Top Stories of 2018
It’s been another busy year at Business Fights Poverty, including with the launch of 6 new reports on Education for Sustainable Development, Transformative Partnerships, Intrapreneur Ecosystems, Refugee-Inclusive Business, Advocacy Partnerships, and Low-Cost Education – all co-created through our Challenge-based approach to collaboration. Thank you to all our members and Content Partners who participated in these Challenges, and also to all […]
Most Millennials Will Only Work For Purpose-Driven Firms
The most attractive companies to today’s talent are driven by purpose, according to London Business School (LBS) experts. “Maybe we will stop talking about purpose in 10 years’ time because it will just be ingrained in any organisation as a taken-for-granted – that any company that wants to be successful must pursue purpose,” said Alex […]
Are you a Small Business Working in Frontier Markets? An Opportunity to Showcase your Approach and Influence How You Get Support
Invitation to share your experiences: We invite you to share your experiences of barriers and drivers of doing business in frontier markets and to help shape how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are better supported by the UK Government and other organisations in doing their international business. By filling in our online survey, you will […]
Making Supply Chains Work for Women
BSR is pleased to launch a new video that sets out why and how companies should work to drive gender equality in global supply chains. We invite you to take a moment to watch it below. There are many opportunities for companies to promote gender equality in supply chains—through their own actions, by enabling business partners, and by influencing industry peers […]
Finance for All: Wedded to Fintech for Better or for Worse
The marriage metaphor appropriately captures the link between technology and financial inclusion as we launch “Finance for All 2018: Wedded to Fintech, for Better or Worse,” a new report on what financial inclusion stakeholders see as crucial risks facing financial service providers in emerging markets who work with those with little or no access to […]
NEW REPORTS: Intrapreneurship, Partnerships, Refugees and Education
Business Fights Poverty continues, as it has done over the past decade, to be the network for the private sector and its partners to unlock new opportunities for social impact. This work continues at pace and over the past month, not only did we host our annual UN General Assembly side event with 200 professionals […]
The Intrapreneurship Ecosystem: Creating the Conditions for Social Intrapreneurs to Thrive
As more and more companies commit to using their core business to help meet the Global Goals, the spotlight is falling on social intrapreneurs – those talented individuals working inside organisations to generate and develop innovative ideas for projects with social impact. Much has been written about what makes an intrapreneur: the characteristics and attributes, […]
17 Business Models to Build Refugee Resilience
Turning a crisis into an opportunity is a bold idea. But, difficult to do in practice. This week world leaders have gathered in New York where they are expected to agree on a landmark commitment to strengthen the international refugee response under the Global Compact on Refugees. A commitment that hinges on the ability to […]
High ESG Standards in Logistics for Economic Development
The logistics sector in India presents an opportunity for impact focused investors. It’s a vital, enabling industry that is essential to the many manufacturers in the industrial parts of the country. However, the network is expensive and inefficient. For example, logistics costs the equivalent of 14 per cent of GDP – compared with 8-10 per […]
Building Scalable and Self-Sustaining Safe Water Enterprises
Imagine a life without safe drinking water. It isn’t easy. Most of us take for granted that we can just turn on a tap and fill a glass. But that’s not an option for roughly one in four of the world’s population — the 2.1 billion people who still lack access to safe drinking water […]
Why Going All in for Sustainability Makes It More Likely a Business Will Encourage Its Intrapreneurs
In our new book “All In – The Future of Business Leadership,” Chris Coulter from GlobeScan, Mark Lee from SustainAbility and I, argue that businesses can no longer afford to be hesitant or half-hearted about sustainability. They have to be “All In!” Going All In means having a clear Purpose, which is authentic and inspiring, […]
Partnerships Cultivate Change in the Niger Delta
Economic development is inherently unstable, and the ebbs and flows of progress can be unsettling. This is true in the Niger Delta, which contains one of the world’s largest supplies of oil and an abundance of other commodities like catfish, cocoa and palm oil. Yet, 70 percent of its 30 million people live in poverty […]
Animal Medicine on the Move: Delivering Agro-Vet Services to Pastoralists
Dr. Jackson Kinyua serves as the Director of Veterinary Services in Garissa County, a rural, semi-arid region of northern Kenya, near the border with Somalia. The public servant’s job is to look after the health of approximately 4.4 million cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys, which make up the backbone of the county’s economy. It’s […]
8 SSIR Articles on Businesses Pursuing a Social Mission
Consumers increasingly expect businesses to look out for not only their shareholders, but also society at large. They want to see their values reflected in the products and services they use, and prefer brands that invest in meaningful, long-term relationships with their customers. Companies that take time to listen and respond to these consumer demands […]
Galvanizing Businesses to Generate Positive Social Impact Through Impact Sourcing
Three months on from the launch of the Global Impact Sourcing Challenge, we are delighted by the outpouring of support from GISC members, over half of which have already responded. The Global Impact Sourcing Coalition (GISC), a business network creating jobs for those most in need through Impact Sourcing, challenged its members to hire 100,000 […]
Walking Beyond Tokenism
I am so moved by the heart wrenching impact of climate change across the globe, where women were hit first, worst and hardest. It made me question my own personal responsibility. I was, as always inspired by Mahathma Gandhi, as to what he said about “being the change you want see to in the world”. […]
From Produce to Profits: How Mobile Technology Is Strengthening the Livelihoods of Spinach Growers
James Kamau is the chairman of the Tana Farmers Group, an organization of smallholders in central Kenya. He knows his members face a litany of challenges, common to many smallholders across East Africa. Their farms are small and yields are low, and the intermediaries who purchase their crops pay little. The farmers struggle to access […]
Want More Intrapreneurs in Your Organisation? Create the Right Culture
The Intrapreneur Systems Challenge was launched in February this year with the objective of helping organisations unlock increased levels of social innovation and intrapreneurship. Co-hosted by Business Fights Poverty and The League of Intrapreneurs, and supported by DFID, CEMEX and the BMW Foundation, the objective of this Challenge is to deepen our understanding of the […]
Two Weeks to Go and Acumen Explore Investing in Impact
Acumen was founded in 2001 with the mission of changing the way the world tackles poverty. Our model: To raise philanthropy and invest it for up to a decade, sometimes more, in intrepid entrepreneurs building businesses to serve the poor; Early-stage companies at critical moments in their evolution, because that’s where capital is most scarce. […]
CARE Examine the Importance of Gender Equity in Business
Gender equality is high on the corporate agenda, from sales of feminist merchandise, to gender pay gap reporting, to celebrities and politicians forming coalitions; confronting institutional norms and behaviour. It feels like we are in a moment in history where putting gender equity firmly on the table and creating positive change could make lasting equality. […]