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 […]
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 […]
Cocoa Life- the project empowering women in Ghana’s cocoa growing communities
Cocoa has been grown in Ghana for over one hundred years and it is the second export crop for my country after gold. However we found that the supply of cocoa was dwindling because of many challenges. Young people were not getting involved in cocoa farming leaving such labour-intensive farming like cocoa farming in the […]
Creating Jobs through Youth entrepreneurship in Côte d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire, like many countries all over the world, is facing the difficult issue of how to create jobs for the country’s young population. Already in 2008, Côte d’Ivoire had more than four million unemployed youth (the total population is estimated to be 21 million). At that time, the unemployment rate was 24.2% among 15-24 […]
Prioritising Africa – Introducing Microsoft 4Afrika
There is an African proverb that reads, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”We couldn’t agree more. Microsoft has been operating in Africa for 20 years, and today we have offices in 14 countries. As we look forward to our next 20 years, we wanted […]
BPO for the BoP: Impact Sourcing and potential for boosting employment
, Manager, Research Project Implementation, William Davidson Institute From the global business manager to the casual customer who interacts with a call center when they review a credit card bill, just about everyone is familiar with business process outsourcing (BPO). A myriad of books, news media articles, even an American TV series, explored the pros […]
The Talent Paradox: Funding Education as a Global Public Good
Addressing the massive needs of India’s education system was one small part of the discussion at the most recent World Economic Forum in Delhi. But for a country that is projected to supply approximately 25 percent of the global talent pool by 2030, what could be more important than getting education right? Especially for corporate […]
BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, visits lendwithcare.org entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina
In early December BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, accompanied staff from The Co-operative and CARE to visit female entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina who have received microloans through lendwithcare.org. DAY ONE So here we are, arrived in Sarajevo. I’ve been given an amazing tour of the city by lendwithcare.org’s local microfinance partner and CARE Bosnia. Then straight […]