First Step Economic Opportunity Zone: Challenges of Running a Juice Factory
“I can sell you 14 235 pineapples”, that’s what a farmer said to Claudio Scotto, CEO of Africa Felix Juice. 14 235 pineapples – quite an impressive figure at first glance. If you put it into the context of Claudio Scotto, you will end up with a different interpretation: A lot of small scale farmers […]
Business Booster Project Sierra Leone
Wednesday, 17th April 2013, 18:00 local time: Arrival at the airport in Freetown. Add to it 5 more hours for taxi, waiting, the slowest ferry ride I have seen in my life and another taxi, that’s the time I arrived in downtown Freetown, Sierra Leone. But even though transport and a whole lot of other […]
Creating Opportunities in Rural East Africa
For most young people in rural communities in Africa, opportunities are scarce. With only 28 percent of Africa’s labor force holding stable wage-paying jobs, and most of those concentrated in urban areas, rural life can appear to offer little prospect for advancement. On a recent trip to Kenya, I met 26-year-old Alice Micere from Njukiini, […]
What is the Business Booster?
The Business Booster pilot project is a joint program of the Youth Employment Network (YEN), UNIDO and Endeva. The project seeks to pilot a holistic multi-stakeholder approach to increasing the earnings of youth-led cooperatives in Sierra Leone, by enabling them to access premium markets such as the US and/or the high value domestic market where […]
Delivering on Africa's Promise
Africa is forging ahead. Sustained growth – despite the global downturn – has strengthened its leaders’ resolve to stay on a path of reform, even if sometimes the pace is slower than one might wish. Its businesses are beginning to build brands capable of competing internationally. Its consumers are spending more and creating opportunities for […]
Delivering on Africa’s Promise
Africa is forging ahead. Sustained growth – despite the global downturn – has strengthened its leaders’ resolve to stay on a path of reform, even if sometimes the pace is slower than one might wish. Its businesses are beginning to build brands capable of competing internationally. Its consumers are spending more and creating opportunities for […]
The impact of European Commission support to PSD? We’re still none the wiser.
With ever-increasing pressure for donors to “show impact” for their aid programmes, there was a lot of interest in last week’s presentation of the Evaluation of EC Support to Private Sector Development in Third Countries from 2004 to 2010. But what can the European Commission (EC) actually take from this evaluation? The report estimates that […]
Why Charity Alone isn't the Answer to End Poverty
Over the last two decades “social entrepreneurship” has emerged as a widespread phenomenon in development work. This term is not a mere buzz word or development jargon. It has recently become a strategic and a conscious shift away from the image of the poor as passive individuals waiting for handouts, towards a perception of the […]
Why Charity Alone isn’t the Answer to End Poverty
Over the last two decades “social entrepreneurship” has emerged as a widespread phenomenon in development work. This term is not a mere buzz word or development jargon. It has recently become a strategic and a conscious shift away from the image of the poor as passive individuals waiting for handouts, towards a perception of the […]
Microsoft for Africa
Claire Lee, Head of Partnerships, Emerging Business Team, Microsoft Corporation The latest plan for Microsoft in Africa is all about enabling African youth realize their full potential. AliFaramawy, Corporate VP in MEA area, says: “For years, we have led the way in Africa: we opened many offices, hired hundreds of people, built a partner network, […]
How Will You Celebrate National Volunteering Week?
“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy’s inaugural words will never ring as true than during National Volunteer Week, which this year falls on April 21-27. First instituted in 1974 by President Nixon, National Volunteer Week is a time to celebrate […]
Sustainable Intensification: Reframing the Future of African Agriculture
Global discussions on agriculture policy can be a complex maze for organisations to navigate with emphasis shifting between a range of development priorities – from greater productivity and improved market access to climate change mitigation/adaptation and protection of land, air, water and biodiversity resources. Is there a system which helps us to find the synergies […]
Dan Pallotta: Business Can’t Solve the World’s Problems — But Capitalism Can
Business and capitalism get conflated — in our media, our language and in our thinking. They are not the same thing. One is a sector, the other a methodology. By inextricably linking the two, we confine the practice of real, turbo-charged capitalism to business, and we dangerously limit the capacity of non-business organizations to innovate, […]
Fuelling Botswana’s flourishing entrepreneur scene
There is a strong culture of entrepreneurship in Botswana, a country that stands as one of Africa’s notable economic development success stories over the past two decades. But despite the country’s relative success, unemployment remains a major issue; hence job creation and economic diversification form a central theme for all key stakeholders, including public, private […]
Priceless: Volunteers Bring Financial Literacy to the Masses
To help combat this critical social gap, corporate philanthropy initiatives of all shapes and sizes have been created. Leading companies are working to empower people across the country (and world, in some instances) by putting their core financial literacy competencies to work. For example, PwC is mobilizing its most important asset — its 35,000 people […]
Bridging the Gap for African Women in Business in Uganda
On 2 March, 2013, as part of the 2013 Series, a group of inspiring people came together in Kampala to talk about “Bridging the Gap for African Women in Business”. The event was livestreamed here on Business Fights Poverty, and the focus of a blog by one of the event’s lead organisers, Ida Horner. Hope […]
Igniting a culture of entrepreneurship in South Africa
“Often businesses are not focused on the future – they think small and I encourage them to dream big,” says Olga Lutz. Dignified and determined, Lutz knows the power of big thinking. Despite her modest roots in Zwelihle township outside Hermanus in South Africa, she has developed a small consulting business and skills centre – […]
The Power of Music
On 6 March, Business Fights Poverty will be helping make a little history, but not of the sort you would probably imagine. For the first time, house music will be coming to the UK’s House of Commons, with headline act Fat Boy Slim (aka Norman Cook). According to Fat Boy Slim, “I’ve played some exciting […]
Arafa: The Tanzanian Solar Engineer Leading the Way for Other Women in Her Village
International Women’s Day is an opportunity to highlight the challenges faced by women in some of the poorest communities in the world and to recognise the impact economic empowerment and increased participation in public life can have on their lives. Arafa, a mother of four from a rural community in Southern Tanzania, was chosen by […]
Arafa- the Tanzanian solar engineer leading the way for other women in her village
International Women’s Day is an opportunity to highlight the challenges faced by women in some of the poorest communities in the world and to recognise the impact economic empowerment and increased participation in public life can have on their lives. Arafa, a mother of four from a rural community in Southern Tanzania, was chosen by […]