the Potential of Corporate Volunteering
In 2001, CODESPA developed the Global Corporate Volunteering (CV) programme “Professionals for Development”. After more than 10 years of experience, CODESPA wants to share the main learning outcomes of this initiative, in which almost 150 employees of companies such as PwC, Carrefour or Canal de Isabel II, among others, have participated. These employees have contributed […]
Poverty-Reduction Through Innovative Pro-Poor Microfinance Services
Women perform 66% of the world’s work but earn only 10% of its income and own just 1% of global property (Global Poverty Project). They are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, healthcare and employment. Women also experience much higher […]
Poverty Reduction Through Innovative Microfinance Services
Women perform 66% of the world’s work but earn only 10% of its income and own just 1% of global property (Global Poverty Project). They are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, healthcare and employment. Women also experience much higher […]
Meet Mohan Singh: Inspiring Entrepreneurship through Mentoring
Do you remember that one teacher or guide who made a positive and lasting impact on your life? If you have ever provided support or advice based on your own life experiences, you have been a mentor to someone. And everyone needs a mentor. “Mentoring” might not be a glossy word but it is a […]
Conflicting Trends? Evidence-Based Policy and Systemic Change
Ben Taylor, The Springfield Centre for Business in Development Like British sportspeople and the overuse of acronyms, evidence-based policy and systemic change are in fashion. For the last decade these trends have increasingly been the flavours of the month but no one seems to have realised that, when put together, they taste a bit odd. […]
Impact Investment and Beyond – Mapping Support For Social Enterprises
There is a lot of excitement about the potential of social enterprise to deliver innovative solutions to development problems. There also is a lot of interest from a wide range of actors – donors, commercial banks, NGOs and business schools – to understand, finance and provide support to social enterprises. For example, impact investors have […]
Marketing GravityLight for the Base of the Pyramid
By Caroline Angus, Associate, On Purpose GravityLight ticks multiple boxes: An innovative form of off-grid lighting? Tick. A light to help eliminate harmful and hazardous kerosene lamps? Yes. A light independent of batteries –their limited lifespan, capacity and issues of disposal? Check. A light that doesn’t rely on the weather? Yup. A light that brings […]
How Can We Create Business Opportunities in the Fight Against Malnutrition?
For decades, hunger has been the most serious problem plaguing developing and newly industrialized countries. While headway has been made in the battle against hunger, two billion people are still suffering from malnutrition in developed and developing countries alike. Because of this, on June 3rd and 4th, Ashoka Changemakers held a Globalizer Summit in Frankfurt, […]
Innovation Through Collaboration
A silo-buster is an innovator who refuses to allow a good idea to be pigeon-holed. Rather than being compartmentalized by the customary way of doing things, they break through corporate, academic, or societal categories, calling on a host of different disciplines and departments to take the next step. But innovation is only a first step […]
Empowerment Through Metrics
You might be surprised to learn that the solution to global hunger doesn’t lie in simply increasing the world’s food supply. If more food isn’t the answer, then what is? For an issue as wide-reaching as global hunger, the basic questions can be the most important – and most elusive. For example, how do we […]
Agency Through Community
Even the most groundbreaking ideas will fail if only one or two individuals pursue them. In order to reach a tipping point, an idea needs the support of a community—and the bigger the community, the better. That’s why Ashoka invited more than 150 experts from diverse fields to a Globalizer Summit in Frankfurt, Germany this […]
3 Lessons Food Companies Can Learn From Social Entrepreneurs
One panel discussion at Ashoka’s recent Globalizer Summit in Frankfurt, Germany, “Fighting the ‘Hidden Hunger,” brought together stakeholders from various sectors, including funding agencies, agri-businesses, think tanks, nutrition organizations, and social entrepreneurs who were interested in growing a global nutrient economy. Reflecting these diverse backgrounds, the panel included Prof. Dr. Konrad Biesalski, author of the […]
Social Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid Across Latin America
Turning Waste into Wealth – A Young Entrepreneur’s Contribution Towards Community, the Environment, and National Happiness
At just 30 years old, Karma Yonten is Bhutan’s first citizen to turn waste management and recycling into a business. The old saying goes that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”: Karma saw opportunity in the country’s maligned, unsightly and toxic landfills, which had dangerous side-effects for people’s health. His pioneering enterprise, Greener Way, […]
Miller Lite Helps America’s Entrepreneurs Tap the Future
For 13 years, MillerCoors invested more than $1.9 million in the businesses and dreams of entrepreneurs through its MillerCoors Urban Entrepreneurs Series business competition, also known as MUES. Now, Miller Lite has launched a new programme to continue the company’s commitment to social investment. ‘Tap the Future’ picks up the torch with a bold new […]
Accelerating Peace through Youth Entrepreneurship
I recently participated in a conference on fighting piracy in Somalia. The topic: how to combat the thousands of men, AK47’s strapped to their backs, that were taking skiffs into the azure blue waters of the Indian Ocean to hijack and loot ships. The conference had a packed schedule, and international security officials discussed everything […]