How businesses can – and must – step up to create just and regenerative food systems
The United Nations Food Systems Summit heralds a season of landmark global decision-making, from the Committee on World Food security and climate COP 26 to the Nutrition for Growth Summit and next year’s delayed UN Biodiversity summit. What we all commit to in the coming months will set the change agenda for decades, and determine […]
Six Actions Businesses Can Take To Reduce Negative Impacts of Purchasing Practices on Human Rights
Companies’ purchasing practices can have a profound impact on human rights. Businesses are under mounting pressure to take responsibility for the wellbeing of the women and men working in their supply chains, with mandatory human rights due diligence legislation approved or underway in several countries. While Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability teams are working hard […]
Living Wages: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Oxfam’s Work
Living wage has been a key focus of Oxfam’s work on labour and human rights. We published a series of briefing papers that captured common challenges and promising solutions. Living wage has also been part of the scorecard indicators for Oxfam’s Behind the Brands and Behind the Barcodes campaigns. Importantly, we have worked with companies […]
The importance of ‘tri-partite’ partnerships between business, NGOs and government
In the middle of 2020, Fairtrade and Mondelēz International expanded their existing partnership to include the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), winning a one year grant from the Business Partnerships for Global Goals (BP4GG) programme[1]. The three partners collaborated to launch the Cadbury Farmer Resilience Fund, designed to accelerate and deepen existing work […]
How to respond to gender inequality issues in global supply chains
Jiselle Steele is Private Sector Gender Advisor at Oxfam Business Advisory Service. Oxfam is an international organisation that works to end global poverty and help to build a world less divided by money, race, borders or gender. In this session, Jiselle explains what has been the impact of COVID-19 on inequality and gender gaps in […]
How to put intergenerational fairness into practice
Julie Jenson Bennett is Practice Lead for Intergenerational Fairness at the School of International Futures (SOIF), an institution that helps policy makers and business leaders to make their organisations future-ready. In this session, Julie explained why intergenerational fairness is important to business and how companies can put intergenerational fairness into practice. RESOURCES Intergenerational Fairness Observatory […]
4 Pillars for Rebuilding Better
Over half of young people think that humanity is doomed, according to a new climate change survey. Since I was born just over 50 years ago, global surface temperatures have risen faster than in any other 50-year period over the past 2,000 years. Clearly, my generation has a lot to answer for. At the same time, the pandemic […]
Collaborating beyond COVID-19: How Business Can Go Beyond the Bottom Line
In our current times, the balance between profit and purpose has never been more tested than during the current global health crisis which we presently face. As much as the pandemic has affected communities, cultures and countries across the world, it has impacted people on a personal level and shifted the perspective on international cooperation, […]
5 Principles for Powerful Partnerships: Where Profit meets Social Impact
Know your partner AND Your value proposition Secure buy-in at multiple levels: from front-line staff to the boardroom Unite your business & social goals Define roles and responsibilities Adapt to market shifts A catalytic collaboration here in Vietnam is stimulating business growth for women entrepreneurs by challenging misconceptions and improving access to finance, networks and […]
A Week of Inspiration and Insight at the Business Fights Poverty Global Summit 2021
It was inspiring to witness the extent of our collective energy and expertise at the Business Fights Poverty Global Summit 2021. This five-day event, held from 21-25th June, brought together over 80 speakers with more than 1000 registered participants to celebrate the successes of our members; share insights and lessons learned; and build our resilience. […]
Corporate Philanthropy Reimagined: The Resilience Fund for Women in Global Value Chains
The emerging post-pandemic world demands both reflection and imagination. Changemakers in the private sector should consider this a strategic moment to transform the way business engages with local communities in their global supply chains, and to advance new solutions to the pressing need for gender equality, health, and economic resilience. The UN Foundation’s Universal Access Project, […]
Since the pandemic, many businesses have accelerated their strategies towards greater social purpose.
AB InBev is the world’s largest brewer with a mission to “bring people together for a better world”. One might consider this to be smart marketing to sell beer, but they are also letting their purpose do the talking with the creation of the AB InBev Foundation, an independent non-profit that is helping to advance […]
UK Aid Cuts Jeopardise Sustainable Development and Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships – Girls’ and Women’s Needs are At Risk
In May 1946, the first 20,000 CARE Packages arrived in France. These critical deliveries of basic supplies such as flour, soup, tinned meat and chocolate, helped feed families in post-war Europe. Around 400,000 had? arrived in Britain when we needed them most. Altogether, more than 100 million CARE Packages were packed and shipped to Europe, […]
How can we accelerate multi-stakeholder partnering to tackle waves of urgent threats?
As part of the TPI Blog series, we welcome this piece by Susanne Salz of Partnerships2030 and Darian Stibbe of TPI. This article considers what we can learn from multi-stakeholder-partnerships which developed during the Covid-19 pandemic for other partnerships now and in future. It is equally if not more urgent and important to address another global threat – […]
Examples from the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark COVID-19 study: How some companies are responding to the crisis in a meaningful way
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit businesses hard, wiping out the equivalent of 255 million jobs in 2020 alone – four times more than the 2009 financial crisis. Unskilled labourers, minorities and women have been particularly hard hit. In February 2021 the World Benchmarking Alliance released a COVID-19 and human rights study of the same 229 […]
Digital Dividends in Plastic Recycling
Plastic is an integral and valuable part of the global economy, and is used in thousands of products that add comfort, convenience and safety to our everyday lives. It supports innovation in medicine, lightens cars and airplanes (saving fuel and, therefore, emissions), extends the life of fresh food and delivers clean drinking water to billions […]
Social metrics – or how to move towards a sustainable future that works for everyone
When we talk about businesses it is easy to forget that we are really talking about people. Companies are collections of humans, whose decisions and actions impact other humans: employees and their families, surrounding communities, workers in their value chains, and consumers. It all starts and ends with people, for people, by people – it […]
Business Partnerships as a Force for Good
Business Partnerships for Global Goals (BP4GG) is a UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office programme which invests in partnerships with businesses to test and scale shared value initiatives that support achieving the SDGs. Managed by Mott MacDonald, the programme hosts the Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility, a rapid COVID-19 response facility partnering with 20 international agricultural […]
Fighting COVID in Kenya: A New Blueprint for Rapid Collaboration?
Over the past year, we have seen people and organisations come together in new, innovative and inspiring ways against a seismic, global challenge not seen in a generation, the COVID-19 pandemic. Our news feeds are filled with heartfelt examples of human beings helping one another, increased community engagement and volunteerism, and new types of partnership. They […]
Business Fights Poverty Fortnightly Round-up
Last week, our Rebuild Better Virtual Summit on Gender brought together experts and practitioners from across sectors and continents to ask what business can do to support women, particularly in view of the disastrous impacts of COVID-19 on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Between 9-11 March, we explored three subject areas that […]