Fighting Hunger
The Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign which 100 charities launched yesterday includes some inspiring and also challenging messages for business and the wider world. At the heart of the new campaign is the fact that although the world produces enough food for everyone, hundreds of millions of people are hungry and malnourished, with devastating […]
UK NGOs Launch "IF" Campaign on Food and Hunger
The Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign which 100 charities launched yesterday includes some inspiring and also challenging messages for business and the wider world. At the heart of the new campaign is the fact that although the world produces enough food for everyone, hundreds of millions of people are hungry and malnourished, with devastating […]
UK NGOs Launch “IF” Campaign on Food and Hunger
The Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign which 100 charities launched yesterday includes some inspiring and also challenging messages for business and the wider world. At the heart of the new campaign is the fact that although the world produces enough food for everyone, hundreds of millions of people are hungry and malnourished, with devastating […]
Lisa Dreier: Can partnerships feed the world?
Global food systems are increasingly at risk. Rising demand, scarce resources and increased volatility are putting new pressures on agriculture and food systems. More than 870 million people are chronically hungry, many of whom are small farmers. Farmers are not the only ones struggling. Governments, companies, international agencies and civil society groups are looking for […]
Can partnerships feed the world?
Global food systems are increasingly at risk. Rising demand, scarce resources and increased volatility are putting new pressures on agriculture and food systems. More than 870 million people are chronically hungry, many of whom are small farmers. Farmers are not the only ones struggling. Governments, companies, international agencies and civil society groups are looking for […]
Is Small the Best Size for Nutrition? The Success and Challenges of Weaning Food Businesses in Ghana
As nutrition moves up the agenda of development organisations, donors are on the lookout for nutritious foods. And they want models of businesses getting healthy foods to the people who need them, all without requiring too much outside investment. In previous posts, we’ve seen how big business is getting involved in addressing undernutrition, by selling […]
Quality medicines for all
Ensuring that patients in the developing world get access to the medicines they need remains an unfulfilled desire. This is true in spite of the significant progress over the last decade in providing treatment to poor people suffering in particular from the “big three” pandemics, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The reasons for this access gap […]
Doing good business for better health
The drive to ensure access to medicine in low-income countries is a vital priority where private sector companies, governments, NGOs, international agencies and academic institutions all have a vital role to play. True, pharmaceutical companies have not always been seen as altruistic leaders in this field, but in recent years our industry’s leaders have been […]
Can big business sell nutritious food to poor people?
Groupe Danone, the largest global producer of fresh dairy products, has done something unusual for a massive, global food business: it has experimented with selling nutritious foods to very poor people. This move is part of a growing interest in nutrition by big businesses. If you live in North America or Europe, you’ve probably come […]
To Make HIV/AIDS Education More Effective, Start with Empowerment
While in Kenya this month, I sat in on a HERproject training on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for future peer health educators. BSR’s HERproject uses a peer-to-peer training methodology to reach women working in factories and farms in Asia and Africa—to date, we’ve reached more than 200,000 women across eight countries. The training was the […]
Inadequate health systems damage the growth of developing nations
Inadequate health systems have a disproportionate and crippling effect on the growth of developing nations. And yet the solution is within closer reach than many realise, says Dr Brian Brink, chief medical officer of Anglo American. A robust health system lies at the heart of building a country that has a healthy population, healthy society […]
Alive & Kicking – Africa’s Ball Maker Enters New Markets
It is increasingly acknowledged that growth in manufacturing is key to reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The 120 – 150 jobs sustained by stitching sports balls in Kenya and Zambia, with up to 50 more to come in Ghana, is a small but significant part of that crucial trend. With ‘Balls For Africa’ currently on […]
Alive & Kicking – Africa’s Ball Maker Enters New Markets
It is increasingly acknowledged that growth in manufacturing is key to reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The 120 – 150 jobs sustained by stitching sports balls in Kenya and Zambia, with up to 50 more to come in Ghana, is a small but significant part of that crucial trend. With ‘Balls For Africa’ currently on […]
Waste Is Wanted: Feeding the Hungry Instead of Landfills
The need for proper nutrition is among the most primal. Yet in our own country, one in seven homes and one in five children in the United States are labeled as food At the same time, food waste is also epidemic. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the United States throws out 40 percent […]
Competitions Work
Perhaps it’s in my American DNA. Or, perhaps, it’s because I am enticed, like many, by the lure of a shiny prize. And it doesn’t even have to be a big one. Just last summer, for example, I signed my six-year-old up for the annual cherry pit spitting competition here in Zug. Why put the […]
Bringing Medicines to Low-Income Markets
Prescription medication – it’s all relatively simple, isn’t it? Pharmaceutical companies carry out research and development, produce, and deliver medicines through established distribution channels. We go to a health care professional if something isn’t right with our health or for regular check-ups covered by health insurance, are diagnosed, go to our local pharmacy to fill […]
Profiting from undernutrition? The challenges of distributing foods through private channels
In my last post, I looked at how businesses are jumping into the marketplace for therapeutic foods, products designed to treat acute malnutrition. Yet the potential market for nutritional foods that can be eaten on a day-to-day basis is much bigger: as large as $5 billion, according to Valid Nutrition, a social enterprise working to […]
Inclusive innovation to Fight Hunger
Eradicating hunger is amongst the most pressing societal challenges of our times and the lack of substantial progress a shameful failure of the international governance system. Besides the necessary increase in international development aid, a higher emphasis on promoting inclusive innovation to fight hunger is also necessary. This means that low-income countries most affected by […]
Access to Food and Improved Nutrition at the BoP: Five business interventions to achieve social impact, financial sustainability and scale
Improving food and nutrition security through better availability, accessibility, and utilization of food and food products is a complex challenge. It involves a sector where key activities – such as the production, distribution and consumption of food and the identification of food markets – are largely in the hands of private enterprises. Interventions by the […]
Supporting Local Innovation to Improve Nutrition and Health
Encouraging local business to accelerate delivery of nutritious foods into markets One in seven people do not get enough food to lead an active and healthy life, and an estimated two billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies globally. There is plenty of published evidence to suggest undernutrition is having a severely negative impact in the […]