Ghana Cocoa Growers Trained for Secure Future
The third report in VSO’s Producing Progress series looks at VSO’s role in Mondelēz’s Cocoa Life Programme. The series hopes to help us and others continue to improve livelihoods and strengthen the private sector in developing countries. The Cocoa Life initiative aims to support the cocoa-growing communities in Ghana that supply the global chocolate company. […]
Readying Young People for a New Jobs Market
The second report in VSO’s Producing Progress series looks at a programme based in Tanzania: Enhancing Employability through Vocational Training (EEVT). The reports draw out lessons from a variety of programmes, including those that improve employment opportunities, strengthen markets for smallholder producers and align skills needs with supply. The EEVT project, started in 2012, is […]
Centres of Excellence Boost for Future Jobs
The first report in VSO’s Producing Progress series focuses on a programme in Kenya that tackles inequality through improving the provision of skills for entrepreneurship for marginalised groups, youth and women in particular. The reports draw out lessons from a variety of programmes, including those that improve employment opportunities, strengthen markets for smallholder producers and […]
Framework for Financing Global Priorities
Meeting today with CEOs, heads of state and ministers at a forum on the sidelines of a global finance summit, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the corporate community “to be our partners in supporting and financing this agenda.” The call came on the second day of a global conference on “financing for development”, tasked with […]
Scaling Financial Inclusion for Micro-Enterprises
As world leaders gather in Addis Ababa to consider how to finance and deliver the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a recent dialogue in London attended by businesses, donors and civil society, has identified seven key actions to increase financial inclusion for micro-enterprises. Increasing finance to small businesses is an important priority for the Financing […]
Blended Finance Initiatives in Support of SDGs
The World Economic Forum and the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), through the work of the Forum’s ReDesigning Development Finance Initiative (RDFI), will formally announce three Blended Finance initiatives aimed at unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars of investment to help meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Blended Finance seeks to […]
Unlocking Domestic Resources in Developing Countries
Photo Credit: CARE The Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa from 13 to 16 July could be a key moment to build a framework for financing the work needed to eradicate poverty by 2030, and so build confidence for the effective pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals and for a fair and ambitious climate […]
Complementary Public and Private Finance Sources
Interview with Krishnan Sharma, Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Financing for Development Office at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs The scale of the need for sources of finance to fund infrastructure, education and financial inclusion, means that once proscribed roles for the public and private sector in financing development have […]
Ending Poverty Through Trade
How free trade can bring prosperity to people across the world. The playwright George Bernard Shaw once wrote that poverty is “the greatest of evils and the worst of crimes.” While Shaw penned those poignant words more than a century ago, the reality is that too many people still lead lives filled with hunger and […]
How Good ESG Standards Boost Business Competitiveness
Madagascar Lychee Export (MLE) is a lychee export station based in the port of Toamasina, Madagascar. The company buys fruits from collectors and local producers, and then processes, packages, and exports the fruit to European markets. Prior to 2010, MLE was a small, family-run business operating in a changing industry with rising standards and demands. […]
From Responsible Investment Standards to Implementation
Over the past ten years, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have moved from the fringe to the centre stage – both amongst emerging market focused private equity investors and amongst businesses themselves. These issues have emerged as a material concern as result of various factors – including the need to manage reputational risks associated […]
SDGs: Will Business Take up the Baton?
I remember quite clearly when the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were being launched, a set of 8 goals with targets on key development indicators such as absolute poverty, maternal health and primary education. I was at that time based in India and felt that this was just another UN top-down initiative that would be a […]
SDG #1 on Poverty: Big, Bold and Very Challenging
End poverty in all its forms everywhere. Wow! Let’s say that again: SDG #1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere. And in just 15 years; by 2030 like the other proposed Sustainable Development Goals being debated, and hopefully agreed by the United Nations in New York this coming September. Dig into the details of […]
Advancing Business Leadership for an Inclusive Economy
Global progress today reflects a tale of two economies: one in which great leaps forward in human development and poverty reduction coexist with the struggle that many, from the very poor to the middle class, face to participate in and benefit from global economic activity. In its “Outlook on the Global Agenda 2015,” the World […]
A Safer Workplace For All: Business Takes the Lead
WBCSD Pledge inspires a global movement towards water, sanitation and hygiene Imagine that you are a coal miner working 100m underground in East India. You are on the sixth hour of your shift, covered in rocks and soot, and you need to go to the bathroom. Finding a safe and sustainable solution to meet the […]
The Business Case for Sharing the Global Water Bill
By 2030, the world will look back on the past 15 years with a sense of achievement, or lament a missed opportunity. The ambitious and transformational development agenda[1] due to be approved at the UN Summit in September[2] is setting the bar high, and there are similarly high expectations for the Financing for Development meeting […]
Water for All through Partnerships with Business
This week WSUP and Business Fights Poverty are co-hosting an online discussion on the vital role that business has to play in increasing access to safe and clean water. The discussion will look specifically at the theme of multi-stakeholder ‘partnerships’ – what are the most promising partnership models designed to tackle shared water risks? What […]
The Role of Water Stewardship in Supporting the SDGs
There is a strong level of ambition for the post 2015 Development Agenda. It’s recognised that the challenges affecting people, the planet and prosperity are interrelated and call for integrated solutions. Bold, transformative steps and collective action are needed to deliver the SDGs and shift the world to a sustainable path. Water provides a perfect […]
Partnering for Access to Safe, Clean Water for All
In many countries both the availability and quality of water are in decline as populations – and associated demand from agriculture, energy generation, industry and households – grow. The Water Resources Group (WRG), of which SABMiller is a member, estimates that the shortfall between freshwater supply and global demand could reach 40% by 2030, an […]
Water and Prosperity
Water and prosperity go hand in hand for SABMiller and the communities in which we operate. Without water, we can’t, of course, brew beer or make our other drinks. It is simply essential for the success of our business. But without water, farmers can’t produce the raw materials we need. And water scarcity and stress […]