Post 2015 – 21st Century Leadership in Action?
There’s been plenty of discussion and debate in the past week or so as people have chewed over the report from Ban Ki-moon’s High Level Panel and its recommendations on the shape of the UN’s Post 2015 Development Framework. But what does this week’s news tell us about a longer term trend? About how the […]
Building Business Platforms to Catalyze Action and Impact for Nutrition
In London last Saturday, the global community came together to catalyze action around the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit. Since UK Prime Minister Cameron pushed for a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling malnutrition at the Olympic Hunger Event he co-hosted with the Government of Brazil last year, actors from across the public and private sectors have […]
Building an architecture to drive Post-2015 collaboration
Achieving the post-2015 development agenda will require the use of partnership at an unprecedented scale. Here’re some key elements necessary to make that happen. Last week’s report from the High Level Panel on the post-2015 development, rightly puts cross-sectoral collaboration squarely at the heart of achieving sustainable development, and reiterates the vital role business can […]
The Tipping Point: How Japanese Firms Can Shape the Inclusive Business Landscape
It was an honor to represent the Business Call to Action (BCtA) at a high-level side event last week in Japan—at the 5th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V). The Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) hosted the event and supported Japan’s commitment and preparation for last week’s conference. JICA organized seminars on inclusive […]
A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development
Last July, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, brought together a High-Level Panel to advise on the development framework that should replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015. The group delivered its much-anticipated report at the end of last week, “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies Through Sustainable Development”. One of […]
Developing BoP Partnerships
At the BoP Innovation Center (BoPInc), we just finished a new publication on BoP partnerships. It is the third publication of a series of five. The series is based on experiences and insights from the implementation of three seperate innovation pilots. These pilots form the Three Pilots for Pro-Poor Innovation (3P4PPI) program. Together with our […]
Radically redefining the role of business in a post 2015 world – the need for symbiotic partnerships for development
Despite much talk about the importance of business in the post 2015 development framework, astonishingly little agreement seems to have been reached on the question of how, in practice, the private sector should be involved in the post 2015 development agenda. And unfortunately, the report of the High Level Panel, which came out last week, […]
GSK & Save the Children Partnership: From Ambition to Action
The High Level Panel on the post-2015 development framework submitted its report yesterday (Thursday 30 May), giving the first indications of the settlement that will replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire two years from now. The debate has featured discussions on everything from plankton abundance to WiFi access, but one issue that stands […]
Exploring Opportunities for Collaboration Between Social Enterprises and Global Corporations
On May 14-16, Acumen held its first summit of social enterprises and global corporations to explore opportunities for collaboration aimed at expanding access to critical goods and services for poor communities in East and West Africa. The event was the formal kick-off of the Technical Assistance (TA) Initiative, a partnership between Acumen and Dow launched […]
Yasmina Zaidman: Exploring Opportunities for Collaboration Between Social Enterprises and Global Corporations
On May 14-16, Acumen held its first summit of social enterprises and global corporations to explore opportunities for collaboration aimed at expanding access to critical goods and services for poor communities in East and West Africa. The event was the formal kick-off of the Technical Assistance (TA) Initiative, a partnership between Acumen and Dow launched […]
Business and the UN MDGs Post 2015 – Changing context: Business opportunity
In less than 1000 days, the world is due to keep true to its promise to the deliver the UN Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs), the framework that almost 200 governments signed up to in 2000 to address the most pressing issues of the world’s poorest by 2015. Much has been achieved but there is still […]
Defining a New Development Framework that Strengthens the Contribution of Business
Since 2000 and the launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sub-Saharan Africa’s citizens have experienced growing stability and security alongside a sustained and widespread economic transformation that has lifted millions out of poverty. Despite these advances, progress across a broad range of MDG indicators remains frustratingly slow and uneven. At a time when aid […]
The Multi-Stakeholder InitiativesMid-Life Crisis – time for a support group?
The sun is shining here in Sydney and a thousand attendees are gathered for the Global Conference of the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) – a multistakeholder effort bringing together stakeholders from government, civil society, oil, gas and mining companies and investors in support of transparency to help ensure citizens see the benefits from their […]
Michael Jarvis: The Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives Mid-Life Crisis – time for a support group?
The sun is shining here in Sydney and a thousand attendees are gathered for the Global Conference of the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) – a multistakeholder effort bringing together stakeholders from government, civil society, oil, gas and mining companies and investors in support of transparency to help ensure citizens see the benefits from their […]
Business and the Post-2015 Agenda in the Asia-Pacific
I am working on behalf of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on a project which might be of some interest to members of Business Fights Poverty. As you know, attention is now increasingly turning towards the development of a post-2015 agenda for the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs identified eight global development objectives […]
Why Job Creation Is King in Africa, Just Like Everywhere Else
At the recent Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town, one of the themes of debate was the ‘post 2015’ goals, which the United Nations community will set itself when the existing Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015. I spoke at an event hosted by Business Fights Poverty where the audience seemed divided over whether these […]
Business, the MDGs and Beyond, May 2013, Cape Town
On 8 May 2013, Business Fights Poverty and the Overseas Development Institute convened an event in Cape Town to explore the role of the private sector in shaping and delivering the post-2015 development agenda. As the world starts to explore what framework might replace the MDGs, it is important to integrate the views of those […]
Strengthening Inclusive Business Ecosystems
Before we started our recent research on Project Nurture, we had thought of the partnership as a relatively straightforward, three-way relationship among The Coca-Cola Company, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and TechnoServe. Between 2010 and 2014, Coca-Cola and the Gates Foundation would contribute $11.5 million to TechnoServe, which would in turn build the capacity […]
Laying the Foundation for Sustainable Change
In eastern Uganda, the members of the Kainja Mango Farmers Association once let their mangoes fall to the ground and rot. Buyers considered the local variety, the Sena, to be too low-quality for pulping and juicing. As a result, farmers never cultivated mangoes as a cash crop. Project Nurture, a partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, […]
The Power Of Partnership And The Complexity Of Creating Meaningful Change
It started with people and the idea that we, at Coca-Cola, could marry our business interests and expertise to make our products available, acceptable and affordable with the ever growing potential of African agriculture. It seems like a simple transaction for farmers to grow, buy and sell food. However, the reality is a complex one […]