Finance and human rights – strange bedfellows?
“Finance and Human Rights are really in their early stages of their bedfellowness.” Professor John Kinley in his opening remarks at the recent UN Forum on Business and Human Rights The context The Simandou Mountains that stretch across the tiny country of Guinea hold one of that country’s best chances for economic progress and for […]
Preventing another Rana Plaza: Mapping the Path Forward
This week American stakeholders announced the formation of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and signatories to the European Fire and Building Safety Accord released their Implementation Plan. While both agreements represent steps in the right direction, to address the root causes of the Rana Plaza disaster, both initiatives must take further measures to build […]
Not All Entrepreneurs: The Microfranchise Accelerator
When I started my career, one of the first books I read about Development was the Professor Yunus famous’ book Banker to the Poor on Micro-credit and how it could play a role in eradicating Poverty. The message that I could not get out of my head is that every Human Being is an entrepreneur. […]
Engaging Business Globally on Human Rights
For a long time, the policy debates, advocacy campaigns and practice sharing about business and human rights has been concentrated in the corridors of London, Geneva and New York. In 2009, the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI) identified that awareness of how companies headquartered in emerging and developing markets can and do impact […]
Assessing Corporate Human Rights Impacts – Lessons from Kenya
When I returned from Kenya last August, one sentence particularly stuck in my mind. A Maasai farmer being interviewed about the impacts of tourism said: “Tourism is like clean water in a fast-flowing river that is rushing past, which we have no means to enter.” This view was widely shared by employees, beach sellers, community […]
Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights – the experience of Anglo American
Interview of Jan Klawitter, Government Relations Manager at Anglo American by Luke Wilde, Director of twentyfifty The mining multinational Anglo American and its record in contributing to social and economic development will be well known to regular readers of Business Fights Poverty. In June 2012 on this site, then CEO Cynthia Carroll reported on the […]
What’s So Special about the United Nations Approach to Business and Human Rights?
The United Nations has pondered and contemplated the subject of business and human rights for decades with rather little success. Until 2005 that is, when the Human Rights Council requested the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative to “identify and clarify standards of corporate responsibility and accountability with regard to human rights.” This task fell […]
Understanding What Makes Impact Accelerators … Accelerate
Last year, a widely-publicized report from Monitor-Deloitte and Acumen highlighted the “Pioneer Gap” in impact investing — explaining how, despite the tremendous attention and capital dedicated to impact investing (as the GIIN estimates, $17 billion in 2012 and 2013), “pioneering” early-stage firms face a serious dearth of critical resources, support, and financing. In the past […]
Functional Impact Investing Ecosystems Reduce Risk
Impact investors are typically seen as part of the supportive ecosystem inclusive businesses require to start, succeed and go to scale. The second Frankfurt Round Table on Social Finance on June 4, 2013, in Frankfurt, made it clear that impact investors themselves need a supportive ecosystem to reduce costs and risks of investments. The round […]
Trade and Investment for Development
Trade and investment are increasingly important tools for international development. Market openness is a critical factor in promoting growth, and openness to trade raises national incomes. If done properly, trade can have significant development impacts for national governments, small producers, and individuals. Yet U.S. policy for trade, investment, and development is seen as separate rather […]
Land rights, not land grabs, can help Africa feed itself
Nothing better sums up Africa’s extraordinary mixture of challenges and opportunities than agriculture. On the one hand, Africa is home to one in four of the world’s hungry and is the only continent which fails to grow enough food to meet its own needs. Yet it has also half of the world’s unused land suitable […]
Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs 2012 Impact Report
Today the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs launches our 2012 Impact Report. The annual report highlights new data on the increase in investments in small and growing businesses (SGBs) as well as other trends and challenges that the sector faces. For the first time this year we’re holding launch events not only in the United […]
Social Impact Investing And The G8
Adviser, Department for International Development (DFID) Last week the UK Prime Minister hosted a G8 event on social impact investment at the Bloomberg Auditorium in London. Social impact investments are investments that have both a social and a financial return and in the case of international development are targeted at enterprises which benefit the poor […]
Rice production in Cambodia: the poor farmer’s perspective
Rice farming in Cambodia can be a tough and uncertain business. Rainfall is highly erratic, both drought and floods being regular occurrences, land is often infertile or under-nourished and investment in new farming systems and technology is minimal. Yet approximately 60% of the Cambodian population rely on agriculture (mainly rice production) for their livelihoods and […]
SMEs: The Next Frontier in Financial Inclusion
How can we contribute to meaningful increases in emerging market GDP and jobs without getting in the way? By investing in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Microfinance Information Exchange reports that SMEs make up over 60% of national GDP and account for over 70% of total employment in emerging market nations. SMEs are major […]
Trending in Social Innovation: Questions for the Founder and Curator of the Social Innovation Summit
From a presentation of a prototype for the world’s first cardboard bicycle to a conversation with “Mr. Toilet,” this year’s Social Innovation Summit, held May 29 and 30 in New York City, spanned the gamut of inventiveness and cross-sectoral approaches to systemic societal challenges. For four years now, the summit (held annually in New York […]
Exploring Opportunities for Collaboration Between Social Enterprises and Global Corporations
On May 14-16, Acumen held its first summit of social enterprises and global corporations to explore opportunities for collaboration aimed at expanding access to critical goods and services for poor communities in East and West Africa. The event was the formal kick-off of the Technical Assistance (TA) Initiative, a partnership between Acumen and Dow launched […]
Lendwithcare in Cambodia – How a growing economy impacts on the poor
The last time I visited Cambodia was in 2005 and as I walked out into the humid night air and towards Phnom Penh’s visibly transforming skyline, I was eager to find out how Cambodia had changed since my last visit. This time I was not visiting as a tourist but on behalf of the organisation […]
A footprint of poverty in Kenyan fresh produce: Oxfam’s new report with IPL
At Oxfam we firmly believe no business should gain a competitive advantage by undercutting competitors on social and environmental standards. With the right policies and practices, global food companies can be part of a ‘race to the top’, as our Behind the Brands campaign highlights. But they can also get it badly wrong and inflict […]
A Manifesto
Twelve years after starting Acumen, we’ve learned a lot about poverty. On the one hand, we’ve seen that patient capital works: from nine ambulances to 1,000 answering 2 million calls; from a solar torch prototype to bringing light to 14 million. That’s impact that matters. On the other, we’ve learned the real costs of growing […]