A Nigérien Entrepreneur Finds Her Niche in Camel Milk
Last month, I travelled to Niamey, Niger’s capital, where MCC Country Team Lead for Niger Kristin Penn and our Nigérien partners are hard at work on MCC’s $437 million compact to improve access to water for agriculture and livestock and expand access to markets. Around 80 percent of Niger’s population relies on the agricultural sector for its […]
Supporting Entrepreneurs in the Pursuit of Peace
As a marketing executive, New York advertising executive Sabrina Prince has launched many brands. And after 15 years in the field she was looking to contribute her expertise to the global good. A Google search for “entrepreneur, peace, volunteer, women,” brought Sabrina to Bpeace, a nonprofit that matches business experts with entrepreneurs in challenged economies […]
SDGs: What Part Do Forests Play?
Deemed as the ‘lungs of the planet’ and covering 30% of the earth’s surface, forests are essential to supporting all life on Earth. Not only do forests provide a wide array of ecosystem services, such as absorbing greenhouse gases and regulating water quality, there are also over a billion people who depend on forests for […]
The Agricultural Models We Want Tomorrow
Rana, 45-year-old Egyptian mother of three, sells her vegetables on a wooden cart at the side of a dusty and bustling road in the heart of the Sayeda Zeinab district of Cairo. She stands there from sunrise to sunset every day to earn enough money to feed her children. Despite a relatively steady flow of […]
Meet the Winner: The Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security
Interview with Dr Filippo Bassi of ICARDA and Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security Winner The winner of the 2017 Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security epitomises what is possible when you put the farmer at the centre of all you do. The winning research by Dr Filippo Bassi of ICARDA (the International […]
Meet the Winners: The Louis Malassis Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food Security
Interviews with The Louis Malassis Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food Security Winners Scientists hold some of the key answers to so many of today’s agricultural challenges at their fingertips. Our support for this community is a vital if we are to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Agropolis founder Louis Malassis knew this, long […]
A Paradigm Shift
By Stephanie Manciagli, Specialist of International Replicas for the Poverty Stoplight at Fundación Paraguaya Since the onset of the new millennium, there have been tremendous evolutions in human welfare. During the last two decades, development theories and strategies taken by international actors have integrated lessons learned from previous decades, recycling the themes that worked and […]
How Can We Create an Enabling Environment for Inclusive Business?
How can we create an enabling environment for inclusive business? When I started to work on this question on behalf of the DCED’s Business Environment Working Group, I expected a relatively straightforward scan of the literature – after all, quite a bit has now been written about what governments can do to help inclusive business […]
COP23: Deforestation and Gender Responsive Solutions for Agriculture and Food Security
Interview with Kennedy Ntoso, Head of Olam Cocoa Sustainability, Ghana This week, as policymakers, development agencies and researchers descend on Bonn for COP23 to discuss climate change solutions, a special focus will be given to gender, as seen by the ‘Gender-responsive solutions in the context of climate change for agriculture and food security’ session. To […]
How Some Health NGOs Can Be Bolder in Their Engagement with Business
I was recently invited to present TPI’s partnering toolkit on NCDs – developed last year in collaboration with Bupa and UICC – at EPHA’s annual conference. The memorable phrase ‘evil puppeteers’ was used in one presentation, in reference to the nefarious and shady activities of corporate lobbyists. While significant progress has undoubtedly been made in […]
Ploughing the Path in a Male-dominated Turf
Husnaara ran to her house smiling from ear to ear as if she could not get any happier. At that point nothing seemed impossible; she could become a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer, go to a good university. She could not wait to give her father the news about her Secondary School Certificate results […]
Food Processing as the Missing Link in Africa’s Value Chains
In 1998, Pauline Kamau started her maize-milling business with a few machines in her mother-in-law’s basement in Kenya. Soon, the business grew to fill a small factory. She hoped to supply her community with high-quality maize flour, which is the local staple food, but demand outstripped her production capacity: “It was a good problem when […]
Credible Standards Benefit from Multi-stakeholder Standard-setting
By Karin Kreider, Executive Director, ISEAL In an age of multiplicity of approaches to sustainability, the question arises time and again of which of these embody credibility and deliver impact, and what engenders such outcomes. Karin Kreider, Executive Director at ISEAL, considers some of the key elements of credible sustainability standards in a series of […]
Want to Change the World? Allow the Private Sector to Do What it Does Best
For the past week, the world has watched as heads of state and global business leaders convened in New York City for the 72nd United Nations General Assembly. The agenda was far from light. Topics ranged from food security to climate change to the refugee crisis to healthcare. The task at hand – achieving the […]
Last Mile Financial Inclusion: What Will It Take to Reach More Rural Women?
Digital services – with their geographic reach, ease of use, and transparency – are driving financial inclusion and alleviating poverty. But are rural women being left behind? Financial inclusion is unlocking the potential for micro and small enterprises in poor and rural communities to grow, and reducing gender inequalities. Women with access to financial services […]
System Leadership in Practice: Technoserve’s East Africa Coffee Initiative
Read enough blogs, and you might think the formula for increasing smallholder farmers’ incomes is well-known: training + access to (inputs x finance x markets). Simple, right? From 2008-2015, TechnoServe’s East Africa Coffee Initiative reached more than 250,000 farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania, increasing their incomes by more than 25%. A new report […]
Partnering to Get Every Child Learning
The world is witnessing the highest levels of human displacement on record since World War II. Of the unprecedented 65.3 million people forced from their homes, almost one-third are refugees, seeking protection from violence or persecution. The majority of refugee children have lost not only their home, but also their education – so often the […]
The Money is There to Fight Climate Change
Policy debates on climate change and sustainable development routinely cite the massive numbers needed to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): an additional $1 trillion annually in clean energy investments to limit global warming to below 2 degrees and between $5-7 trillion a year to achieve the SDGs. These numbers are overwhelming […]
New Report: Enabling Smallholder Farmers to Improve Their Incomes
By David Norman, Challenge Director, Business Fights Poverty Many global companies buy significant amounts of the crops they need from smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They may source either directly from smallholders or indirectly, through traders. Companies choose to work with smallholder farmers for many reasons. Smallholders are often the main producers […]
New Report: Unlocking Investment to Deliver the SDGs in Challenging Places
This report, launched today, is the main output of Business Fights Poverty’s Investing for Impact Challenge. We are hosting a roundtable event with contributors, partners and other interested stakeholders at BFP’s event in New York to mark the occasion and discuss the central themes of the report. The report asks the question: “How can […]