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, […]
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 – […]
Harnessing the Herd – Could Social Intrapreneurs represent a “Trojan Horse” strategy for charities
Toilet Teachings: 2 Toilet Ventures Illustrate Strategies For Success In Inclusive Business
I’ve leant more than I ever expected about toilets the past 6 months. But understanding toilet ventures has taught me a lot about how inclusive business works. In fact, the challenges and innovations that we can see in two sanitation projects in slums of Kenya and India illustrate typical issues for businesses that are solving […]
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 […]
Business Model Innovation for Bottom of the Pyramid
By Julia Guren, Impact Lab On December 6th, Impact Lab and LAB Open Innovation came together with the support of Business Fight Poverty to present a discussion on the challenges and opportunities faced by social entrepreneurs whose work is geared at the Bottom of the Pyramid (‘BoP’). The event brought together a panel of voices […]
Rethinking and Reframing Sustainable Sourcing – Creating Shared Value
Tomorrow – Tuesday 5th February (at 7pm UK) and on Thursday 7th February (2pm UK), I will be discussing the concept of shared value as part of a webinar with Dr Helen Crowley, Conservation & Ecosystem Services Specialist, PPR; and Liesl Truscott, Director Farm Engagement Textile Exchange. To register for the webinar, click here. We […]
BPO for the BoP: Impact Sourcing and potential for boosting employment
, Manager, Research Project Implementation, William Davidson Institute From the global business manager to the casual customer who interacts with a call center when they review a credit card bill, just about everyone is familiar with business process outsourcing (BPO). A myriad of books, news media articles, even an American TV series, explored the pros […]
Home Fortification of Foods: a Sustainble Business Model?
As part of the Business Innovation Facility’s work looking at opportunities for inclusive business approaches in nutrition, we have developed a report that explores the regulatory and political environment for commercial home fortification products in Bangladesh in more detail, and will be useful for those interested in exploring this approach. The report can be found […]
Who’s Innovating at the BOP?
Solar-powered milk cooling systems in Ethiopia, bio-gas charges for electric devices in Bangladesh, testing kits for substandard medicines in Kenya; these are just three of the many innovations that served as an anchor for discussion at last month’s “Implementing Inclusive Innovation” conference, hosted by the BoP Innovation Center in Amsterdam. The Business Call to Action […]
SolarAid's 'SunnyMoney' becomes the biggest seller of solar lights in Africa
As major players in the African pico-solar market met in Dakar in November 2012 for the World Bank Lighting Africa Conference, it emerged that SunnyMoney, SolarAid‘s ambitious social enterprise, has become the biggest last mile seller of solar lights in Africa ahead of oil giant, Total. This progress is the culmination of many years’ work […]
SolarAid’s ‘SunnyMoney’ becomes the biggest seller of solar lights in Africa
As major players in the African pico-solar market met in Dakar in November 2012 for the World Bank Lighting Africa Conference, it emerged that SunnyMoney, SolarAid‘s ambitious social enterprise, has become the biggest last mile seller of solar lights in Africa ahead of oil giant, Total. This progress is the culmination of many years’ work […]
Discussion: What advice for achieving success at the BoP?
Discussion: Achieving success at the BoP?
Paul Polak: Achieving Success at the BoP
Question: If you build a better mousetrap will the world beat a path to your door? Answer: Without superb marketing and distribution nobody beats a path to your door. In my work with a multitude of affordable technologies over the past 30 years, one key feature has become abundantly clear: If you have met the […]
Top Resources of 2012
Whether you seek practical tools for entrepreneurs, or an overview of how inclusive businesses are grappling towards scale, there has been plenty for everyone in the highlights of 2012. On the Practitioner Hub on Inclusive Business we feature an Editor’s Choice every month. I have spent an enjoyable morning going back through the highlights of […]
My top picks of 2012
Whether you seek practical tools for entrepreneurs, or an overview of how inclusive businesses are grappling towards scale, there has been plenty for everyone in the highlights of 2012. On the Practitioner Hub on Inclusive Business we feature an Editor’s Choice every month. I have spent an enjoyable morning going back through the highlights of […]
Jane Berry: If you are helping business, how can you achieve your charitable purpose?
This month is our one year anniversary of arriving in Zambia, to launch COTZ, an academically rigorous trial, to test the ‘ColaLife’ concept: how can we emulate Coca-Cola, to get simple medicines out to the remote rural villages where the world’s top brand seems to reach? We’ve had our share of set-backs and frustrations, but […]