New Ventures to Promote Clean Energy
Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank More than 12 million low-income people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will gain access to clean energy following four companies’ commitments made today to the Business Call to Action, a global leadership initiative that promotes sustainable economic and social development. The companies also expect to create approximately 42,000 […]
Creating Shared Value in India
Today India represents one of the fastest growing economies in the world, in great contrast with the debilitating poverty and economic stagnation experienced by one-fifth of its population. Such stark contrast between success and continued need has led the government of India to conclude that “inclusive growth” is a key priority for national development. It’s […]
Rushanara Ali MP: Do you know where your clothes come from?
Bangladesh is changing so rapidly – I see this every time I visit. Growth rates are at about 7% a year and it is now one of the countries identified by Goldman Sachs investment bank as ‘The Next Eleven’ (or N-11) – countries who have the potential, along with the BRICS, to become the worlds […]
Four Companies Announce New Ventures to Promote Clean Energy
Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank More than 12 million low-income people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will gain access to clean energy following four companies’ commitments made today to the Business Call to Action, a global leadership initiative that promotes sustainable economic and social development. The companies also expect to create approximately 42,000 […]
BBC World Challenge 2011
This week sees the end of this year’s BBC World Challenge. There are just a few days left for you to vote for your favourite sustainable business and project: the 12 Finalists are profiled below. Vote before midnight (GMT) 11th November. TRASH TO CASH Hand in Hand – biogas energy, India Food waste from restaurants […]
Smallholders Critical to Reigniting Rural Development in Asia
Rural poverty has declined throughout Asia and the overall economic performance has increased. Agricultural development has played a major role in these improvements with smallholder farmers in the lead. Around the world they already feed almost a third of the world’s population and produce 80 per ent of the food consumed in the developing world. […]
Joe Phelan: Time for Business and NGOs to Move from High Ground to Common Ground
By Joe Phelan, India Country Director, IBLF Change is afoot in India, as the debate on the role of business to support inclusive growth shifts from theory to implementation. The new landscape is one where companies are mandated by government to spend a proportion of their profits on CSR initiatives while major aid agencies are […]
Clare Melford: Four Things Progressive Companies are Exploring Now
At a recent university reunion event, I met my old tutor. His eyes lit up as I told him about the work we’re doing at IBLF with global business leaders. “Maybe some of them would be willing to be the research subjects of my latest paper,” said the renowned neuroscientist. I asked what it was […]
How Can The UK's Department For International Development Harness The Diaspora For Africa's Development?
How Can The UK’s Department For International Development Harness The Diaspora For Africa’s Development?
Facilitating Pro-Poor Growth: 50 Development Organizations Discuss their Outcomes Using M4P
By Roger Oakeley, M4P Hub Manager “M4P” is an innovative approach that focuses on improving markets and systems to reduce poverty and promote pro-poor economic growth. It offers a framework to diagnose conditions in market systems that hinder pro-poor growth and guidance on engaging with key market systems players (whether public, private, non-government or civil […]
Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group: Screw Business as Usual
Through my experiences in my life and more recently with Virgin Unite, the nonprofit foundation for Virgin Group, I’ve learnt about the power that business has to drive change, whether that is simply creating thousands of jobs and a company where people love to come to work every day, or building a company to tackle […]
Kenya-based firm to provide 100,000 small farmers with micro-loans
For more news from the Business Call to Action please click here. New York/Nairobi, 11 November 2011 – Juhudi Kilimo, a Kenya-based investment firm, announced today that it will provide some 100,000 smallholder rural farmers in Kenya—more than half of them women—with access to micro-loans and basic financial training by 2016 as part of the […]
BFP Exclusive Interview: New 'Center for Private Sector in Development' Opens its Doors for Business
Background: The UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) was established as a result of a partnership agreement signed by the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It was inaugurated by UNDP Administrator Ms. Helen Clark in March 2011 and will become fully operational in […]
BFP Exclusive Interview: New ‘Center for Private Sector in Development’ Opens its Doors for Business
Background: The UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD) was established as a result of a partnership agreement signed by the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It was inaugurated by UNDP Administrator Ms. Helen Clark in March 2011 and will become fully operational in […]
Innovations in local sourcing
Graham Mackay, CEO, SABMiller, speaking at the launch of Africa’s first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala’, will be brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller’s local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). Approximately 40,000 tonnes of raw cassava will be used annually in the production of Impala, creating new employment for over 1,500 smallholder farmers and […]
SABMiller launches first ever cassava lager in Mozambique
SABMiller plc, one of the world’s largest brewers, today announced the launch of the first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala’, will be brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller’s local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). The launch marks the latest step in SABMiller’s ambition to create a portfolio of high-quality, affordable beers made using locally-sourced […]
Global business leaders call on peers to ‘do well by doing good’
Some of the world’s leading business people gathered together in Melbourne and Sydney this week to explore how corporations can create a more economically inclusive future for the world’s poor. The Business for Millennium Development (B4MD) Creating Shared Value Summit was an opportunity to set a global trend for inclusive business. Speaking at the Melbourne […]
Transforming African Smallholders into Rural Entrepreneurs
Prices of certain basic food commodities have risen sharply in recent years. According to a 2011 World Bank report on food prices, global wheat prices have risen most, doubling between June 2010 and January 2011. Maize prices are about 73 percent higher. Increased food prices have had an adverse impact on food security worldwide: the […]
Wallpaper Over Malaria
To most people, wallpaper serves an obvious purpose: to decorate homes. But in rural villages across the developing world, an innovative type of wallpaper may soon help protect families from malaria. Malaria is among the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases, claiming the lives about 1 million people every year, according to the World Health Organizations. […]