Making international supply chains work for smallholder farmers
Fairtrade Foundation In the wake of recent food scandals, the need to increase focus on building more transparent and accountable food supply chains has once again been in the spotlight. Seeking greater transparency between trading partners, from consumer to retailer to small farmer organisations will also be one of the themes under discussion at a […]
Is there a business case for women as part of global supply chains?
Research commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found that many international food companies could improve crop productivity and quality, grow the smallholder supply base and improve access to high value markets when they increase women participation. However, in spite of such evidence problems for African women in business persist and the same research […]
Kristie Wang: Nutrients for All – Thriving Ecosystems for Productive, Resilient Food Systems
Natural ecosystems ensure that vital nutrients flow from soils to food to people. Thriving ecosystems are the bedrock of healthy nutrient chains, the basis of all life on the planet. So what’s the issue? Degraded by human activity like unsustainable agricultural practices, ecosystems around the world and their capacity to regenerate are threatened. This escalating […]
Nutrients for All – Thriving Ecosystems for Productive, Resilient Food Systems
Natural ecosystems ensure that vital nutrients flow from soils to food to people. Thriving ecosystems are the bedrock of healthy nutrient chains, the basis of all life on the planet. So what’s the issue? Degraded by human activity like unsustainable agricultural practices, ecosystems around the world and their capacity to regenerate are threatened. This escalating […]
Improving Education Governance and Financing- A Bigger Role for the Private Sector
By Allison Anderson Nonresident Fellow, Center for Universal Education, Brookings Institution, and Amanda Gardiner, Head of International Affairs, Pearson What are the key obstacles in financing education? Who should be held accountable for ensuring that children receive a good quality education? These questions are at the heart of the debate going on in the post-2015 […]
Voluntourism: More Harm than Good?
I recently came across an interesting article problematizing voluntourism and assessing whether it does more harm than good in communities of the global south. It reminded me of my own concerns with voluntourism that originated in my college years in which I had participated in ‘Alternative Spring Breaks.’ It was considered an ‘alternative’ to what […]
Ossob Mohamud: Voluntourism – More Harm than Good?
I recently came across an interesting article problematizing voluntourism and assessing whether it does more harm than good in communities of the global south. It reminded me of my own concerns with voluntourism that originated in my college years in which I had participated in ‘Alternative Spring Breaks.’ It was considered an ‘alternative’ to what […]
Nutrients for All: Vitality in Soil, Food, and People
Being fully nourished is a must for good health, but did you know that the carrot you’re eating today probably has far fewer vitamins and minerals than a carrot grown 50 years ago? Soil depletion, as a result of unsustainable farming methods, is a primary culprit. Another cause of depleted nutrients has been the breeding […]
Discussion: Do you think that volunteer tourists do more harm than good?
Eric Clayton: The League of Intrapreneurs United
A new force for entrepreneurship is stirring within established corporations: the social intrapreneur. They help businesses innovate from within by fixing their sights on social change as pioneers, while at the same time keeping their hands on the steering wheel as pragmatic leaders. Like social entrepreneurs, social intrapreneurs seek to make a positive impact in […]
Creating Jobs through Youth entrepreneurship in Côte d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire, like many countries all over the world, is facing the difficult issue of how to create jobs for the country’s young population. Already in 2008, Côte d’Ivoire had more than four million unemployed youth (the total population is estimated to be 21 million). At that time, the unemployment rate was 24.2% among 15-24 […]
Call for Evidence: Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid
The Government is carrying out a review of the balance of competences between the European Union and the United Kingdom. The balance of competences review will give us an informed and objective analysis of where the EU helps and where it hampers, providing a comprehensive analysis of what the EU means for this country. DFID […]
Discussion – Inclusive Business Insights – CSR vs IB
Interview with Lourenço Bustani: the New Way of Doing Business
“Brands have tremendous difficulty understanding people as people,” according to Lourenço Bustani. He is pointing to the big challenge facing businesses nowadays as they try to deal with people’s needs in a changing economy. Bustani is a Brazilian innovator who decided to show the private market that it is possible to be prosperous without abdicating […]
Interview with Richard Wiltshire: From Idea to Implementation
“You can do an amazing amount of good, working with some of the largest companies in the world,” says Richard Wiltshire, senior manager at Accenture. As a social intrapreneur, Wiltshire believes being a corporate citizen is an unspoken commitment of every employee. Whether they start an effort on their own or join one such as […]
Interview with Dymphna Van der Lans: The Courage to Lead
When Dymphna Van der Lans was asked to set up a new alternative energy business for BP in emerging markets, she embraced the unique challenges and risks of working within an organizational structure, yet pushing into new territory, that are part of leading an intrapreneurial initiative. Here, she offers some key insights from her journey […]
Interview with Jillene Connors Belopolsky: The Bigger “Whole” in Business
What if 1 + 1 could somehow equal 3? For social intrapreneurs working for social or environmental welfare from within a large business, there’s a chance it can. In order to create a whole that’s bigger than the sum of its parts, social intrapreneurs must be savvy. They must not only develop solutions to pressing […]
Development in Transition
This morning the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening, gave a major speech on international development, setting out her priorities for the Department for International Development (DFID). The event was hosted by ONE Campaign UK. Below is a transcript of the speech: I’ve been privileged to head up DFID now as Secretary […]
High ideals and hiccups – three wishes for Unilever and employers everywhere
By Rosey Hurst, Founder and Director, Impactt Applause today must go to Unilever’s courageous decision to allow Oxfam unfettered access to its operations and supply chain in Vietnam. This has resulted in a report revealing both high ideals and implementation hiccups when it comes to the quality of jobs Unilever directly provides or supports through […]
Oxfam and Unilever – no longer such strange bedfellows?
Oxfam GB has today published a groundbreaking report on labour rights in Unilever’s supply chain. It is groundbreaking not so much because of its content (although as the project’s technical advisor and co-author of the report, I do think we have some fascinating findings to present). No, it’s the fact that a company as large […]