There is a Case for NGO Corporate Partnerships for Development Through Inclusive Business
Private Sector Engagement Coordinator, CARE Bangladesh Over the last ten years, as an integral part of CARE’s mission to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh, we have been engaging with the private sector more and more to identify and implement innovative solutions to the most pressing development challenges of our time. To our private sector partners, we […]
Alive & Kicking – Africa’s Ball Maker Enters New Markets
It is increasingly acknowledged that growth in manufacturing is key to reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The 120 – 150 jobs sustained by stitching sports balls in Kenya and Zambia, with up to 50 more to come in Ghana, is a small but significant part of that crucial trend. With ‘Balls For Africa’ currently on […]
Alive & Kicking – Africa’s Ball Maker Enters New Markets
It is increasingly acknowledged that growth in manufacturing is key to reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The 120 – 150 jobs sustained by stitching sports balls in Kenya and Zambia, with up to 50 more to come in Ghana, is a small but significant part of that crucial trend. With ‘Balls For Africa’ currently on […]
Fashioning Sustainability With Style
Photo: Sougha Designer Training Emirati Artisan Saima Al Mansoori Ayesha Mustafa, Founder and Director, Fashion ComPassion Fashion ComPassion was created as a retail platform for socially responsible fashion labels. Through a combination of online sales and distribution, pop-up shops and boutique exhibitions, a global marketplace is given access to the brands we work with and, […]
Improving the lives of workers and producers through global value chains – what are some of the necessary conditions?
Dr Stephanie Barrientos, Capturing the Gains, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester We are all aware of companies in the North that source in developing countries. For decades, campaign groups have put them under pressure for poor working conditions in their global value chains. But what happens when the lead firms in those global […]
THE LAST 500 FEET
By Paul Polak, Founder, iDE, Author Out of Poverty Developing new practical and profitable ways to cross the last 500 feet to the remote rural places where poor families now live and work is the first step towards creating vibrant new markets that serve poor customers. In rural Orissa, India, the women are not permitted […]
IFC’s “Being the Change”: Exploring the Personal Side of Inclusive Business
One usually thinks of the International Finance Corporation as a hard-nosed investor – an unlikely source of inspiration. Yes, IFC is a development institution whose purpose is “to create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives.” Yes, it is one of the largest investors in the world in companies with inclusive business […]
Scale Up: How do Social Enterprises Meet the Challenge?
Executives from three leading social enterprises—Jaipur Rugs Company, Sproxil, and WaterHealth International—met in New York City on Monday, September 24 to discuss the challenges of scaling up double-bottom line businesses that generate both commercial returns and sustainable development impacts. The Business Call to Action (BCtA), in collaboration with Columbia Business School’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, […]
Promoting New Thinking About Collaboration
Millions of Australians will end it comatose, as the annual Melbourne Cup tradition of drinking-your-entire-body-weight-in-beer-before-lunch will ensure that particular country’s collective outputs for 24 hours will be, at best, sub-optimal. As the table-top dancing down under comes to a close, the United States of America will awake to Election Day, with polls still saying the […]
Business, the MDGs and Beyond
The world has made more gains against poverty in the last 50 years than in the last 500. Since 1990, over six hundred million people have been lifted out of poverty. The world is within reach of seeing every child enrolled in primary school, and many fewer lives are being lost to hunger and disease. […]
Fostering the Growth of Inclusive Businesses
Doing business with the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) isn’t exactly “business as usual”. From the start-up to the scale-up phases companies doing business with the poor come with their own set of challenges. How to overcome challenges for scaling-up and replicating commercially viable inclusive business modelswas the focus of the first G20 Inclusive Business […]
The Power of We
October 15th is Blog Action Day, and the theme this year is “The Power of We”. That idea is at the very heart of Business Fights Poverty. I am continuously blown away by the energy and innovation of individuals around the world who are pioneering new ways of fighting poverty through business: just take a […]
New Resources for Inclusive Business Practitioners
Have you ever asked yourself one, or both, of the following questions? Where can I go to find out who provides finance or technical support for inclusive business? Where can I find information on the practicalities of inclusive business that is accessible, user-friendly and is based on real-life experiences of other entrepreneurs? Ok, so perhaps […]
Bringing Medicines to Low-Income Markets
Prescription medication – it’s all relatively simple, isn’t it? Pharmaceutical companies carry out research and development, produce, and deliver medicines through established distribution channels. We go to a health care professional if something isn’t right with our health or for regular check-ups covered by health insurance, are diagnosed, go to our local pharmacy to fill […]
Top 5 Issues to Strongly Consider If You Are Thinking About Starting a Socially Conscious Business in a Developing Country
As we may be aware either in practice or theory, it is not easy to start a business. It’s even more complex when a portion of your business operates overseas. My career in international development has exposed me to the complexity of cultural systems around the world. However, Evolvemint has allowed me to understand the […]
Forget poverty. Let’s talk about business
In an article I just finished for How Magazine on the future of design, I used Paul Polak as an example of why generalists are so important to the world right now. I said, “For example, it would be easy to think of global development pioneer Paul Polak as an expert in alleviating poverty, but […]
The key to inclusive business: Getting better at partnering
“Partnering with other sectors is a bit like being a parent. Until you’ve experienced it for yourself, you really can’t appreciate what it’s like” – head of education partnerships of a multinational bank. Inclusive business (IB) projects, by definition, tend to sit in areas outside of companies’ traditional comfort zones. Whether providing incomes to disadvantaged […]
Grassroots Business Fund Invests in Jaipur Rugs to Drive Economic Development in India
The Grassroots Business Fund (GBF), a global impact investing organization, is proud to announce a $1 million investment in Jaipur Rugs, one of the largest manufacturers of hand-knotted carpets in India. Jaipur Rugs uses a decentralized rug production system, centered on a network of 7,000 low-income home-based weavers and an additional 3,000 wool spinners. Looms […]
Charting the Change from BPO to BoP: Training the Next Generation of Skilled Labor in India
Before the services industry boom, the choice for a young graduate in India was very limited. You had to be an engineer or doctor to even think of getting into decent salary league, let alone high-paying salary league. No one can deny the business process outsourcing (BPO) boom was the ultimate game changer, as the […]
The Fairest Olympics the World has Ever Seen
Last Friday, London, the largest Fairtrade City in the World, welcomed the London 2012 Olympic Games that are the Fairest Olympics the World has ever seen. During the Games, an estimated 10 million Fairtrade bananas from the Windward Islands and South America will be eaten, 7.5 million cups of Fairtrade tea served, 14 million cups […]