What Can We Learn from Inclusive Business Start-Ups?
There is clear potential for business to fight poverty, but it’s not an easy journey for entrepreneurs trying to start a business that can benefit poor people. The high risk and uncertainty both in the markets and in the business models makes it difficult to find the capital necessary to turn ideas from concepts into […]
Bringing ‘Smart Insurance’ to India´s Poor
Anjali Devi has come a long way from her home in rural Punjab to the public hospital in Mohali, the capital of the district. The three hour bus ride to the hospital has led her and her husband get up early in the morning to make sure that they can make it back home the […]
Remembering Graham Mackay
Graham Mackay, the visionary leader who drove the growth of SABMiller into the world’s second biggest brewer and the only African-originated multinational corporation, died yesterday aged 64. After joining South African Breweries 35 years ago, Graham moved quickly up through the business, ultimately to the position of Executive Chairman of SABMiller plc in July 2012, […]
Amanda Bowman: Clinton Global Initiative’s Top Five Trends in Employee Engagement
Wow. New York was busy last week. Capitalising on the UN General Assembly meetings, many other organisations took the opportunity to bring people together to forward their agendas. IBLF was involved with several events – the UN Private Sector Forum, The Global Business Coalition on Health, a Business Call to Action private breakfast, the UN […]
4 Success Factors for an Inclusive Financial Sector
The potential of Inclusive business models to contribute to poverty eradication and sustainable development is well known – and is increasingly gaining attention among governments and policymakers in general. But many inclusive businesses are facing constraints, hindering them to reach a larger scale. They typically include a lack of information, rules, financial resources, and structure […]
“It´s Inclusive Business, stupid”
Of course, we do not know if Bill Clinton, provided he would run for president today, would frame his presidential campaign like this. But what we know is that today governments and donors would do good in promoting inclusive business and they have a number of policy options at hand to do so – as […]
Financial Inclusion and the Financial Sector Deepening Initiative (FSD) in Kenya
The potential of Inclusive business models to contribute to poverty eradication and sustainable development is well known – and is increasingly gaining attention among governments and policymakers in general. But many inclusive businesses are facing constraints, hindering them to reach a larger scale. They typically include a lack of information, rules, financial resources, and structure […]
Learning From Companies, Sourcing From Smallholders
A sustainable supply chain that sources from smallholder farmers – sounds easy. But it is common knowledge that long-standing problems like insufficient quantity and quality, side-selling of the harvest, rainfall, pests and prices, can often beset initiatives in practice. Two candid new case studies depict the innovative attempts of two businesses to set up smallholder […]
The Self-Sufficient School – A Proposal for Quality Education
Fundación Paraguaya In many emerging countries, young people face similar situations in terms of education. Overall, it makes little difference to vulnerable members of society whether they complete secondary education or not. If they drop out of education at an early stage, they can find some kind of subsistence activity to help them to earn […]
HOW-TO BOLDLY AND BRAVELY BET ON YOURSELF
To describe itself to itself and to attract new converts, it is common these days for the nonprofit sector to talk in terms of investment – obscuring the legal and legitimate lines between grants and donations versus opportunities to make money by doing good (often called impact investing). Equally confusing, both financial investments and social […]
Growing Changemaking Communities In Your Company
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the power of entourage. Not the Hollywood bros kind, not the rapper’s crew, but the often invisible communities of support that exist behind every great person. What I’ve come to notice is that the most successful social entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs have masterfully gone about creating communities of support for their […]
Learning From Company, Sourcing From Smallholders
A sustainable supply chain that sources from smallholder farmers – sounds easy. But it is common knowledge that long-standing problems like insufficient quantity and quality, side-selling of the harvest, rainfall, pests and prices, can often beset initiatives in practice. Two candid new case studies depict the innovative attempts of two businesses to set up smallholder […]
HOW-TO STAND UP YOUR PROFILE IN CIVIC COURAGE
What motivates a social entrepreneur? What motivates you? After the hard analysis is published and the heady policy goes unread, compassion motivates me. As philosopher Peter Singer notes, “We have to decide to what extent we shall live for ourselves, and to what extent for others.” Economic development means human development, and human development requires […]
Can A Non-Ag Company Transform The Ag Value Chain?
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Stanbic Bank IBTC are large, well-established international companies in India and Nigeria respectively. One is a technology provider and the other a bank – and yet both are aiming to transform agricultural value chains. But how, you may ask. And more importantly, why? These questions are explored in two new […]
Exploring the Boundaries of What a Business Can Achieve
Three innovative start-up companies are pushing the boundaries of what business can achieve in delivering social goals through a commercially sustainable model. Each is building a sustainable business model with dual social and commercial returns in a space previously assumed to be occupied by donors, NGOs or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments. A few years […]
Exploring The Boundaries Of What A Business Can Viably Achieve
Three innovative start-up companies are pushing the boundaries of what business can achieve in delivering social goals through a commercially sustainable model. Each is building a sustainable business model with dual social and commercial returns in a space previously assumed to be occupied by donors, NGOs or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments. A few years […]
Can A Non-Agricultural Company Transform The Agricultural Value Chain?
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Stanbic Bank IBTC are large, well-established international companies in India and Nigeria respectively. One is a technology provider and the other a bank – and yet both are aiming to transform agricultural value chains. But how, you may ask. And more importantly, why? These questions are explored in two new […]
Tackling the Youth Employment Crisis in Southern Africa
News headlines are filled with stories of a growing youth bulge and impending youth unemployment crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. This is the bad news. Many social entrepreneurs are at work even now creating solutions to these types of challenges—a sort of counterbalance that shapes fortune out of misfortune. Young Africa (YA) founder, Ashoka Fellow Dorien […]
Get to Know the Winners of the CHANGING Markets Award
The 16th IBF in Istanbul ended with exciting news: the announcement of the jury-elected Winners of the CHANGING Markets Award! They are true champions in developing markets for green and inclusive growth. But what exactly is a green and inclusive business? Get to know the winning business models and discuss the strengths and also the […]
CSR is Dead – Long Live Social Intrapreneurship
Action speaks louder than words. It’s an age-old piece of wisdom that seems to be more true than ever in times where people don’t trust the promises of companies and their leaders anymore. Too many companies failed to deliver upon their promise of being socially responsible. They published beautifully designed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports, […]