Africa's Digital Revolution
Just over 20 years ago, Robert Kaplan wrote a stark warning about the mounting strategic danger posed by an anarchic, uncontrollable, “increasing lawlessness” in West Africa. He argued that a sort of ‘criminal anarchy’ was emerging as a major strategic danger. Six years later, the Economist ran an editorial naming Africa ‘the Hopeless Continent’, claiming […]
Africa’s Digital Revolution
Just over 20 years ago, Robert Kaplan wrote a stark warning about the mounting strategic danger posed by an anarchic, uncontrollable, “increasing lawlessness” in West Africa. He argued that a sort of ‘criminal anarchy’ was emerging as a major strategic danger. Six years later, the Economist ran an editorial naming Africa ‘the Hopeless Continent’, claiming […]
Achieving Scale and Impact Supporting Small Businesses
Earlier this week, to mark Global Partnerships Week, Business Fights Poverty and the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School released a new case study on the partnership between SABMiller, the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and FUNDES to empower 190,000 small-scale retailers in Latin America by 2020. Called 4e Camino […]
How USAID Partners with Business for Development Impact
USAID works with a diverse array of partners. Among these partners, the private sector—global and local businesses, financial institutions, investors, and entrepreneurs—has a unique and growing role to play in global problem solving. USAID partners with the private sector where there is strong alignment between development objectives and business interests. Today, there is increasing overlap […]
Co-Creating Solutions to Get Every Child Learning
Edtech companies are in the business of building bridges — providing new tools, models, and pathways that look to improve education, whether it’s through innovative business models or new delivery platforms that can effectively reach learners at scale. Pearson is excited to continue in that vein in our new partnership with Save the Children called […]
Putting Enterprise at the Heart of the Post-2015 Agenda
The international community is busy defining a new set of “Sustainable Development Goals” that will shape the agenda when the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire later this year. One striking improvement is the emphasis being placed on inclusive growth, jobs and enterprise. And in that context it is encouraging to see the draft SDGs […]
Empowering Small Retailers at Scale
Latin America is an important region for SABMiller’s growth strategy. Small-scale retailers, called “tenderos,” are critical to our business there. These retailers are located close to their customers in environments that are difficult for “big box” stores to serve. They let customers with low and unpredictable incomes, no transportation, and no storage space at home […]
SABMiller Supporting Shopkeepers in Latin America
How can big corporations use their power to engage in social inclusion and impact? To discover how the world’s second-largest brewery is making it happen, download this SABMiller case study which I wrote based on my work with them. The case gives insight into SABMiller’s strategic move to incorporate thousands of small business into its […]
Lessons from a Small Business Program in Latin America
In 2012, multinational brewer SABMiller took stock of all of the corporate social investment programs in its portfolio in the six Latin American countries in which it is the market leader: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador. What they found—42 separate, often small-scale initiatives—was perhaps not surprising, given that SABMiller’s subsidiaries in those […]
The Business Case for Girls
One of the most common questions we get from entrepreneurs is why we’ve chosen to focus the SPRING Accelerator exclusively on adolescent girls who are living in poverty. Entrepreneurs understand the general business case for base of the pyramid (BoP) consumers, who represent a global market of nearly $5 trillion. They also understand that BoP […]
Empowering Female Entrepreneurs in Rural Communities
I met Tania five weeks ago during a field visit to Barisal, a city in Southern Bangladesh. I had gone to collect stories from female entrepreneurs in a small sub-district and learn about their lives before and since they began generating an income. Tania clearly stood out as the youngest of all the women I […]
Gender Equality: Good for Women, Business & Development
As we approach International Women’s Day, some might question whether we still need an officially designated day to champion women’s rights. Some might say that we now enjoy equal opportunities in our workplaces and in society at large, and that the battle has been won. But while businesses are likely to have a gender policy […]
Gender Equality: Good for Women, Business & Development
As we approach International Women’s Day, some might question whether we still need an officially designated day to champion women’s rights. Some might say that we now enjoy equal opportunities in our workplaces and in society at large, and that the battle has been won. But while businesses are likely to have a gender policy […]
#girlhero: The Story of a Girl Fighting for Education
International Women’s Day – held on 8 March – offers a great opportunity to reflect on equal pay in the workforce, equal opportunity in the community, and equal access in society. But for me, above all, it is a time to reflect on the gift of education and the profound heroism of girls fighting for […]
Help Shape VSO's Work on Livelihoods
Caption: Barclays employee Anuradha Banerjee on placement in Zanzibar, Tanzania, supporting Nassor Salim Al-Miskiry , the Managing Director of Rans Building Company, one of the local SMEs she helped to maximise local benefits from the recent oil and gas investments in the country. Credit, Tim Maynard, 2014, © VSO Through programmes in 22 countries VSO […]
Help Shape VSO’s Work on Livelihoods
Caption: Barclays employee Anuradha Banerjee on placement in Zanzibar, Tanzania, supporting Nassor Salim Al-Miskiry , the Managing Director of Rans Building Company, one of the local SMEs she helped to maximise local benefits from the recent oil and gas investments in the country. Credit, Tim Maynard, 2014, © VSO Through programmes in 22 countries VSO […]
10 Steps to Perfect Partnerships
I was recently set an interesting challenge, as part of a conversation on good collaboration: in under four hundred words to come up with 10 clear steps that organisations could follow to create the ‘perfect partnership’. Let’s get one thing clear. The Partnering Initiative has worked with hundreds of organisations and partnerships for over a […]
A Milestone Year for Development
2015 is a milestone year in which the international community will set the development agenda for the next 15 years, most notably through the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire this year. We’ve had a long interest in the role business can play in […]
Inclusive Business: Forget Business School Strategy
In the coming decades, the majority of the world’s economic output and market growth will come from the emerging markets. Already, the seven largest emerging markets collectively contribute more to global output than do the G7 countries combined. That said, once one gets beneath the aggregate statistics, these emerging – and dynamic – markets are […]
India’s Companies Act – The 2% Solution
Money should begin flowing to Indian sustainability projects following new legislation. Are the givers and the receivers ready? NGO work is often hard and thankless, an unending attempt to do a lot with a little. However, a groundbreaking Indian law that requires large corporations to invest 2% of their profits in sustainability initiatives may make […]