Making the invisible, visible: the roadmap to gender equality and women’s empowerment
Gender-based discrimination remains a persistent issue globally. Women are underrepresented in leadership positions. They are paid less than their male colleagues. They participate less in the labour force and spend more time on unpaid care and domestic work. They face sexual harassment and gender-based violence. They receive limited support for their health needs as women […]
VIDEO: How Can Companies Ensure Gender Equality Through Value Chains?
Professor Stephanie Barrientos teaches in the Global Development Institute at The University of Manchester. She was previously a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex (2000-7). She has undertaken research in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the UK and she has published widely on gender, global production, employment, decent work, trade […]
VIDEO: How do I make my company more inculsive?
Ceri Davies is Managing Director of More Mascots Please CIC, Returning Ambassador of One Young World, and a Golden Diana Award Holder. Previously, she was a Visiting Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Birmingham. WHAT THIS SESSION COVERS The aim of this session is to help business professionals understand what is the role […]
An eye from the sky to view impact: Case of satellite imaging
Social impact measurement has significant practitioner interest from a wide range of actors including government, social entrepreneurs, third-sector enterprises and impact investors. However, the attempts at measuring social impact has been quite tumultuous, owing to proliferation in terminology and definitions, presence of diverse contexts and standards. For instance, a review of literature on social impact[1] identified […]
Upcoming Online Event: Driving Digital Equity for the Most Vulnerable
As part of Business Fights Poverty NYC Online 2020, Business Fights Poverty and Visa are convening a webinar and online peer discussion to explore how multilateral partnerships can drive digital equity for the most vulnerable. This article gives a brief insight into the importance of digital equity, and explains how a wide range of organisations can play a part […]
What are the innovations that could shape and transform the next decade?
The essential systems transformations that sit at the heart of the delivery of the SDGs will all depend on innovation: in decarbonization technologies, transport technologies, in preventative healthcare and in gene technologies, materials and materials reuse, in building design, building use and reuse, in sanitation and in the sanitation economy, in agricultural practices, food storage […]
Supporting Women’s Wellbeing through Flexible, Digital Earning Opportunities
The WTO has recently predicted that the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic will be disproportionately felt by women, with a ‘pink collar recession’ threatening to roll back the gender equality gains of recent decades. In the UK, there are indications that women are bearing the brunt of redundancies, mothers are more likely than fathers […]
Going above and beyond to support women entrepreneurs
At home, women are taking on much greater caring responsibilities for children who have been unable to attend school, while also having to step into an educational role. At work, women are more likely to be in the sort of low-paid or informal work – hospitality, healthcare, cleaning – which either exposes them to the […]
The data revolution must accelerate food sustainability
The current pandemic has exposed how vulnerable global supply chains are to disruption. These technologies not only have the potential to push entire food supply chains—all the way from farmer to consumer—toward greater sustainability, they can also help improve resilience to future shocks. Here’s how: At the source: data-based farming If we want to continue […]
The Cost of Cash to Ghana’s Cocoa Sector
Although he was initially skeptical about the new system, Samuel has been won over. He likes the convenience: “Mobile money is more manageable. My children are spread around at different schools. When they call and need money, because I have it on my phone, I can immediately forward it to them.” He also likes the […]
COVID-19: The role of business-led innovation and advocacy in supporting refugees
COVID-19 has reignited debate on the role of purpose as distinguished from profit, in business. From early on in the crisis, attention has been directed at how businesses can support the most vulnerable. The Business Refugee Action Network’s (BRAN) webinar was an opportunity for businesses to consider the impact of COVID-19 on refugees specifically and […]
Technology and Partnerships: Force Multipliers for an Inclusive Economic Recovery
Digital technology has improved how workers get paid, expanded training opportunities and provided more real-time support for new entrepreneurs. For business owners, digital tools have increased important networks and opened access to credit so they can grow, among other benefits. As COVID-19 threatens to push upwards of 100 million more people into poverty as businesses […]
Inclusive digital payments solutions for the garment sector workers in Bangladesh
In March, when we announced the taka 5000 crore stimulus package (about $600 million) to pay workers’ salaries in export-oriented sectors, particularly ready-made garments which account for over 80% of the country’s exports, we encountered a major roadblock. Only 1.5 million of the 4 million workers were paid digitally. The rest were paid in cash. […]
Addressing gender-based violence and harassment
Gender-based violence and harassment is a widespread and serious global issue that affects individuals in the workplace, their communities, and homes. Gender-based violence and harassment is an umbrella term and can take many forms including physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm – and is characterised by being directed at a person because of their sex […]
How to Safeguard the Livelihoods of Women Farmers and Entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 Pandemic
In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed our world, creating an array of new challenges on every continent while reminding us of persistent inequalities. In many places, the pandemic threatens to reverse recent gains made to advance women’s economic empowerment. To understand why, meet Olivia Massarula. Olivia owns a small grocery shop […]
VIDEO: What is the place of human rights in the business environment?
Professor Michael K. Addo is Director of the London Law Program at the University of Notre Dame. His expertise is recognized beyond the academy including his appointment to the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights (2011-2018) with a mandate to promote the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and […]
Rebuild Better. Rebuild Now
Hand in Hand, an NGO specialising in women’s economic empowerment, recently polled 800 our members in Kenya to find out how Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown measures were impacting their businesses. The results, if not entirely surprising, still managed to shock. Incomes had dropped by an average of 67 percent. Savings were down 69 percent and on course […]
How companies can take action to address white privilege
Like many, I have been reflecting on the injustice of racism since the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests and considering how my own actions might be perpetuating the interests of dominant white power structures within business. Over the last year the majority of my time was spent producing two Business […]
Indigenous Perspectives on Poverty Eradication, Corporate Engagement and the SDGS
Indigenous Peoples play an essential role in land management, clean water and in maintaining the diversity of global food systems. Even though they make up less than 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous Peoples manage more than 28% of the globe’s land surface. They continue to use traditional methods that have evolved over centuries that […]
To find out what ‘better’ looks like we must listen to those most affected
Plan International UK is responding to the global coronavirus crisis in over 50 countries; from delivering hygiene kits and life-saving public health information to vulnerable families and communities around the world, to ensuring children can continue their education when schools are closed. While the coronavirus crisis is having a devastating impact right across the world, […]