An Open Letter to Global Leaders: Now is the Time to Address Youth Global Mental Health
Across the globe, the toll of poor mental health among our youth is staggering. It’s a leading cause of death, disease, and disability, particularly among older adolescents. Yet, despite its pervasive impact, mental health remains chronically underfunded and stigmatized. The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with other global challenges, such as humanitarian emergencies, the climate and ecological […]
Enhancing Women’s Empowerment Strategies: The Investor’s View
What is the main impediment to enhancing women’s empowerment strategies? Men. Sharing power is never easy. For business, the incentive to enhance women’s empowerment is made even weaker by the specter of short-term impacts to the bottom line. For example, achieving gender pay parity, improving childcare and parental leave policies, or setting a living wage […]
World Refugee Day: Engaging Corporate Partners to Support Refugees
This significant day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 to honor refugees worldwide. It marks an opportunity to celebrate the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home countries to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day not only raises awareness about the global refugee crisis […]
The Complexities of Using Business to Combat Poverty: A Ground-Level Perspective
Part II – The reality on the ground – Some of the complexities in utilising business to fight poverty in Developing Countries In my last article I outlined some of my conceptual questions around the current status and success levels of businesses targeting the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) and the social business/impact investing space […]
20 Years of Business at the Base of the Pyramid: Lessons Learned and Future Directions
Part I: What have we learned so far on doing business at the Base of the Pyramid? It’s been 20 years since the concept of the Bottom/Base of the Pyramid (BoP) was first popularized by C.K Prahalad. Since then, the field has come a long way, almost all the top business schools offer BoP classes […]
How SMEs Can Gain a Competitive Edge by Embracing UN SDGs
SMEs and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Smaller companies can uncover competitive advantages by embracing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, the UK Government joined every other country worldwide and committed to transforming our world with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Goals define global priorities […]
Fields of Change: Making Cotton Work Better for Women
Whether it is used to make classic blue jeans and a tight white T-shirt, or a high thread-count bedsheet and reusable nappies, cotton comes with a production story. This story starts not in a factory, but in cotton fields and their surrounding communities. At present, it is one in which there are still very few […]
Financial Empowerment for Young Entrepreneurs: A Strategic Imperative
Entrepreneurship can be a transformative option for young people to gain economic independence, shape economies and drive businesses for good. Young entrepreneurs are critical to future economic development and key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. But while young entrepreneurs rarely lack ambition, they often lack resources. Insufficient access to finance remains a consistent barrier […]
Prioritising Digital Wage Payments for Women is Good Business for Businesses
When was the last time you received your wage in cash? Have you ever received a pile of bills and coins, taken public transportation, and wondered where in your house to hide them to keep them safe? There is a chance you have never experienced this. But in many countries, this is an everyday reality. […]
Unlocking Economic Growth: How the Private Sector Can Empower Forcibly Displaced Communities
Poverty is rampant among these populations. There is a need for jobs. A key way to create jobs is to expand private sectors in communities that host the forcibly displaced. And a key way to do that is to unleash entrepreneurship – and to connect entrepreneurs with global and regional companies as customers and partners. […]
How Sustainable Agriculture Contributes to Achieving Zero Hunger
The second of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – SDG2: Zero Hunger – aims to create a world free of hunger by 2030. However, according to the UN, a combination of factors including the pandemic, conflict, climate change, and deepening inequalities, mean that hunger and food insecurity have been rising since 2015, and the world is […]
Supporting the Economic Empowerment of Women in Coffee
To Support the Economic Empowerment of Women in Coffee, We Must Make Their Work Visible. “We didn’t understand that we could do it, that we [as women] could go out into our communities and be ourselves,” says Nay Aponte, a coffee grower in Peru’s Monzón Valley. She worked hard on the family coffee farm, but […]
How Can Businesses Tackle the Digital Divide to Drive Social Mobility?
Limited internet users are five times more likely than extensive users to be from a low-income household, according to 2023 data from Good Things Foundation. However, having the means to engage effectively online is key in improving education and employment opportunities for those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Social mobility in the UK, which refers to […]
3 Proven Strategies that Create Impact for Women Entrepreneurs
Women entrepreneurs represent a trillion-dollar economic growth opportunity with benefits that ripple through households and communities – this should be enough to inspire action, but sadly it’s not. And despite the proliferation of gender equality strategies, gender-focused financial inclusion policies, entrepreneurship support programs, and extensive evidence that women are worth investing in, we’re still only […]
The Global Pursuit of Equity: A New Stanford Social Innovation Review Article Series
Social and environmental inequities exist in every pocket of the world, without exception. They often form across familiar lines, including race, gender, or physical ability, and manifest in familiar ways, including greater or less access to education, employment, technology, security, and a healthy environment. However, the severity, entrenchment, and complexity of these inequities are unique […]
Integrating Gender Equality into Sustainability Standards: A Strategic Approach
Tackling gender inequalities in supply chains through sustainability systems The world won’t meet its sustainability goals without addressing gender issues – and sustainability standards and similar systems have an important role to play by setting gender responsive standards. The world won’t meet its sustainability goals without addressing gender issues – and sustainability standards and similar […]
Redefining Women’s Leadership in the Garment Industry
RISE: A Reflection on Women’s Advancement Beyond Supervisory Roles in the Garment Industry Key Points Women workers are underrepresented in leadership roles within factories in the Ready-made-Garment (RGM) supply chains Existing activities focused on workers’ and supervisors’ capacity building to promote women to supervisory roles don’t fully match the expectations of workers or address their […]
Investing in Women Entrepreneurs: Nepali Childcare Center Gives Mothers More time
Two-year-old Hanvi Rana giggles as she pushes herself forward on a plastic motorcycle, weaving between the other toys scattered across the playroom. As one of 15 small children dropped off at this Nepali childcare center, the cheerful toddler is developing important cognition and social skills as she busies herself with playthings and educational games. Just […]
Mainstreaming Gender to Power Sustainable Business Growth
Gender equality is one of the essential pieces of the global prosperity puzzle. Women represent almost half of the global population and thus, also possess half of its potential. Yet inequalities faced by women are so deeply rooted and persistent, that we are lagging behind in our progress towards the gender equality targets set out […]
New Research Sheds Light on the Digital Gender Gap
Digital inclusion is crucial for economic justice, but women lack connectivity The complex issue of women’s economic justice is often reduced to conversations on equal pay or boardroom representation. As a woman leader, I of course see the value in these topics. However, the intersections of patriarchal structures, systemic inequalities, sexist attitudes, and access to […]