Author: Webmaster Business Fights Poverty

Creating Shared Value in India

Today India represents one of the fastest growing economies in the world, in great contrast with the debilitating poverty and economic stagnation experienced by one-fifth of its population. Such stark contrast between success and continued need has led the government of India to conclude that “inclusive growth” is a key priority for national development. It’s […]

Rushanara Ali MP: Do you know where your clothes come from?

Bangladesh is changing so rapidly – I see this every time I visit. Growth rates are at about 7% a year and it is now one of the countries identified by Goldman Sachs investment bank as ‘The Next Eleven’ (or N-11) – countries who have the potential, along with the BRICS, to become the worlds […]

BBC World Challenge 2011

This week sees the end of this year’s BBC World Challenge. There are just a few days left for you to vote for your favourite sustainable business and project: the 12 Finalists are profiled below. Vote before midnight (GMT) 11th November. TRASH TO CASH Hand in Hand – biogas energy, India Food waste from restaurants […]

Smallholders Critical to Reigniting Rural Development in Asia

Rural poverty has declined throughout Asia and the overall economic performance has increased. Agricultural development has played a major role in these improvements with smallholder farmers in the lead. Around the world they already feed almost a third of the world’s population and produce 80 per ent of the food consumed in the developing world. […]

Joe Phelan: Time for Business and NGOs to Move from High Ground to Common Ground

By Joe Phelan, India Country Director, IBLF Change is afoot in India, as the debate on the role of business to support inclusive growth shifts from theory to implementation. The new landscape is one where companies are mandated by government to spend a proportion of their profits on CSR initiatives while major aid agencies are […]

Clare Melford: Four Things Progressive Companies are Exploring Now

At a recent university reunion event, I met my old tutor. His eyes lit up as I told him about the work we’re doing at IBLF with global business leaders. “Maybe some of them would be willing to be the research subjects of my latest paper,” said the renowned neuroscientist. I asked what it was […]

How can business help tackle undernutrition?

There has been much talk over the last decade of the role of the private sector in development. In the beginning, we debated fiercely over whether there even should be a role – in fact this debate still rages on. But for many it became clear that excluding the private sector was not practical and […]

Facilitating Pro-Poor Growth: 50 Development Organizations Discuss their Outcomes Using M4P

By Roger Oakeley, M4P Hub Manager “M4P” is an innovative approach that focuses on improving markets and systems to reduce poverty and promote pro-poor economic growth. It offers a framework to diagnose conditions in market systems that hinder pro-poor growth and guidance on engaging with key market systems players (whether public, private, non-government or civil […]

Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group: Screw Business as Usual

Through my experiences in my life and more recently with Virgin Unite, the nonprofit foundation for Virgin Group, I’ve learnt about the power that business has to drive change, whether that is simply creating thousands of jobs and a company where people love to come to work every day, or building a company to tackle […]

New survey: importance of mentoring and training for entrepreneurs

Non-financial support is a vital factor behind the success of today’s young entrepreneurs, a YBI survey of 1,000 entrepreneurs in 21 countries today reveals. The survey, launched today to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week, shows that although entrepreneurs need money to start up their business, it is the non-financial assistance, such as mento­ring and training, that […]

Kenya-based firm to provide 100,000 small farmers with micro-loans

For more news from the Business Call to Action please click here. New York/Nairobi, 11 November 2011 – Juhudi Kilimo, a Kenya-based investment firm, announced today that it will provide some 100,000 smallholder rural farmers in Kenya—more than half of them women—with access to micro-loans and basic financial training by 2016 as part of the […]

Seeking Great Business Ideas for Investment

The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), which invests in businesses wishing to implement commercially viable and high development impact projects in Africa, is launching three new competitions to spur business innovation and investment in: agribusiness development across Sub-Saharan Africa; renewable energy and adaptation to help small farmers in East Africa to adapt to climate change; […]

An Introduction to the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund

Hugh Scott, Director of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund outlined the AECF at an event co-hosted with Business Action for Africa on 10 November 2011. To listed to audio of Hugh’s presentation, click here. The event marked the London launch of three new funding windows – on agribusiness, South Sudan and renewable energy / adaptation […]

Zidisha.org Facilitates $100,000 in P2P Microloans, “Turns Microfinance On Its Head”

While conducting fieldwork for a microfinance organization in West Africa in 2006, Zidisha.org founder Julia Kurnia noticed something startling. Loans that were funded at zero interest by well-meaning participants in the popular microlending website Kiva.org were costing the impoverished beneficiaries more than 35% on average in interest and fees. The exorbitant rates were charged by […]

CDC appoints new Chief Executive

CDC, the UK’s development finance institution (DFI), has appointed Diana Noble as its new Chief Executive Officer. Noble joins the organisation at a time of significant change, with a new business plan published earlier this year in response to a major review by the Department for International Development (DFID). As well as acting as a […]

Innovations in local sourcing

Graham Mackay, CEO, SABMiller, speaking at the launch of Africa’s first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala’, will be brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller’s local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). Approximately 40,000 tonnes of raw cassava will be used annually in the production of Impala, creating new employment for over 1,500 smallholder farmers and […]