Eight Steps to the Four A's of Food Security
The potential of African agriculture is undoubtedly bright, but it will take more than just encouraging investment from large scale agri-players – of which Olam is one – into the continent. Food security depends on the four As – the essential combination of availability (is there enough), accessibility (in the right place), affordability (for the […]
Eight Steps to the Four A’s of Food Security
The potential of African agriculture is undoubtedly bright, but it will take more than just encouraging investment from large scale agri-players – of which Olam is one – into the continent. Food security depends on the four As – the essential combination of availability (is there enough), accessibility (in the right place), affordability (for the […]
No Strings, Big Risks and Even Bigger Rewards
We are taught at school if at first you don’t succeed, then try, try and try again, yet how many charities put this mantra into practice? Too many charities avoid risk and rarely admit failure, especially to their donors, which prevents them from learning from mistakes or revising their strategies. Yet charities have such huge […]
Three Ways Businesses Can Boost Sustainable Development
What does a procurement manager in Managua have to do with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Or a Kenyan farmer’s mobile-phone plan with the World Economic Forum’s development discussions? When it comes to long-term development solutions – well, everything. Given the increasing involvement of the private sector in developing countries, ordinary aspects of doing business […]
How We Can Help Smallholders Feed the World
The world’s population is expected to number more than 9 billion people by 2050, and to feed them agriculture will have to grow by 60%. It’s an expansion that can only be fuelled by investment – to the tune of $83 billion. Growth generated by agriculture is up to four times more effective at reducing […]
Bootcamp on marketing and distribution
Strengthening Public Extension Service Delivery to Farmers in Bangladesh
Mahmud Zaman explains how the LAN project aims to increase farm productivity and efficiency. A recent case study published by Katalyst, Improving Public Agricultural Extension Services in Bangladesh Using the M4P Approach, has attracted interest from a wide range of readers and the BEAM Exchange has organised a webinar to discuss the topics and share […]
Living Wage Comes of Age?
January in the UK is a time of New Year’s resolutions, traditionally with commitments to new goals, or renewed attempts to meet some old ones. The trick is to stick with your plans and implement them – not run out of steam half way through February. I’m curious to see if this is the year […]
The World Needs A Pay Rise
Oxfam recently issued a guide for businesses on implementing living wages throughout their global supply chains, and it puts collective bargaining and trade unions centre stage. The paper is full of voluntary steps that businesses could take to ensure workers in their supply chains are paid a living wage, whether direct employees or not. And […]
Why Companies Fail to Pay a Living Wage
With companies seeking to maximise profits to meet investors’ expectations, workers in the supply chain lose out and remain trapped in poverty. Erinch Sahan looks at why workers continue to earn poverty wages around the world and argues that companies need to be given the freedom to forgo profits for the greater good of shared […]
Are You Paying A Living Wage? 4 Ways To Check
There is no single, universal way to calculate a living wage. It is contextual with a wide range of influencing factors leading to significant variation on national and regional levels. Here, Paulien Osse explains how companies can find the details they need to provide a living wage. A living wage is a moral imperative; it […]
Who’s Responsible For Paying Living Wages?
Workers all over the world who make the things that we eat, wear and use are often paid so little that they have to work exhaustingly long hours, have several jobs, put their children to work or get into debt that they can never be free of. When people learn this, the cry goes up, […]
The Need for Wage-Rich Prices
In 1819, UK MPs were debating a new law to outlaw the employment of very young children as chimney sweeps. Several MPs (apparently after lobbying from the Guild of Master Chimney Sweepers) raised concerns that sweepers would turn to mechanisation. They argued that the law would “deprive many people of employment, and throw a number […]
A Responsible Investment From Ethiopia to the UK
Oxfam’s comprehensive briefing on companies seeking to do more to ensure a Living Wage. It breaks down why low wages are persisting and highlights how this can be changed –showcasing the best practices companies and NGOs have put in place and providing concrete recommendations for how companies could do better. It also rightly draws attention […]
Rana Plaza: A Catalyst For Progress On Living Wage
Following our recent paper looking at the steps being taken towards delivering a living wage across global supply chains, Aleix Gonzalez Busquets of C&A and Andy York of N Brown Group explain why they, along with several other garment brands, have agreed a set of living wage principles in the wake of the recent Accord […]
A Remarkable Story of Global Progress
A few years ago, I was struck by the fervour with which a student activist acquaintance of mine, Stefan Baskerville, talked about the Living Wage. Every holiday he Livingwagewould leave his life of student activism (and occasional study) in Oxford and head for the East End of London, where he worked for Citizens UK, a […]
Defining A Living Wage, Understanding The Local Context
To mark Human Rights Day, Oxfam published a paper outlining why a living wage is essential and positive steps that have been taken to achieve it. Here, Mike Kelly, Chairman of the Living Wage Advisory Council and of the Living Wage Foundation, looks at how the issue of a living wage is being discussed. Since […]
How To Deliver a Living Wage in Supply Chains?
The concept of a living wage is not something new, but with recent reports warning of the lag between wages and productivity and outlining the failures in trickle down economics, it is in the spotlight. On Human Rights Day, Rachel Wilshaw talks about what has been done and what more companies can do to ensure […]
Enhancing Vital Goods and Services Provided by Nature
25 years ago you’d have been hard pressed to find anyone in a company who thought that nature had anything to do with their business. We thought that nature would pollinate, control crop pests and disease and would continue to provide plentiful water and rich soil – all free of charge. But with rapid industrialisation […]
The Connected Farmer Alliance
You can’t talk about reducing poverty in this world without talking about agriculture. Seventy-five percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with the vast majority dependent on agriculture for all or part of their incomes. Growth in the agricultural sector, therefore, has been shown to be at least twice as effective at reducing […]