Joe Phelan: India’s difficulty with being good
For the past two weeks, I’ve been working with Apeejay Surrendra – a privately owned Indian conglomerate – to launch their new India Volunteer Awards. “The purpose is to encourage volunteering and volunteer engaging organisations – corporate and NGO – across India,” says Shalab Sahai, founder of iVolunteer, a partner in the awards. Multinational companies […]
Jessica Scholl: To Divest or Not to Divest? – Doing Business in High-Risk Zones
As events rapidly unfold in the Arab World, the plight of business has been woefully under-reported. Companies with operations or investments in the region are finding themselves embroiled in morally, and often times legally, ambiguous situations. Political uncertainty further complicates the scenario, often requiring different policies to address unique circumstances. From the relatively peaceful to […]
Working Collaboratively to Propel Entrepreneurship: ANDE Two Years On
Alleviating global poverty is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Despite the progress of the international community to find solutions to help end poverty, it continues to persist. Many will agree that there ought to be more innovative ways of helping the world’s poor beyond providing aid, which has proven in many […]
Clare Melford: Inspired Leadership – Towards a Sustainable World
The number of Americans who believe that the free market economy is the best economic system is in free fall, a recent poll from GlobeScan shows. Tracking opinions from 2002 and across 25 countries, the poll shows that many emerging economies now surpass the USA in feeling positive about the free market system! Americans rated […]
Brook Horowitz: Corporate Culture that Has Less Vertical Power
The simultaneous visit to Moscow last month of two of the world’s most senior anti-corruption regulators highlights the attention governments are devoting to fighting corruption and the challenges they face in some of the biggest emerging markets. Lanny Breuer, head of the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division, which manages the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and […]
Joe Phelan: Rolling up Sleeves for Development
In the world’s top corporate boardrooms, its lecture theatres and in the planning sessions of think tanks and development agencies such as my own, much is made of uncovering new business solutions for development challenges. Inclusive innovation is the current buzz. This is important work. Today, in rural Maharastra, India, I was reminded of another […]
Clare Melford: Japan Crisis: What is the Role of Business in disaster Response?
In one of the most dramatic pictures of earthquake and tsunami-hit Japan, a man is shown to pick his way through wreckage and over downed cables on his way to another shelter. He is not looking for his family, but for the 50 employees of the company he built and ran that was literally swept […]
Acumen Fund and AECF: Innovative Approaches to Financing Pro-Poor Business
An increasing number of businesses find that investing in pro-poor business approaches yields not only bottom line rewards, but also poverty alleviation. However, employing these inclusive business models to produce such results can be challenging when short-term time horizons exist for capital investments and barriers to financial access persist for small and medium-sized enterprises. During […]
Building the Pace on Inclusive Business Models
We have reached a tipping point in the way business sees its relationship with the developing world. A growing number of companies, from large multinationals to small-sized start-ups, are moving beyond philanthropic, risk mitigating, CSR-focused activities, to find new ways to do business that benefit both the poor and their core business. We are seeing […]
How young people can use the capital markets to generate income to business start up's
Foreword Africa’s development agenda has been on the table for decades, the more so since one African country after the other has reached the status of independence from colonial powers who had created multiple boundaries between the countries, sculpted the nascent economies of the periphery in accordance to their own economic needs in the metropolis […]
How young people can use the capital markets to generate income to business start up’s
Foreword Africa’s development agenda has been on the table for decades, the more so since one African country after the other has reached the status of independence from colonial powers who had created multiple boundaries between the countries, sculpted the nascent economies of the periphery in accordance to their own economic needs in the metropolis […]
Great Expectations from New Entity UN Women
Earlier this week, I attended the UK launch of UN Women. Its Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General Michelle Bachelet addressed a packed audience in London to make the case for gender equality and women’s empowerment. She spoke evocatively about her hopes for UN Women and the World Bank’s upcoming report that positions gender equality as ‘smart […]
Peter Brew: Business Must Play its Role to Ensure Sustainable Growth in China
China, with the rest of Asia, has become the engine of growth that can fuel recovery in Europe and North America. It is imperative that a new mutually enhancing partnership is forged by governments and business based on sustainable economic, social, ethical and environmental practices. The role of business, however, in making this sustainable growth […]
Barclays to Provide Financial Services to Poor Communities
March 16, 2011 New York and London—Around 60,000 people in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda will soon have access to financial services through Barclays’ commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA) ―a global initiative aimed at supporting the private sector’s efforts to fight poverty. Barclays’ pledge is part of the bank’s three-year, £10 million […]
Barclays’ commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA
Barclays’ commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA March 16, 2011 New York and London—Around 60,000 people in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda will soon have access to financial services through Barclays’ commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA) ―a global initiative aimed at supporting the private sector’s efforts to fight poverty. Barclays’ […]
"Microfinance in Africa needs clear definition" by Will Derban, Barclays
Microfinance in Africa needs clear definition Blog written for Business Fights Poverty by Will Derban, Barclays Since the incidents of how some people who could not repay micro finance loans were treated in India, many have asked if Africa will face similar problems, and if so how can we prevent such occurrences. I have been […]
“Microfinance in Africa needs clear definition” by Will Derban, Barclays
Microfinance in Africa needs clear definition Blog written for Business Fights Poverty by Will Derban, Barclays Since the incidents of how some people who could not repay micro finance loans were treated in India, many have asked if Africa will face similar problems, and if so how can we prevent such occurrences. I have been […]
The Key to an Engaging Employee Volunteer Program
If you want an engaging employee volunteer program, you’ll need to make it 3 dimensional. Here’s how. If you’re even vaguely familiar with Realized Worth, chances are you’ve heard us mention the “Journey of the Volunteer.” Whether in blogs, presentations, or client work we talk about this journey as much as we can. Why? It […]
Standard Chartered's Social and Economic Impact in Indonesia
One of the priorities for all of us interested in harnessing the power of business for development impact is to demonstrate and communicate much more precisely just what that impact is. Stories and anecdotes just won’t do, when we need to demonstrate the case to sceptics in the development community, and within businesses themselves. In […]
Standard Chartered’s Social and Economic Impact in Indonesia
One of the priorities for all of us interested in harnessing the power of business for development impact is to demonstrate and communicate much more precisely just what that impact is. Stories and anecdotes just won’t do, when we need to demonstrate the case to sceptics in the development community, and within businesses themselves. In […]