The Need for Wage-Rich Prices
In 1819, UK MPs were debating a new law to outlaw the employment of very young children as chimney sweeps. Several MPs (apparently after lobbying from the Guild of Master Chimney Sweepers) raised concerns that sweepers would turn to mechanisation. They argued that the law would “deprive many people of employment, and throw a number […]
A Responsible Investment From Ethiopia to the UK
Oxfam’s comprehensive briefing on companies seeking to do more to ensure a Living Wage. It breaks down why low wages are persisting and highlights how this can be changed –showcasing the best practices companies and NGOs have put in place and providing concrete recommendations for how companies could do better. It also rightly draws attention […]
Rana Plaza: A Catalyst For Progress On Living Wage
Following our recent paper looking at the steps being taken towards delivering a living wage across global supply chains, Aleix Gonzalez Busquets of C&A and Andy York of N Brown Group explain why they, along with several other garment brands, have agreed a set of living wage principles in the wake of the recent Accord […]
A Remarkable Story of Global Progress
A few years ago, I was struck by the fervour with which a student activist acquaintance of mine, Stefan Baskerville, talked about the Living Wage. Every holiday he Livingwagewould leave his life of student activism (and occasional study) in Oxford and head for the East End of London, where he worked for Citizens UK, a […]
Defining A Living Wage, Understanding The Local Context
To mark Human Rights Day, Oxfam published a paper outlining why a living wage is essential and positive steps that have been taken to achieve it. Here, Mike Kelly, Chairman of the Living Wage Advisory Council and of the Living Wage Foundation, looks at how the issue of a living wage is being discussed. Since […]
How To Deliver a Living Wage in Supply Chains?
The concept of a living wage is not something new, but with recent reports warning of the lag between wages and productivity and outlining the failures in trickle down economics, it is in the spotlight. On Human Rights Day, Rachel Wilshaw talks about what has been done and what more companies can do to ensure […]
How to Increase Investment In Micro-Enterprises
This month CARE submitted written evidence to the International Development Committee (IDC) of the House of Commons on our peer-to-peer lending network, Lendwithcare.org . The IDC is currently looking at jobs and livelihoods and is interested to understand more about the role that a relatively new way of funding micro-enterprises can play in generating growth […]
A Unique Way of Investing in Small Family Businesses
Interview with Composer Christopher Gunning, Lendwithcare Supporter It’s no secret that Christmas, traditionally associated with goodwill and generosity, has over the years become a festival of gluttony and excess. Waste, too, is slowly creeping up: this year an estimated £2.4billion will be spent on unwanted gifts in Britain alone. Charity gifts are on the rise […]
Joanna Lumley Highlights the Value of Lending
A charity supporter who recognised the power of animation, social media and digital story telling was so inspired by crowdfunding microloans site lendwithcare.org that he decided to fund a short film himself to help spread the word about the site. As an entrepreneur himself, Julian Bashford fell in love with the simplicity of the revolutionary […]
Giving The Gift Of Opportunity This Christmas
When crowdfunding is combined with microfinance, amazing things can happen. Jo Broughton of Lendwithcare, the peer-to-peer microfinancing platform devised by aid and development charity CARE International, says that in the fight against poverty this is a winning combination. Lendwithcare began in 2010, offering individuals in the UK the chance to club together to finance the […]
Insights on Scaling Corporate Social Enterprise
On November 20 and 21 in Santiago, Chile, leaders and experts from the corporate, government, academic, consulting, civil society, and impact investing worlds came together for an engaging discussion on scaling corporate social enterprise. The Inter-American Development Bank believes such enterprises offer huge potential as sustainable drivers of development, growth, and job creation. But, like […]
An Anticorruption Agenda for Business and Development
This week marks International Anti-Corruption Day. It is also the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) 10th Principle – a welcome signal from the thousands of UNGC member companies that they recognize the importance of combating corruption. This may induce a shrug of the shoulders from many. Of course […]
Closing the Early-Stage Financing Gap for Entrepreneurs
Picture your favorite startup company operating in the developing world. It might be selling solar lanterns to off-grid communities, providing transportation services for agricultural commodities, or perhaps operating a chain of grocery stores. Regardless of its sector or location, like any startup it probably did not follow a direct path to scale and success. It […]
From Philanthropy to Social Business
There’s a shift happening in south Asia as corporations transition from philanthropy to a results-based and longer-term approach to sustainability Across south Asia, philanthropic giving has a long tradition. The transition from that philanthropic activity to strategic sustainability is happening but at different rates and in different ways across the region. The past two decades […]
Unlocking Equity For Early-Stage Entrepreneurs
Is it possible to invest equity in African early-stage companies in a sustainable manner? Has anyone ever invested equity and provided support to early-stage companies in West Africa in a sustainable manner for amounts as low as EUR 50,000? Why not and why is it so hard? Another way to see this question is to […]
M4D: Addressing The Infrastructure Access Gap
Women fetching water near Tambacounda, Eastern Senegal The GSMA and DFID announced on the 20th of October that an additional £6 million in funding has been provided by DFID to extend the GSMA’s work to improve energy, water and sanitation, as part of its newly branded Mobile for Development Utilities programme. The programme builds on […]
Contribute to the Fight Against Ebola with Bitcoin
In times of global crisis, we often find that humanity demonstrates compassion, offering support in cash, time and expertise. Those on the frontlines fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are our modern-day heroes, selflessly exposing themselves to potential danger in the throes of the fight. These heroes need financial support, and more importantly, they […]
This is What Development Looks Like
This week the Daily Mail created a stir by reporting that t-shirts produced for the Fawcett Society by Whistles, and modelled by British political leaders, had been made in ‘Sweatshop conditions’ in Mauritius. The pictures which accompany the article show what looks like a well equipped, purpose built factory. The workflow is organised, the garments […]
A Call for Smarter Giving and a Harmony Among Donors
It was Albert Einstein who once said that insanity was “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He could well have been talking about today’s technology-for-development (ICT4D) community, which has a habit of trying the same things over and over again in the hope that someone might eventually get it […]
How to Strengthen the Link Between Development and Trade
EU trade policy lacks development and EU development policy lacks trade. The new EU Trade Commissioner must recognise that trade policy is not just about promoting the EU’s direct commercial interests: it is also a key tool to stimulate economic growth in the developing world. It is both hypocritical and self-defeating for the EU to […]