Reaching the SDGS – New Alliances in Digital Development
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call on all of us to work as partners to end extreme poverty, fight inequality, and address climate change. Digital technologies enable government and citizen action towards these global goals. The rising ubiquity of mobile phones, the increased global use of communication and social media applications such as WhatsApp and […]
Training Beyond Gender Roles in Cambodia
Sopheak smiles widely and proudly after showing me her crops and then asks me if I can share her story, so this is for her. Sopheak Nop is 25 years old from Kandal province in Cambodia. Her father passed away when she was young and she lives with her mother and sister. Over the years […]
Changing Trade, Changing Lives
“Change is in your pocket: be the change you wish to see in the world.” At the Fairtrade Foundation we’re about to launch our new 2016-20 strategy. Like all of you, we’ve been exploring how we adapt to the many seismic shifts and trends, which will affect the ability of Fairtrade businesses and supply chains […]
Design Thinking and Solar Power for BOP Markets
In Africa, two-thirds of the population is without access to electricity. To fuel economic growth and empower people to become more productive with their lives, governments, business, and the nonprofit sector have been working on providing people across the continent with solar energy. While progress has been made, many obstacles and barriers remain. Besides the […]
New Survey Launched on Inclusive Business Policy
How can governments more effectively support inclusive businesses? Give us your input. The G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business (GPIB) invites you to participate in the GPIB Inclusive Business Survey. The survey is open to any company that is working with people living at the base of the pyramid (BOP) – companies implementing an “inclusive […]
Clarity Matters in Inclusive Business
Inclusive businesses are commercially viable core-business models that provide at scale innovative and systemic solutions to the relevant problems of the poor and low-income people. While inclusive business is becoming increasingly popular, there is still a lot of confusion about what it is, how it addresses the poor, and how it works. Inclusive business models […]
Building Smallholder Resliance to Drought in Ethiopia
“There will always be a solution as long as we have food, but if a person has nothing to eat, there is no solution for any problem.” Collective savings and access to loans have helped a group of women in Ethiopia cope longer with the ongoing drought, but now resources are running out. The El […]
Livelihood Agenda for Refugees and Host Communities
On 3rd and 4th February 2016, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the governments of the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and Kuwait co-hosted an international conference on the Syrian regional crisis. In advance of this, CARE International, the UK Department for International Development, Business Fights Poverty and the Ethical Trading […]
What Happens When Competitors Collaborate?
In Malawi Christian Aid has found that a common purpose – realising the potential of the rice and pigeon pea sectors – has brought competitors together with interesting results. You may wonder why competing smallholder co-operatives, buyers, traders, processors and exporters would join forces? Well, ultimately they believed it’s better to be competitors in a […]
Unlocking Solutions with Inclusive Business Innovations
Over 300 representatives of companies, social enterprises, and governments Asia-wide will gather next week at ADB for the 2nd Inclusive Business Forum for Asia. The forum, organized by ADB and 8 development partners, is one of the year’s most significant regional events on inclusive business in Asia. ADB defines inclusive business as a private sector […]
iDE: Reaching 20 Million More People
Since 1983 iDE has leveraged the power of business to help rural entrepreneurs work their way out of poverty. From our first social enterprise in Somalia to our more recent businesses from Vietnam to Latin America, we have helped more than 23 million people gain access to a technology or service. We strive for tangible, […]
Hybrid Social Finance: Partnerships That Drive Success
By Bernard Coffey, Former business leader and long-time volunteer, Ashoka Support Network (ASN) team It was a simple networking dinner where a business executive met a social entrepreneur with a great idea, which led to a long-term and very successful partnership in the nascent field of social finance and “impact investing.” The social entrepreneur, Luke […]
Embracing the Promise of Technology for Social Progress
By Ryan Scott, Co-Founder, NetCreations As global leaders prepare to gather at the 46th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, I’ve been musing on the topic of their forthcoming discussion: Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The premise of this anointed age is that human progress is now fully oriented around science […]
Introducing a New Database on Inclusive Business
If you search Google for ‘inclusive business’ you get 46.5 million results in under a second. But it would take you years to get through them. And if I search for inclusive business solar, or inclusive business models, or inclusive business Malawi, you find some good stuff and some not. So what would you do […]
The Ripple Effect of Vision Care on the SDGs
When the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) were formally adopted last year, many in the sustainability community saw this as a moment of triumph. The seventeen goals are not only ambitious but also universal, and the private sector worked hand in hand with government and academics in their development. Yet sceptics have wondered whether the […]
Tackling Global Challenges
A special form of leadership, system leadership, is needed to tackle global challenges like food security, climate change, job creation, and gender parity. These challenges are complex and systemic, rooted in the actions and interactions of diverse yet interconnected, interdependent stakeholders. Leaders in business, government, and civil society increasingly recognize that they cannot be addressed […]
Think Globally, Act Locally to Meet Development Goals
Richard Wafula, a farmer in Western Kenya, struggled to make a profit from his farm due to poor-quality seeds, pests, and lack of adequate storage. A partnership called Grow Africa helped the Kenya National Farmers Federation (KENAFF) identify suppliers, marketing and storage providers. Richard’s production has now doubled, generating increased income for his family. Across […]
Helping Young People Build a Stronger Private Sector
Image: Cristian Leger, founder of Dermaloe in Chile, who received entrepreneurship support from Accion Emprendedora – a member of YBI With 3.5 billion young people in the world, its clear that the Sustainable Development Goals will not be met without a clear focus on youth. There has been a lot of discussion about how we […]
Inequality and The Realities of Contemporary Slavery
By Dr Aidan McQuade, Director, Anti Slavery International This week, Oxfam reported that the wealthiest 1% of the world’s population own more than the rest of us combined. Or, put another way that “… runaway inequality has created a world where 62 people own as much as the poorest half of the world’s population.” In […]
Sustainable Living: Engaging with Social Entrepreneurs
By Jeremy Basset, Head of Unilever Foundry Through the Unilever Foundry, social impact businesses can engage with Unilever to access mentorship, explore partnership opportunities and receive funding. In the same way that we help entrepreneurs in the digital marketing space go from start-up to scale-up, we’re now looking to bring those capabilities to the forefront […]