Can Good Research Promote More Investment In Nutrition?
The nutrition sector is at a critical point in its development. Scientists and economists are in agreement nutrition is critical to good health and economic growth. New platforms like the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, have seen more than 50 national governments develop nutrition strategies, and new pledges to nutrition were announced at the Nutrition […]
Social Innovators: Healthy Soil Makes Healthy People
Howard Buffett’s recent book, 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World, shares two interrelated insights: that a farmer gets to produce around 40 annual harvests in her lifetime, and that living soils play an absolutely essential role in her and future generations’ abilities increase that harvest each year. Will a small farmer in Africa […]
Deliver Nutrition Through Agricultural Platforms
Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition A roadmap for aligning investment in the agricultural and nutrition sectors in Tanzania has been launched to help businesses prioritize engagement in nutrition. The roadmap, which was developed at the request of the Tanzanian Government and co-developed by GAIN and the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) […]
Can Business Help Combat Hunger and Malnutrition?
Has the past month seen real green shoots around engaging the private sector in the struggle to end malnutrition in the world? Perhaps. The World Economic Forum meeting in Davos was a step change with business and political leaders signing up to the UN Secretary General’s “Zero Hunger” challenge to eliminate hunger in our lifetimes. […]
How Can We Ensure Food Security for the Future?
As we join fellow chief executives and global leaders at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2014 in Davos-Klosters, one of the top issues on our minds is global food security. Ensuring that we have enough to feed our current and future populations, and providing sustainable livelihoods to farmers and rural communities, are pressing challenges. […]
FoodTrade – Delivering the Goods
The last 60 years have been good to you. You’ve probably never run out of affordable food or cheap energy and you’ll likely live longer than your grandparents. What’s more, you can travel anywhere in the world in less than a day, and access virtual omniscience from the palm of your hand. Life is very, […]
How to Change the Way the World is Fed?
As we mark World Food Day this week, we are greeted by the news that 842 million people – about one in eight – are still chronically hungry. Although this represents an improvement on the figures from previous years, it is not enough, and it looks like we are at risk of missing the Millennium […]
Nutrition in Rural China
President of Amway (China) Co. Ltd.; Executive Vice Chairman of Amway Charity Foundation I’ve lived and worked in China most of my life, and have witnessed firsthand the country’s economic rise. The stories one hears outside of China focus on prosperity, massive infrastructure projects, and an increasing middle class and consumer base. But when I […]
A School Food Revolution
Challenges and Lessons in Selling Nutritious Foods to the Poor
Following the Nutrition for Growth event in June and the expansion of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, there is more interest than ever in using markets to tackle undernutrition, especially the so-called ‘hidden hunger’ of micronutrient deficiencies. Some big businesses are trying to make low-cost products that are fortified with key nutrients, […]
The Business Case for Scaling Up Nutrition: Seizing the Moment
The huge political momentum generated this year has elevated the involvement of business in scaling up nutrition towards the top of the global development agenda. Arguably, there’s never been a better time for business to scale up its efforts to combat undernutrition. The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has just welcomed the 41st country to […]
How Can We Create Business Opportunities in the Fight Against Malnutrition?
For decades, hunger has been the most serious problem plaguing developing and newly industrialized countries. While headway has been made in the battle against hunger, two billion people are still suffering from malnutrition in developed and developing countries alike. Because of this, on June 3rd and 4th, Ashoka Changemakers held a Globalizer Summit in Frankfurt, […]
Innovation Through Collaboration
A silo-buster is an innovator who refuses to allow a good idea to be pigeon-holed. Rather than being compartmentalized by the customary way of doing things, they break through corporate, academic, or societal categories, calling on a host of different disciplines and departments to take the next step. But innovation is only a first step […]
Empowerment Through Metrics
You might be surprised to learn that the solution to global hunger doesn’t lie in simply increasing the world’s food supply. If more food isn’t the answer, then what is? For an issue as wide-reaching as global hunger, the basic questions can be the most important – and most elusive. For example, how do we […]
Agency Through Community
Even the most groundbreaking ideas will fail if only one or two individuals pursue them. In order to reach a tipping point, an idea needs the support of a community—and the bigger the community, the better. That’s why Ashoka invited more than 150 experts from diverse fields to a Globalizer Summit in Frankfurt, Germany this […]
3 Lessons Food Companies Can Learn From Social Entrepreneurs
One panel discussion at Ashoka’s recent Globalizer Summit in Frankfurt, Germany, “Fighting the ‘Hidden Hunger,” brought together stakeholders from various sectors, including funding agencies, agri-businesses, think tanks, nutrition organizations, and social entrepreneurs who were interested in growing a global nutrient economy. Reflecting these diverse backgrounds, the panel included Prof. Dr. Konrad Biesalski, author of the […]
Revolutionising the Rice Industry in Mali
When I was growing up in Ethiopia, Cameroon and Mali in the 90s, my friends and I talked about creating companies that addressed problems in our communities. However, we always thought that first we’d have to become financially solvent ourselves. The perception that planting the seeds for a formal business requires a degree of financial […]
Coffee Farmers: Turning Competitors Into Colleagues
Erik Mandell, a Contributor to Mercy Corps’ Global Envision Blog, Interviews Rick Peyser, Director of Supply Chain and Community Outreach for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. If coffee farmers can’t adequately feed their families, they’re unlikely to be able to take care of the plants that produce the high-quality coffee beans importers want. That’s one […]
G8 New Alliance should focus investments on the right foods for nutrition
We are in the midst of some of the biggest weeks on the global food and nutrition calendar. Last weekend the Nutrition for Growth Summit announced new funding pledges and this week food and agriculture will be major priorities in discussions leading up to the G8 Summit. Much of the attention is being focused on […]
Building Business Platforms to Catalyze Action and Impact for Nutrition
In London last Saturday, the global community came together to catalyze action around the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit. Since UK Prime Minister Cameron pushed for a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling malnutrition at the Olympic Hunger Event he co-hosted with the Government of Brazil last year, actors from across the public and private sectors have […]