2012 Series: Adapting Business Strategies to Reach the BoP
How Will You Celebrate National Volunteering Week?
“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy’s inaugural words will never ring as true than during National Volunteer Week, which this year falls on April 21-27. First instituted in 1974 by President Nixon, National Volunteer Week is a time to celebrate […]
Creating Sustainable Business Through Social Intrapraneurism
Of course it’s not all plain sailing and driving change bottom up, inside out, is tiring and often frustrating. The big disadvantage which intrapreneurs have over entrepreneurs is having to deal with the corporate immune system – the cultural anti-bodies which the corporate will unleash in the form of risk management processes, bureaucracy, short term […]
Sustainable Intensification: Reframing the Future of African Agriculture
Global discussions on agriculture policy can be a complex maze for organisations to navigate with emphasis shifting between a range of development priorities – from greater productivity and improved market access to climate change mitigation/adaptation and protection of land, air, water and biodiversity resources. Is there a system which helps us to find the synergies […]
Ian Lobo: From good to great – how to scale up successful programmes
One of the challenges in the international development sector relates to what is sometimes described as “pilot paralysis”. If that’s an unfair description of the fact that many successful development programmes seem to get stuck at a relatively small scale, then perhaps we can agree it’s a cause for concern that not enough impactful programmes […]
Getting into International Development
The International Development sector is notoriously hard to get into, especially for those like myself who are mid-career and have no experience outside the commercial world. If you are interested in getting into the sector, but not sure how to go about it, here’s how I did it. Where it all started Like many people, […]
Reducing Child Labor & Forced Labor: Best Practices for Responsible Businesses
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), an estimated 215 million children toil in child labor around the world, and another 21 million people are trapped in forced labor. Today’s businesses have a critical role to play in reducing this problem, in partnership with governments and civil society groups. It’s the right thing to do, […]
Reducing Child Labor & Forced Labor: Best Practices for Responsible Businesses
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), an estimated 215 million children toil in child labor around the world, and another 21 million people are trapped in forced labor. Today’s businesses have a critical role to play in reducing this problem, in partnership with governments and civil society groups. It’s the right thing to do, […]
The League of Intrapreneurs: Meet the Winners
April 9 was a day for the unsung heroes driving change within large corporations – either by shifting development challenges up their CEO’s agendas or bringing the expertise (and/or budget) of a multi-national to bear on identifying and solving a specific social problem. These are the Social Intrapreneurs, and at an awards ceremony in London, […]
Your Volunteer Program Won’t Survive on Twigs and Berries
Most companies recognize that investing in employee engagement and development are vital to remaining competitive in a constantly evolving business world. When companies spend time and money improving the skills of their employees, they send a message to workers that they want to invest in their future. And in return, companies expect to see increases […]
Discussion: What can social intrapreneurs learn from social entrepreneurs?
Announcing the Winners of the NextBillion Case Writing Competition
In October 2012, the IFC lent Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk (BTPN) $100 million to finance small and micro enterprises, including women entrepreneurs. The financing, which was six times the amount IFC provided to BTPN in 2009, marked a significant milestone for the Indonesian bank. But just a few years earlier, BTPN President Jerry Ng […]
Investing in Latin America’s Water and Sanitation Solutions
In recent years, rattling off the stats underpinning the problem of water and sanitation solutions has thankfully become more common. Awareness is on the rise. But that doesn’t change the fact that an estimated 2.5 billion people – 37 percent of the world’s population – face the health risks associated with deficient or absent sanitation […]
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, […]
Go BIG with Your Social Impact Career
Next week, I am speaking at Emory University in Atlanta (and grabbing a hot dog at The Varsity). Each year, I teach at the UC Berkeley Blum Center for Developing Economies. Without fail, students ask me how and where to apply their talents, knowledge and passion to build a world of social and economic justice. […]
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
Toward an Ecosystem for Early-Stage Incubation of Social Enterprises in East Africa
This past December, 55 participants gathered in Nairobi for a workshop on early-stage incubation of social enterprises in East Africa. The workshop was hosted by ANDE, CARE, The Rockefeller Foundation, USAID and the Acumen Fund and facilitated by Open Capital Advisors. The workshop was designed to be a forum that would allow participants to develop […]
Fuelling Botswana’s flourishing entrepreneur scene
There is a strong culture of entrepreneurship in Botswana, a country that stands as one of Africa’s notable economic development success stories over the past two decades. But despite the country’s relative success, unemployment remains a major issue; hence job creation and economic diversification form a central theme for all key stakeholders, including public, private […]