Top Stories of 2019
While the social impact and business agenda is shaping up for 2020, we first wanted to share the most popular stories we published in 2019 with you. A huge thank you to the authors featured in this list and to all of you who made contributions. We hope these stories inspire you and welcome your submissions this year*. 10 Seven Key Learnings for Corporate Partnership Leads in […]
10 Trends That Should Be on Your Board’s Radar
Ten things that caught my attention on the topic of business and social impact: 1.Climate change goes social: Global CEOs rank it as the biggest threat to business. But it has taken Greta Thunberg leading six million people to strike for the climate on one day to generate a feeling of real action. The global […]
A Year at the Intersection Between Business and Social Impact
Fortunately for me, there was a role on offer supporting Katie Hyson, Director of Thought Leadership and the host of one of the ‘’. I didn’t think twice about accepting. I never imagined I would find myself working at the intersection between business and social impact, and the past twelve months have been beyond eye-opening. […]
Daring to Dream? The Realities and Risks for Adolescent Girls Living in Fragile and Conflict Affected Areas
The toxic mix of conflict and violence, poverty, limited access to education and gender inequality leaves girls and young women at high risk of exploitation. Traffickers cash-in on girls’ dreams by promising well-paid jobs and an escape from poverty and crisis, but in reality it’s a path to exploitation. As Plan International UK we have […]
Seizing the Moment: Company Strategies to Address Sexual Harassment
The #MeToo movement has highlighted how pervasive sexual harassment is across sectors and countries. These issues affect, on a daily basis, millions of women workers producing the food, garments and electrical goods we buy in our shops. Gender and Work in Global Value Chains: Capturing the Gains? is recently published, drawing on years of research. […]
Five Questions on Partnership with the Pollinate Group
1.What is Pollinate Group’s business model? Pollinate Group is a social enterprise with a mission to empower women as leaders of change to distribute products that improve health, save time and save money for the world’s most neglected communities. It was established in Bangalore in 2013, and later expanded to Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kanpur and Lucknow. […]
How Can Business Address Gender Equality Challenges Through Business Aware Practices?
This year, the first SDG Gender Index, produced by Equal Measures 2030, found that 2.8bn women and girls are living in countries that are ‘failing’ or ‘barely passing’ on gender equality, and no country is on track to achieve full gender equality by 2030. Even the higher-scoring countries were unable to make significant progress on […]
Advancing Gender Equality Across the Value Chain: Engaging Men as Allies
Following international movements such as UN Women’s #HeforShe campaign, there is growing awareness of the need to engage men as allies for gender equality. What is less clear is what this might mean in practice for businesses in their efforts to advance gender equality. Business Fights Poverty has launched a Challenge, supported by AB InBev […]
Time to Unstereotype? How Brands Are Reimagining Gender Norms Beyond the Screen
“These images are part of our past … but the world has evolved, and so has Skol. This doesn’t represent us anymore.” Now that’s something refreshing. Skol’s reimagined campaign employs female artists to tear down and reinterpret their typically sexist branding in a truly literal sense. We’ve seen for so long a familiar dialogue running […]
Empowering Women in Toy Factories: Insights from Pilots in India
Ethical Toy Program and BSR collaborated on a women’s empowerment program that was piloted in three toy factories in India with a total population of 824 workers—including 198 women. The program, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, consisted of in-factory trainings on gender awareness, health, communications, and prevention of gender-based violence delivered to ‘Core […]
Rising to the Challenge: Donors Must Change their Funding Systems to Ensure that Businesses Achieve Social Impact
The current funding system threatens potentially life-changing innovations The world is hungry for new innovations that solve some of our biggest global challenges, such as food insecurity, financial illiteracy or a lack of healthcare and education. Social entrepreneurs in emerging markets are some of the biggest innovators in providing services and products for the world’s […]
How Companies Can Tackle Gender Based Violence
Gender-based violence affects employees physical and mental health and well-being, leading to stress, anxiety, loss of self-esteem and motivation. Often women are forced to leave their jobs. It contributes to the gender pay gap and seriously affects women’s opportunities for advancement and career progression. Women usually bear the brunt of gender-based violence, although others are […]
A Man’s Place: How Men Can Tackle Everyday Workplace Sexism
Women find it more difficult than men to progress into leadership positions. There is a fall-off in the proportion of women represented in management as the roles get more senior. Much evidence shows that unintentional gender bias is to blame. The spotlight has recently shifted away from ‘fixing the women’ to succeed in the workplace […]
Banking The Unbanked
‘Dreams are too expensive – We cannot afford to dream’ Khalida Bibi, a female home-based worker, expressed her despair during one of our customer surveys to assess the needs of lower- and middle-income individuals in rural Pakistan. Khalida is a 45-year-old, mother of three who runs a small home-based embroidery business, which provides an inconsistent […]
The Role Banks Can Play in Advancing Gender Equality
BFP: Credit Suisse is this year’s host of Business Fights Poverty’s flagship event at UNGA in New York – could you tell us a little more about why a bank like Credit Suisse supports these kinds of initiatives? PD: At Credit Suisse, we believe that it is in the interest of both our organization and […]
Inviting Men to Make a Difference: the #HeForShe movement
The case for gender equality is clear with estimates that £28 trillion could be added to the global economy if women participated equally. Yet according to recent reports, no country is expected to achieve full gender equality by 2030. Our ongoing Business Fights Poverty Challenge with AB InBev, CARE and Stanford University’s VMWare Women’s Leadership […]
The New ILO Violence and Harassment Convention: Signalling a Shift in Norms and Expectations
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. In June, representatives from governments, unions and employers’ organisations gathered in Geneva at the annual International Labour Conference to commemorate a century of tripartite engagement at this, the oldest of the United Nations agencies. For those of us working on gender-based violence, sexual harassment […]
How Should Business Encourage Family-Friendly Workplaces?
Family friendly workplace policies, such as paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and support for affordable childcare, play a fundamental role in ensuring children get the best start possible in life. But are businesses doing all they can to support parents manage a changing work-family balance? A new study recently published by UNICEF shows that some […]
How Male Mentors Can Develop Women at Work
The workforce includes more women — especially in traditionally male professions — and business leaders are changing workplace environments to be more flexible, collaborative and caring in a calculated effort to attract and retain the best talent, both male and female. Organizations that don’t adapt to this battle for talent risk marginalizing or excluding 50 […]
Eliminating Violence and Harassment Just Became an Obligation for Businesses Worldwide
On June 21, 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO) voted overwhelmingly to adopt a Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. This represents an important step forward on strengthening protections for all workers around the world against violence and harassment. Business should see the adoption of the Convention as a […]