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 […]
Seeking Great Business Ideas for Investment
The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), which invests in businesses wishing to implement commercially viable and high development impact projects in Africa, is launching three new competitions to spur business innovation and investment in: agribusiness development across Sub-Saharan Africa; renewable energy and adaptation to help small farmers in East Africa to adapt to climate change; […]
An Introduction to the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund
Hugh Scott, Director of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund outlined the AECF at an event co-hosted with Business Action for Africa on 10 November 2011. To listed to audio of Hugh’s presentation, click here. The event marked the London launch of three new funding windows – on agribusiness, South Sudan and renewable energy / adaptation […]
Zidisha.org Facilitates $100,000 in P2P Microloans, “Turns Microfinance On Its Head”
While conducting fieldwork for a microfinance organization in West Africa in 2006, Zidisha.org founder Julia Kurnia noticed something startling. Loans that were funded at zero interest by well-meaning participants in the popular microlending website Kiva.org were costing the impoverished beneficiaries more than 35% on average in interest and fees. The exorbitant rates were charged by […]
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 […]
CDC appoints new Chief Executive
CDC, the UK’s development finance institution (DFI), has appointed Diana Noble as its new Chief Executive Officer. Noble joins the organisation at a time of significant change, with a new business plan published earlier this year in response to a major review by the Department for International Development (DFID). As well as acting as a […]
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 […]
Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund Launches New South Sudan Funding Window
‘South Sudan: Wide open for Business’ read a recent headline on the Africa Business magazine. Juba and indeed South Sudan is bustling with activity. Driving through the capital city and to areas as far as Rock City, one can feel the developing vibrant business environment. The overwhelming response at the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund launch […]
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 […]
Out of poverty and into profit: Are development partnerships a force for good?
To many people, charities and huge multi-national companies will always be strange bedfellows. As such, there can be a gossipy appetite to hear of a mighty culture clash when the two worlds come together in partnership – the sandal wearing NGO worker bewildered by their suited counterparts in the shadows of Canary Wharf. The truth […]
Are development partnerships a force for good?
To many people, charities and huge multi-national companies will always be strange bedfellows. As such, there can be a gossipy appetite to hear of a mighty culture clash when the two worlds come together in partnership – the sandal wearing NGO worker bewildered by their suited counterparts in the shadows of Canary Wharf. The truth […]
The World Bank and IFC launch the 2012 Doing Business Report
By Pauline Zalkin, Business Fights Poverty Did you know that Morocco is the most improved economy in ease of doing business this year? Or that Korea has entered the top 10 economies for ease of doing business? Would you have guessed that Singapore leads the pack as the number 1 easiest country to do business? […]
A New Private Sector Partnership to Share Business Skills
By Stephen Jordan, Founder and Executive Director, U.S. Chamber BCLC Over the last few years, BCLC has been working on different products to help companies manage their community engagement more effectively. At the recent Global Corporate Citizenship Conference (http://bclcglobal.uschamber.com), BCLC unveiled two products to do just that: our Business for Good Map and the International […]
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. […]
Doing good by doing well: Shaping a sustainable future
Public pressure to tackle social issues isn’t just a threat to success–it’s also an opportunity for companies that know how to pick issues that are ripest for their leadership. Several trends are creating a new set of challenges for corporations. For example, even as a global company facing resource scarcity must create more efficient products […]
Is Business the New Aid?
Recently I had the opportunity to join a panel discussion organised by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) held in the margins of the just-completed series of UK Political Party Conferences (I spoke at the Liberal Democrat Party and Labour Party Conference Fringe Events; Sue Clark, Corporate Affairs Director of SABMiller, and board member of […]
We Have To Crack The B2B Code
Photo credit: Nicola Corby Business Action for Africa. Reflecting on the events that I was privileged to attend during UN week in New York, I was struck by the immense potential that exists to crack the code for scalable business to business partnerships that directly aim to address the Millennium Development Goals through inclusive business […]