Our Path to Sustainability Must Include Women: Lessons from Cotton Farming and Climate Resilience
Kaumudiben Satishbhai Tadvi hails from the Vyadhar Village nestled in the district of Gujarat, on the western coast of India. Here, she works diligently alongside her family to sow and harvest cotton, while also cultivating pigeon peas and practicing animal husbandry. In recent years, she has witnessed a rise in unpredictable rainfall, strong winds and […]
When Opportunity Knocks: Three Keys for Creating Inclusive Growth through Sales-Agent Models
Valentine Abayisenga, a young community animal health worker (CAHW) in Rwanda’s Nyamasheke District, struggled to find stable employment after graduating from high school. Meanwhile, in the same community, farmer Didace Kabayiza faced risks in smallholder agriculture. Without any financial protection for his livestock, he recalled feeling “…anxious whenever it rained, as thunder and lightning often […]
Digital Work and Refugees: How Businesses Can Tackle Poverty and Displacement Through Opportunity
We are living in an era of unprecedented global displacement, with over 120 million people forcibly displaced worldwide—40% of whom are under the age of 18. Behind these numbers are individuals with immense potential, who, if given the opportunity, could make meaningful contributions to the global economy. At the same time, the workforce is undergoing […]
Exploring the AI opportunity in LMICs: Unlocking Funding and Inclusive Innovation
AI is moving fast – and a lot of money is following it. But while billions are pouring into innovation in the US, Europe or China, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are being left behind. That’s a missed opportunity, especially as AI has great potential to tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges. AI […]
Empowering Women in Supply Chains: Celebrating the Impact of the WOW Programme
As we celebrate International Women’s Day #IWD2025, I am delighted to have the opportunity to celebrate the work and achievements of the Work and Opportunities for Women (WOW) programme, which comes to a close this month. WOW has been working to advance women’s economic empowerment in supply chains for 7 years, and I have been […]
The Evolving Landscape of Gender Equality
Despite decades of progress on gender equality, the journey towards a truly equitable world remains challenging and constant. As a responsible business and sustainability community, we’ve witnessed an ongoing evolution in how we approach this complex issue. The early 2010s saw a surge of corporate commitments focused on empowering millions of women through training and […]
The Silent Voices of the Global South: How USAID’s Funding Freeze Exposes the Need for Change
I write this as an African, as a Ugandan, and as someone who has seen both the promise and the failures of international aid. I have benefited from aid in the past. I know what it means to receive free healthcare because of a foreign-funded programme. I have witnessed communities transformed when funding reaches the […]
DEI: Do or Die
When Elon Musk posted on X at the end of last year that “DEI must DIE”, he encapsulated the growing backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), particularly in the United States. This pushback has intensified with Donald Trump’s return to office, where one of his first Executive Orders targeted DEI. The effects are already […]
From Risk to Resilience: The Power of Women in Global Supply Chains
Download the Toolkit for Business: Investing in Women’s Economic Empowerment to Strengthen Supply Chain Resilience. Supply chains are under immense pressure — from escalating geopolitical tensions and the impacts of climate change to conflicts and economic instability. Companies must somehow navigate these risks whilst simultaneously driving growth, embracing sustainability, satisfying investor demands and meeting ever-evolving […]
5 Insights to Guide the Business Fights Poverty Community into 2025
Together for 2025 Community Forum After a politically turbulent 2024 when many internal strategic decisions were put on hold, 2025 promises to be the year of ‘getting on with the job’. Mandatory sustainability reporting begins in earnest in 2025, and there are only five years until the world is meant to meet the 2030 Sustainable […]
Empowering Young Green and Social Entrepreneurs: A Call to Collective Action
The challenges of our time—climate change, inequality, and environmental degradation—demand urgent and innovative solutions. Traditional profit-driven business models have often contributed to these crises, but business itself holds the potential for transformation. By redefining success to prioritize environmental stewardship, economic inclusion, and social well-being, businesses can be the driving force for achieving the Sustainable Development […]
Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights: Smart Climate Action and Good Business
Fire, heat, flooding and drought are a recipe for climate disaster for workers. Companies urgently need to not only mitigate their causes but must also invest in resilience – especially in the health and well-being of women workers in corporate supply chains. Women’s health is material to human rights, productivity, and climate resilience. Women represent […]
She Knows What Her Business Needs—So Why are Systems Holding her Back?
There’s a credit gap, not a confidence gap, limiting women entrepreneurs. Women represent only one in four high-growth entrepreneurs globally. Yet, they are not holding themselves back. Instead, they are systematically disadvantaged by social and institutional barriers, leaving one in three unable to access the critical financial resources needed for business growth. New research conducted through the […]
Extreme Heat, Workers’ Rights and the Power of Collaborative Action
Whilst the great and the good of climate policy meet in Baku, Azerbaijan for COP29, and as LinkedIn and Twitter feeds begin to overflow with a frenetic hubbub of updates, insights and arguments, breathe deeply and take a few minutes to immerse yourself in a different reality. A reality that at first glance may seem […]
Women-led Climate Solutions for Resilient Communities
“My message to the world: I want to tell people to stop wasting resources and I would like to find an opportunity to teach them the importance of managing resources such as water. In as much as men and women are all affected by the drought, women are more affected. … If [my child] comes […]
Strengthening Gender Equity in the Voluntary Carbon Market
Integrating gender equity into the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) is essential for achieving environmental and social sustainability. At the heart of this discussion is the question: How can carbon credit quality be improved, whilst also driving benefit for the planet and the people most affected by climate change? Integrating gender equity into carbon credit initiatives […]
Empowering the Next Generation: The Future of Youth Entrepreneurship
At Youth Business International (YBI), the only organisation dedicated to youth entrepreneurship on a global scale, we believe that young entrepreneurs are not just the leaders of tomorrow, they’re the changemakers of today. In our rapidly evolving world, young people are stepping up as innovators, driving social change, and forging paths in entrepreneurship like never […]
Harnessing the Power of Women Entrepreneurs can be a Game- Changer for Prosperity and Economic Growth
Based on the evidence and experience, iDE is dramatically scaling up its work with women entrepreneurs Flora Mostiço is a change agent in her community. At her market store, in Mozambique’s Beira Corridor, the mother of six sells affordable agricultural supplies including high quality seeds, fertilizer, and water pumps. Despite repeated cyclones that devastated the […]
Rising Extremism in Africa Requires New Approach
The growing power of violent extremist groups in Africa requires cross-sector solutions that go beyond military action. Africa now accounts for nearly half of all global deaths from terrorism each year. Benin–one of the countries where our organization, TechnoServe, works–experienced two security incidents during 2019. In the first half of 2023 alone, the country experienced […]
How Digital Wages Can Contribute to the Living Wage Agenda
Today, it’s estimated that over a billion workers worldwide – about 1/3 of the global workforce –earn less than they need to afford a decent standard of living. A living wage is defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO) as a level of pay that gives workers and their families a decent standard of living. […]