Finding Hope and Supporting Self-employment in Kenya
My job is about finding and nurturing hope. As CEO of Kenya Youth Business Trust Mombasa, I spend a lot of time working with young people who have very little opportunities, and are struggling against barriers such as poor education and radicalism. Having been focused on just Mombasa for many years, we are now – […]
Helping Indian Smallholder Farmers Through Partnerships
Imagine you’re a farmer in rural India. You work on less than an acre of land, and your soil lacks the nutrients needed to grow a successful crop. Water is scarce outside of the monsoon season, when torrential rainfall can damage crops and wash away valuable soil and nutrients. You don’t have regular access to […]
Who Will Pay for the SDGs?
This July, governments and business leaders met in Ethiopia to work out how to finance a significantly more ambitious development agenda, launching the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, a document that articulates a common position on how the draft Sustainable Development Goals should be funded. Hundreds of billions of dollars in direct and indirect funding was […]
Vlisco – The Benefits of Localisation
By CDC In West Africa, the name Vlisco evokes heritage, quality and individuality. Established more than 160 years ago, the Vlisco Group’s textiles are at the heart of fashion in West and Central Africa. The company designs, manufactures and distributes 70 million yards of branded fabrics annually through its operations and retail presence in Côte […]
Making Hunger History
Hunger has plagued humanity since the dawn of recorded history. It has featured in every era and every civilization. It has brought empires to ruin, and societies to their knees. In this second decade of the 21st century, we have the expertise, the technology, and the resources to feed every person, in every country. Yet […]
5 Ways Trade Can Deliver for the World’s Poor
It’s time to take the conversation about trade and poverty to the next level. Just about every day, UPS drops something at my doorstep. As a working mom with two busy boys, my store of convenience is the world as I shop online. As an advocate for women in living in poverty worldwide, I often […]
The Need to Reduce the Barriers to Global Trade
Over the last 50 years we have seen global trade prosper in line with the success of globalisation. Global trade has generated jobs and growth, created opportunities for businesses both big and small, spurred investment in public infrastructure and connected emerging markets around the world to the global economy. But today trade is not as […]
Chicago Council Global Food Security Symposium
Too often, the challenges surrounding food security are tackled by different groups of experts in siloes. As a result, they can seem insurmountable, but in practice, real world solutions are possible. Forums like the Chicago Council Global Food Security Symposium are important catalysts – helping to integrate debate, break down these siloes and canvas holistic […]
Growing Food in a Resource Scarce World
The world is changing. And those changes bring with them new structural challenges. Rapid population growth, increasingly scarce resources, food lost or wasted and climate change are putting enormous pressure on agricultural productivity which is vital for food security and livelihoods. No one will be immune from the effects of climate change. But it will […]
If You Want to Make Money be a Farmer, Not a Financier
As an investor, I’ll cut to the chase – I’m long agriculture. That’s to say I’m very optimistic about its potential despite the fact that the sector has been a disaster for the past 30 years – my own Commodities Index tells me that agriculture prices are just 75% of what they were in 1998. […]
Managing Boundaries in an Unbalanced World
The global food system is a strange and twisted thing. One in eight people go hungry while one in five is overweight. A farmer in Iowa can grow ten tonnes of grain on each hectare, while most farmers in Africa struggle to harvest a single tonne. The rich countries of the world are among the […]
The 21st Century Commodity Trader
Change in the 21st century is proceeding at a pace and a scale that are unprecedented. Last century’s strategies are no longer viable options for institutions that want to survive in this one. That said, those institutions that can transcend yesterday’s thinking and today’s boundaries can actually thrive in the 21st century. Nowhere is this […]
Innovations in Maternal and Newborn Healthcare
In a recent breakfast meeting held in Kenya by the Innovation Challenge Fund for the private sector, the technical partner of the Fund, Population Council, revealed a startling fact: Up to 287,000 women die around the globe each year during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period – largely due to access to skilled routine and […]
The Next Step for Sustainable Supply Chains
Supply chains are complicated and none more so than those of a retailer like M&S with our thousands of food, home, clothing and beauty products. Beyond our product suppliers are many processors, traders, ingredient manufacturers, wholesalers and farmers who we need to support our sustainability ambitions. Certification has been the traditional approach to managing these […]
‘Decent Work for All’: But How is This to Be Achieved?
Extreme poverty has been halved in the last 15 years, and with a concerted effort the next 15 could see it virtually eliminated from all but the most fragile states. The Sustainable Development Goals provide a vital framework for this effort. Goal 8 is to ‘Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive […]
Efforts to Measure Progress in Job Creation
In 2012, CDC announced its intention to target its capital more precisely on building businesses to create jobs in African and South Asian countries where the private sector is weak and starved of investment. Getting a good job makes a lasting difference to people’s lives. Not just for the workers, but for their families. But […]
Unilever: Enhancing Livelihoods, Advancing Human Rights
At Unilever, we’re striving to build a company that represents a responsible and successful business model, in which business exists to serve – not take from – society. The company’s commitment to this ambition is reflected in the fact that they created my role, which promotes Unilever’s social impact across our value chain. In 2014, […]
Business & the SDGs: How Can We Deepen Scale & Impact?
The role of the private sector in realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is widely recognized. What remains unclear is how exactly business should contribute most effectively and responsibly to the broad development objectives that government leaders will adopt this September. The SDGs will affirm the importance of the private sector in achieving economic […]
Business & the SDGs: How Can We Deepen Scale & Impact?
The role of the private sector in realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is widely recognized. What remains unclear is how exactly business should contribute most effectively and responsibly to the broad development objectives that government leaders will adopt this September. The SDGs will affirm the importance of the private sector in achieving economic […]
Divine Chocolate: Empowering Women Cocoa Farmers
An interview with Charlotte Borger, Communications Director, Divine Chocolate 1. How does Divine Chocolate work with women in your supply chains? (If you have any specific examples of women being empowered by project(s) you have run, or as a result of your efforts, please mention here). Divine Chocolate is a UK based Fairtrade chocolate company […]