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 […]
Health System Innovations that Save Children’s Lives
What does ‘health system strengthening’ really mean? It is an aspiration we hear a lot. But what does it really take to make sure countries have the right resources in the right places to help people get the right health care when they need it – without falling into financial hardship as a result? At […]
Making Hunger History
Hunger has plagued humanity since the dawn of recorded history. It has featured in every era and every civilization. It has brought empires to ruin, and societies to their knees. In this second decade of the 21st century, we have the expertise, the technology, and the resources to feed every person, in every country. Yet […]
Innovations in Maternal and Newborn Healthcare
In a recent breakfast meeting held in Kenya by the Innovation Challenge Fund for the private sector, the technical partner of the Fund, Population Council, revealed a startling fact: Up to 287,000 women die around the globe each year during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period – largely due to access to skilled routine and […]
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 […]
Bridging the Health Systems Gap in Nigeria
“I regard universal health coverage as the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer. It is inclusive. It unifies services and delivers them in a comprehensive and integrated way, based on primary health care.” — Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO) Nigeria’s health care system is weak, ranking a dismal […]
New Approaches to a Global Water Challenge
By Sue Adkins, International Director, Business in the Community PepsiCo works with partners to provide under-served communities with access to clean, safe water, and advocates for new approaches to global water challenges. Social impacts PepsiCo’s partnerships provided safe water access to more than 5.6 million people in developing communities worldwide. The partnerships produced innovative, replicable […]
Development Partnership for Edible Oil Fortification
BASF, in partnership with BioAnalyt, helped to reduce vitamin and mineral deficiencies in people at risk in over 40 developing countries. Social impacts Over 114 million people at risk of vitamin A deficiency were reached with vitamin A fortified oil. The development of two easy-to-use vitamin A test kits allowed successful national food fortification programmes. […]
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) […]
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods
SOIL provides affordable, ecologically sustainable household sanitation services to Haiti’s most impoverished urban neighbourhoods. Social impacts SOIL provided 2,220 people in Haiti with a safe place to use the toilet, reducing the incidence of waterborne diseases such as cholera. The compost created as a by-product supported ecological restoration and agricultural livelihoods, improving food security. The […]
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 […]
Essential Insurance Coverage for HIV+ Community
The Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty, Finalist, 2015 AllLife, a South African provider of insurance to people with HIV, has pioneered an approach that proves it is possible to insure the “uninsurable”, and to do so in a financially and socially sustainable way. Social impacts AllLife improved the health and mortality […]
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 […]
NGOs Scaling Social Impact Through Business Ideas
Listen to the recording of the discussion with Erik Simanis, Head of the Frontier Markets Initiative at Cornell University, and Anna Gerrard, Technical Advisor: market-based and private sector programmes at Sightsavers, about why and how NGOs are exploring the use of business models to scale their social impact.
Three Ways to Strengthen Healthcare Systems
The Ebola outbreak exposed what we have all known for many years – healthcare systems in the poorest countries are chronically underfunded, under-resourced and fragmented. This leaves them ill-equipped to deal with everyday challenges like malaria and diarrhoea – that claim hundreds of thousands of children’s lives each year – let alone public health crises […]
The Power of the Mobile Phone to Change Lives
Celeste Boca holding the airtime (phone credit) that she sells. She enrolled in AMIMO’s (Association of Migrant Miners Mozambique) income generating activities workshop, supported by VSO through the Phoning Out Poverty and AIDS (POPA) project. The training is also supported by Mcel, a Mozambican phone company, who provide subsidized airtime that the women can sell […]
Time for African Governments to say I do to Innovators
Moraa, a 22-year-old Computer Science major at Nairobi University, wants to change the world through technology. That’s why she entered her latest idea—an app for expectant mothers that doles out on-demand advice—in a campus-wide contest to win $10,000 in startup funds. Born in a small village far from a hospital, Moraa witnessed her mother, aunt […]