Trends and Results in Private Sector Development: A Donor Perpective
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results and in part on the DCED Standard for results measurement. There were around 100 participants from 32 countries, representing 54 different organisations, field programmes […]
Trends and Results in Private Sector Development: Reforming the Business Environment
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results and in part on the DCED Standard for results measurement. There were around 100 participants from 32 countries, representing 54 different organisations, field programmes […]
Trends and Results in Private Sector Development Continued
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results and in part on the DCED Standard for results measurement. There were around 100 participants from 32 countries, representing 54 different organisations, field programmes […]
Manufacturing Still Matters
In an interview for Making It Magazine, Charles Arthur and Michele Clara spoke to popular economist, Ha-Joon Chang, about the race to the bottom, going green and the Occupy movement. You took part in a recent Economist magazine online debate on the relevance of manufacturing, so let’s start with a simple question: Does industry still […]
ANDE Celebrates its Third Anniversary
Last week, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) celebrated its third anniversary. As often happens with milestones, for me it was a time to reflect. ANDE is a network of organizations that support small and growing businesses (SGBs) and entrepreneurship in developing and emerging markets. I was first exposed to this idea in the […]
Barend van Bergen: Sustainability Fundamental to Long-Term Business Performance
Almost four years ago, while being seconded from KPMG to the WBCSD, I was involved in a series of workshops aimed at involving the capital markets in sustainability. Reflecting now on the lively conversations that took place, I genuinely believe we have made some progress. Although I never predicted events would unfold as they have, […]
Water Security and Improving Access to Safe Drinking Water
On Thursday last week (22 March), we at Diageo conducted a webcast presentation to our investor community on how being a sustainable and responsible company is critical in supporting, protecting and strengthening our reputation and driving long term value. Today, stakeholders are increasingly evaluating companies on their ability to support their growth prospects through broader […]
Meet Chris Markl: Founder, Kourage Athletics
BFP:What do you do? CM: I’m the Founder of Kourage Athletics: Kenya’s Running Brand – We create athletic apparel that is 100% African & 100% Ethical from design through distribution. Our garments are sold globally with revenues reinvested into Kenya. We seek to leverage the storied tradition of Kenyan runners to inject foreign revenue & […]
Beyond Microfinance: Can Government Cash Transfers Scale Up Financial Access for the Poorest?
What next after microcredit? The last few years of news scandals in the microfinance arena has created a gap in the credibility and viability of providing effective, low-cost and impactful financial services to the poor. Newer studies calculating the impact of microcredit find controversial development impact. SKS Finance’s $347 mn IPO (coming after Compartamos’ record-breaking […]
The Business Case for Financial Capability and Why it Matters
In the wake of the mortgage crisis in developed countries, and separate lending crises in other countries like India, there is a growing level of attention being paid to the issue of consumers’ capabilities to engage with the financial sector. Certainly, as “Bridging the Gap: The Business Case for Financial Capability” shows, access to finance […]
Oxfam – Gender Equality
Gender issues have long been key to Oxfam’s mission to fight poverty, but we have not previously given great prominence to the role of business in gender and development. Earlier in the month, to coincide with International Women’s Day, we rectified that by launching Gender Inequality: it’s your Business. We recognise that many companies do […]
Empowering Poor Women at the Base of the Pyramid?
Base of the pyramid (BoP) approaches have been attracting a lot of attention in business and development circles lately. Although typically associated with highly publicised schemes such as Grameen’s “village phone ladies” and Hindustan Unilever’s “Project Shakti”, a number of BoP initiatives have sprung up across Africa and Asia to address a range of development […]
A Responsibility and a Market: Why Danone May Represent the Future of BoP Business
NextBillion.net, Senior Strategist Saatchi and Saatchi The “future of BOP business” is a sweeping, flashy claim. Yet Danone’s strategy appears to be different for all the right, non-flashy reasons. A strict focus on unit economics, clear understanding of the business’ role in social impact, and most of all, direct links between base of the pyramid […]
CARE Bangladesh’s Rural Sales Programme: Empowering Poor Women?
Base of the pyramid (BoP) approaches have been attracting a lot of attention in business and development circles lately. Although typically associated with highly publicised schemes such as Grameen’s “village phone ladies” and Hindustan Unilever’s “Project Shakti”, a number of BoP initiatives have sprung up across Africa and Asia to address a range of development […]
Survival of the Fittest
IBLF – Expert Insight: Steve Almond, Chairman of Deloitte
IBLF – Expert Insight: Steve Almond, Chairman of Deloitte from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo. “The young talent of today aren’t going to be inspired by reading banners on the intranet or seeing logos on the company note paper. They want to see their CEO leading by example.” Deloitte’s Chairman Steve Almond spoke to IBLF’s […]
2012 Event Series: Strengthening local supply chain opportunities in the extractives sector
2012 Series: Enhancing Local Content
Trends and Results in Private Sector Development
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results – since those are now so much in demand: how to work out the logic of the programme, how to monitor progress and how […]
Trends and Results in Private Sector Development: TradeMark East Africa
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results and in part on the DCED Standard for results measurement. There were around 100 participants from 32 countries, representing 54 different organisations, field programmes […]