New Generation of Business Leaders for Africa
Do you remember some of your most productive learning moments as an adult? They likely involved solving problems that were relevant to your life or working environment, and in a non-formal teaching environment. I vividly remember some “accelerated” learning experiences like arriving in Rwanda – my first Africa experience – with what I thought was […]
South African Students Stand Up For Quality Education
What if the most inspired and best-informed agents of change for “broken” school systems weren’t lawyers or politicians, but students themselves? For a network of activists in South Africa, students are just that. Equal Education is a youth-led movement battling “class- and race-linked inequalities” in South Africa’s school system. The young people in the program, […]
Mini Tablets Unlocking Schoolchildren’s Talent in Malawi
“I want to study medicine so at least one day I can prescribe medicine for my mother,” Maria Kafumbu, age 7, said when asked what she wants to do when she grows up. Her classmate, Zainab Muhammad, also wants to be a doctor. “I feel bad seeing many sick children at hospitals, and would like […]
The Girls’ Education Challenge in Uganda
I have just returned from a week in Uganda with the Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC). The GEC is a UK Department for International Development (DFID) initiative, which aims to improve education outcomes amongst 1 million marginalised girls, in 18 countries including Uganda. The Uganda programme works through in-country voluntary and private sector providers who deliver […]
The Girls’ Education Challenge in Afghanistan
As the Fund Manager for the Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC), we are extremely limited in our ability to visit field project locations in Afghanistan. It is designated as too ‘high risk’. For this reason, we held our recent Annual Review workshop with project teams in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. These teams have similar […]
Collaborating, Evaluating and Changing Attitudes
Photo Credit: PEAS Uganda With the support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) is supporting 37 projects working in 18 countries. On a recent trip to Uganda, I had the opportunity to see six of these projects (listed below) in action. There were a few insights that struck […]
Building Young Futures
This partnership between Barclays and UNICEF tackles youth unemployment by giving young people the skills, knowledge and confidence to set up their own small business or find a job. Social impacts The programme trained 72,921 young people in enterprise, financial, employment and life skills; 28,000 young people have started saving. Has led to the creation […]
Affirmative Action Employment Training in India
TCS Affirmative Action Employment Training has increased the employment prospects of women and young people in India’s most marginalised communities, the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST). Social impacts Over 42,000 people were trained over five years, 16,800 of whom came from underprivileged SC/ST communities. 50% of the total numbers trained were women (21,042 out of 42,000) […]
Promoting Regional Schools to International Standards
KEF spearheaded PRISM, a public-private partnership (PPP) that transformed a 120-year-old, dilapidated secondary school in Kerala, India, in just ten months. Social impacts PRISM has given hope to 3,200 students attending the school and their families, some of whom are from the lowest strata (SC/ST) of Indian society. The programme demonstrated a practical solution to […]
Water and Prosperity
Water and prosperity go hand in hand for SABMiller and the communities in which we operate. Without water, we can’t, of course, brew beer or make our other drinks. It is simply essential for the success of our business. But without water, farmers can’t produce the raw materials we need. And water scarcity and stress […]
Together, To Get Every Child Learning
The single most important contribution that Pearson can make to society is to equip people with the skills they need to progress in life and work. But every day, millions of children miss out on the opportunity to attend school and to learn those skills. Half of all out-of-school children live in countries affected by […]
Innovative Funding for Early Childhood Education
As fairly recent additions to the development acronym pool, Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and Development Impact Bonds (DIBs) have been a source of increasing global interest and debate. These are funding mechanisms encouraging private sector capital flow to a new form of impact investing through tripartite agreements between three groups: investors who provide upfront capital, […]
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 […]
Using Mobile Money for School Fee Payments
Sometimes it seems like everyone is talking about mobile money. Last week Jim Kim said that he sees mobile money as a path to give financial …. Bill and Melinda Gates boldly bet that mobile money will help the poor transform their lives in the next 1…. We responded with a piece on how NGOs […]
#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 […]
Innovative Young Africans Fixing An Education System
Illiteracy rates in West Africa were the highest in the world in 2009, but as recently as 2013 the World Bank reported that things were turning around. Across the region, many more children, especially girls, were enrolling in primary school. Despite these significant gains in enrollment rates, the underlying problem was glaringly clear: enrolling in […]
Examining the Keys to Power
Along with all good Plan employees, the belief that education can lift children from a future of poverty to one of opportunity is one which I firmly hold. We should all know the facts; that a girl who makes it through both a relevant and quality primary and secondary education is: less likely to experience […]
Girl Power in the Pipeline
Meet Laxmi: an ambitious young woman from India, netball player, confident leader and now, aspiring lawyer. Just three years ago, the introduction to Laxmi would have been a bit different. Coming from an underserved community in Delhi, her chances to go beyond basic public primary school were slim. So, what changed? She enrolled in Goal […]
Sport as Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls
Head, Education and Girls Programmes, Standard Chartered No single entity can address an international development challenge in isolation. Effective interventions require a suite of resources, networks, expertise, and experience, and no one institution has the human and financial capital required. The challenges girls and women face are no exception. Any sustainable, truly impactful effort to […]
Making a Better Life in Business
Mbuotidem Okorie dreamt of having his own business, but his disability forced him to beg for a living without hope of work in Nigeria. A Shell programme supporting young entrepreneurs has helped him and others achieve their ambitions. Without the use of his legs, and having no wheelchair or work, paraplegic Mbuotidem Okorie struggled to […]