Investing in Latin America’s Water and Sanitation Solutions
In recent years, rattling off the stats underpinning the problem of water and sanitation solutions has thankfully become more common. Awareness is on the rise. But that doesn’t change the fact that an estimated 2.5 billion people – 37 percent of the world’s population – face the health risks associated with deficient or absent sanitation […]
Maximum Aspiration and Minimum Standards- Driving Change in Business Contributions to Poverty Reduction
Justine Greening’s speech on 11 March at the London Stock Exchange on business and development repays careful study. It expands on the commitment to growth and jobs that she made in an earlier, agenda-setting speech on 7 February. In that earlier speech, she committed to ‘ramping up’ DFID’s focus on helping to drive economic growth, […]
The Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles – Paving the way for Responsible Business in Nigeria
Entering Lagos – a city of 7 million and the second fastest growing city in Africa – is quite an experience. One is immediately stunned by the chaotic atmosphere, the obvious energy that can only be found in a booming African economy and the feeling that opportunities lie in every corner. For an outsider visiting […]
Go BIG with Your Social Impact Career
Next week, I am speaking at Emory University in Atlanta (and grabbing a hot dog at The Varsity). Each year, I teach at the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies. Without fail, students ask me how and where to apply their talents, knowledge and passion to build a world of social and economic justice. […]
Launch Of The BCtA In Sweden And Announcement Of IKEA’s Commitment
Sahba Sobhani, Program Manager, Business Call to Action, UNDP and Carolina Benedictsson, Program Manager, Global Cooperation Unit, Sida Developing business models that offer both commercial success and development impact has been at the core of the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a worthwhile initiative supported by UNDP and other partners since 2008 to assists companies […]
Living Goods – the “Avon of pro-poor products”
Photo credit: Esther Havens By Susannah Hares, Head of Innovation, ARK International Tim Harford, in his quite brilliant book Adapt, said: “Few company bosses would care to admit it, but the market fumbles its way to success, as successful ideas take off and unsuccessful ones die. When we see the survivors of this process – […]
Discussion – Water with SABMiller
Access to Nutrition Index Calls on Businesses to Improve Their Nutrition Practices
, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition Obesity and undernutrition affect over 3 billion people and are among the world’s most pressing public health concerns. Efforts to address them are vital to ensure that people around the world can live healthy and productive lives. The launch of the Access to Nutrition Index (ATNI) this […]
Dan Pallotta: Business Can’t Solve the World’s Problems — But Capitalism Can
Business and capitalism get conflated — in our media, our language and in our thinking. They are not the same thing. One is a sector, the other a methodology. By inextricably linking the two, we confine the practice of real, turbo-charged capitalism to business, and we dangerously limit the capacity of non-business organizations to innovate, […]
Harnessing the Herd – Could Social Intrapreneurs represent a “Trojan Horse” strategy for charities
Toward an Ecosystem for Early-Stage Incubation of Social Enterprises in East Africa
This past December, 55 participants gathered in Nairobi for a workshop on early-stage incubation of social enterprises in East Africa. The workshop was hosted by ANDE, CARE, The Rockefeller Foundation, USAID and the Acumen Fund and facilitated by Open Capital Advisors. The workshop was designed to be a forum that would allow participants to develop […]
World Water Day: A Sustainable Water Solution for Coffee Processing in Ethiopia
Lensamo Lamiso’s coffee wet mill sits near the banks of the Kolla River in Ethiopia’s Sidama Zone. During the harvest season, the site bustles with activity as 150 seasonal workers process fresh coffee “cherries” from thousands of local farmers. But this activity comes at a cost. Lamiso’s mill uses a large amount of water to […]
World Water Day: Cooperation is Key
By Stuart Orr, Freshwater Manager, WWF; Franz-Josef Batz, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH; and Andy Wales, SVP of Sustainable Development, SABMiller The theme of this year’s world water day is ‘cooperation’. At first glance, cooperation might appear a somewhat passive sentiment; but, in the context of the global water challenge, meaningful change and […]
Fuelling Botswana’s flourishing entrepreneur scene
There is a strong culture of entrepreneurship in Botswana, a country that stands as one of Africa’s notable economic development success stories over the past two decades. But despite the country’s relative success, unemployment remains a major issue; hence job creation and economic diversification form a central theme for all key stakeholders, including public, private […]
Discussion: BIF and Sanitation
Lendwithcare in the Philippines – Providing more than just microcredit
Like every visit to a lendwithcare.org partner, it has been characteristically heartening to see how these businesses are thriving because of access to vital capital. A typical story is to see that within a year or so of investment, coupled with financial and business advice from our partner MFIs, entrepreneurs have managed to double or […]
IFC: MICROINSURANCE – A Private Sector Safety Net
When people lack insurance, accidents, disasters, and death can bring financial devastation. And in the developing world, most people lack insurance. But a new IFC investment will help 11 million people obtain it in the coming years. When tragedy strikes, those in low- and middle-income groups often lose their earning power and face immediate hardship, […]
Cassava beer in Ghana – New Beer, New Opportunities
Today we’re excited to announce the launch of our cassava beer, Eagle, in Ghana. It marks not just the launch of a new beer brand, but the opening up of new opportunities for business, consumers and Ghana’s smallholder farmers. It is estimated that more than 70 percent of Ghanaian farms are 3 hectares or smaller […]
Good Intentions Don’t Always Guarantee Good Results
Last year, Corporate Citizenship published a report on Inclusive Business, The Next Frontier for Corporate Responsibility, which praised companies like Unilever, SABMiller, Nestlé and Diageo for their work in developing countries. These companies, we said, were “spreading opportunities to poor and disadvantaged people through job creation, regular income generation, connection to markets, access to education […]
Low Carbon Logic: How competitiveness drivers create a business case for low carbon investment
Climate change, international mitigation, and natural resource scarcity will transform global trade patterns. What impact will this have on developing countries? How can they maintain their competitiveness, manage threats to their growth, and capitalise on new opportunities generated? And what does this mean for their potential to achieve low carbon growth? At an ODI public […]