Affordability – Beyond the Buzzword
Affordability is at the core of much of our work as impact investors – from affordable electricity to housing, food, healthcare, education and many more. Yet ask someone to define what it means, and you may be met with little more than a blank stare. We recently conducted a straw poll of 20 impact investment […]
Successful Businesswoman Inspires Entrepreneurs in Tanzania
Fatma Riyami has been named East African Businesswoman of the Year 2017 at the annual All Africa Business Leaders Award ceremony to honour business leaders who have made a considerable impact on their industry and community. The award ceremony, staged in partnership with CNBC Africa, salutes business game changers for their commitment to excellence, and […]
Women Sea Salt Producers in Indonesia Cooperate to Seize New Economic Opportunities
Traditional sea salt production has been practiced on the island of Lombok in Indonesia’s West Nusa Tenggara province for generations. It is labor-intensive work generally done by poor women like Mini Asmayanti. Mini earns less than $2 a day. This modest income, along with that of her husband, a fisherman, provides for them and their […]
Collaboration: How Business Must Lead to Achieve Sustainable Development
How does business lead? When we think of leadership, we often think of a single, iconic leader. We celebrate leading companies for their bold actions on sustainability risks and opportunities; yet one of the most important ways business leads is through collaboration. In the past year, it has become increasingly clear that the world is […]
Time to Re-energise the INGO Model Through Structural Innovation
The international NGO sector faces significant disruption to its business models in the next decade. As IARAN has noted, INGOs must think deeply about what kind of organisation they want to be in 2030 if they are to keep pace with shifts in demography, technology, climate, geopolitics and much else besides. For UK-based INGOs, such […]
Making the Most of Interesting Times – and Achieving the Global Goals
As Robert Kennedy remarked in 1966, “Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.” For many of us, the first months of 2018 will go down in history as a similarly interesting […]
A Nigérien Entrepreneur Finds Her Niche in Camel Milk
Last month, I travelled to Niamey, Niger’s capital, where MCC Country Team Lead for Niger Kristin Penn and our Nigérien partners are hard at work on MCC’s $437 million compact to improve access to water for agriculture and livestock and expand access to markets. Around 80 percent of Niger’s population relies on the agricultural sector for its […]
Female Employees Fast Tracked From Line Workers to Supervisors
The readymade garments (RMG) industry in Bangladesh is the greatest contributor to female employment in Bangladesh; over 3.2 million of its employees live at the bottom of the economic pyramid (defined as people with less than US$10 per day in purchasing power in 2015 US dollars). Recognising this, at DBL Group we have focused on […]
Supporting the SDGs through the Power of Data
To wrap up 2017, GSMA, the UN Foundation and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (the Global Partnership) met in New York with UN agencies and country missions to discuss the actual and potential contribution of partnerships and data to a better world. GSMA shared concrete examples of how an industry sector is using […]
The Transition from Aid: Are Businesses Up To The Challenge?
The fabric that makes up international development has many threads, each making a vital contribution. Fortunately the edges around the boxes of ‘who does what’ are more blurred than they were even a decade ago when the transfer of financial resources and expertise usually flowed from ‘North’ to ‘South’. Further blurring of roles is occurring […]
A New Age of Startups: How Tunisia’s Millennial Entrepreneurs Are Boosting the Economy
Like graduates all over the world, Tunisians leave university and want to find a job. Unlike many others, they can’t. The country’s unemployment rate hovers at around 40%, with one third being university graduates. Traditional jobs are few and far between. This situation has been leading many young people to turn to entrepreneurship as a […]
The Counter-intuitive Nature of ‘recovery’ Lending
Microfinance, where small amounts of money are lent to people to start or grow a business – often in developing countries – is a familiar concept. When delivered responsibly, it helps people to earn an income to support their families. What happens though when disaster strikes a community that is depending on microfinance for its […]
Growing Small Businesses Through Employee Volunteering
By Josh Bicknell, CEO and Co-Founder, Balloon Ventures and Rachael Barber, Head of Community Development, Citi EMEA In April 2016, Citi partnered with Balloon Ventures (Balloon) and VSO to launch the Volunteer Africa programme where bankers work with high potential micro businesses in East Africa, providing support and advice to help them grow. For Citi, […]
A Collective Approach for Last Mile Distribution
By Emma Colenbrander, Practical Action Billions of people worldwide lack access to everyday products that are fundamental to a better life. Products like solar lights, water filters and clean cooking solutions are transformative for poor families, and essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. A range of businesses – called ‘last mile distributors’ – work […]
Apply Now for the 2018 Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty!
Do you work for, or in partnership with, a business having a positive impact on one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Are you particularly proud of one your initiatives? If so, be sure to apply for the Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty! I’m proud that for the […]
New Resources to Speed Employees Up the Intrapreneurial Learning Curve
By Beth Jenkins, Challenge Director, Business Fights Poverty At any given time, in any given company, there can be hundreds of employees with ideas for profitable new products, services, and business models that also create value for society. These would-be “intrapreneurs” come from all different backgrounds and roles, and many have never started a new […]
Supporting Entrepreneurs in the Pursuit of Peace
As a marketing executive, New York advertising executive Sabrina Prince has launched many brands. And after 15 years in the field she was looking to contribute her expertise to the global good. A Google search for “entrepreneur, peace, volunteer, women,” brought Sabrina to Bpeace, a nonprofit that matches business experts with entrepreneurs in challenged economies […]
Land Rights Open Economic Opportunities in Cabo Verde
In Cabo Verde, tourism comprises as much as 40 percent of gross domestic product. However, a lack of conclusive information about land rights and confusion over ownership has resulted in unauthorized land sales and delays and cancellation of public and private investment projects damaging the growth potential of the island nation. Residents have been wary […]
NGO Partnerships Give Businesses the Teeth to Be Social Activists
Let’s start with the obvious: your average ice cream company doesn’t have much to say about the refugee crisis in Europe. Equally obvious: Ben & Jerry’s is not your average ice cream company. We mix activism and a social mission in with our famous chunks and swirls. And we know that to drive real change, […]
SDGs: What Part Do Forests Play?
Deemed as the ‘lungs of the planet’ and covering 30% of the earth’s surface, forests are essential to supporting all life on Earth. Not only do forests provide a wide array of ecosystem services, such as absorbing greenhouse gases and regulating water quality, there are also over a billion people who depend on forests for […]