5 Ways for Smart Businesses to Invest in Sustainability
The global economy is under pressure from the planet. This year, falling oil prices and stagnant growth, especially in emerging markets, is coinciding with extreme droughts and floods triggered by one of the most powerful El Niño events in the past 50 years. The severity of this naturally occurring shock is amplified by global warming, […]
Bringing Your Company’s Values to Life
I have been farming organically at Riverford since 1987. The concept of combining good food, good farming and good business was inherited from my father and is at the heart of everything we do. In the 1990s, as my skills improved at home, I wanted to disprove the naysayers who claimed organic farming was a […]
How USAID Views the Future of Partnership
By Chris Jurgens, Director, Center for Transformational Partnerships, U.S. Global Development Lab, U.S. Agency of International Development Today, new economic powers have emerged, private investment to developing countries has soared, and new technologies have opened opportunities as never before. The nature of development is changing, with collaboration across diverse stakeholders now a central feature of […]
Reaching the SDGS – New Alliances in Digital Development
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call on all of us to work as partners to end extreme poverty, fight inequality, and address climate change. Digital technologies enable government and citizen action towards these global goals. The rising ubiquity of mobile phones, the increased global use of communication and social media applications such as WhatsApp and […]
A New Model for Gender Lens Partnerships
By Suzanne Biegel, Investment Director, SPRING, and Founder/Chief Catalyst, Women Effect On this 2016 International Women’s Day, it pays to reflect on the global partnership efforts achieved since 1975 – the International Women’s Year, when the United Nations (UN) officially started to commemorate the accomplishments towards women’s empowerment and gender equality. The theme set by […]
Training Beyond Gender Roles in Cambodia
Sopheak smiles widely and proudly after showing me her crops and then asks me if I can share her story, so this is for her. Sopheak Nop is 25 years old from Kandal province in Cambodia. Her father passed away when she was young and she lives with her mother and sister. Over the years […]
Changing Trade, Changing Lives
“Change is in your pocket: be the change you wish to see in the world.” At the Fairtrade Foundation we’re about to launch our new 2016-20 strategy. Like all of you, we’ve been exploring how we adapt to the many seismic shifts and trends, which will affect the ability of Fairtrade businesses and supply chains […]
New Survey Launched on Inclusive Business Policy
How can governments more effectively support inclusive businesses? Give us your input. The G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business (GPIB) invites you to participate in the GPIB Inclusive Business Survey. The survey is open to any company that is working with people living at the base of the pyramid (BOP) – companies implementing an “inclusive […]
What Happens When Competitors Collaborate?
In Malawi Christian Aid has found that a common purpose – realising the potential of the rice and pigeon pea sectors – has brought competitors together with interesting results. You may wonder why competing smallholder co-operatives, buyers, traders, processors and exporters would join forces? Well, ultimately they believed it’s better to be competitors in a […]
Unlocking Solutions with Inclusive Business Innovations
Over 300 representatives of companies, social enterprises, and governments Asia-wide will gather next week at ADB for the 2nd Inclusive Business Forum for Asia. The forum, organized by ADB and 8 development partners, is one of the year’s most significant regional events on inclusive business in Asia. ADB defines inclusive business as a private sector […]
iDE: Reaching 20 Million More People
Since 1983 iDE has leveraged the power of business to help rural entrepreneurs work their way out of poverty. From our first social enterprise in Somalia to our more recent businesses from Vietnam to Latin America, we have helped more than 23 million people gain access to a technology or service. We strive for tangible, […]
Equality: What Does This Mean for Women in Kenya?
As Christine Lagarde, mother, head of the IMF and star of the global stage arrives at Davos this week, Hannah Haciku mother, entrepreneur and village authority will be working hard to feed and clothe her three children in Kenya. Two women, two very different lives. Christine may face a glass ceiling, the one Hannah faces […]
Tackling Global Challenges
A special form of leadership, system leadership, is needed to tackle global challenges like food security, climate change, job creation, and gender parity. These challenges are complex and systemic, rooted in the actions and interactions of diverse yet interconnected, interdependent stakeholders. Leaders in business, government, and civil society increasingly recognize that they cannot be addressed […]
Think Globally, Act Locally to Meet Development Goals
Richard Wafula, a farmer in Western Kenya, struggled to make a profit from his farm due to poor-quality seeds, pests, and lack of adequate storage. A partnership called Grow Africa helped the Kenya National Farmers Federation (KENAFF) identify suppliers, marketing and storage providers. Richard’s production has now doubled, generating increased income for his family. Across […]
Partnership for Indonesia Sustainable Agriculture
In late October I joined a site visit to a sustainable coffee project, which is part of the Partnership for Indonesia Sustainable Agriculture (PISAgro) partnership. It is no exaggeration to say that I was blown away by the project: impressed; inspired; and, most of all, convinced by the multi-stakeholder approach. The coffee project is led […]
Transcending Boundaries to End Hunger
Ending hunger is in everyone’s interest. Succeeding in this Goal #2 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals means not only ending the misery and debilitation of the starving and malnourished, but also stemming the spread and persistence of disease, and enabling at least 2 billion people, if better nourished, to be more productive for themselves […]
Supporting Cocoa Smallholders to Combat Climate Change
Climate change poses a multitude of risks to business. From the effects on agricultural commodity production, to the cost of rising fuel taxes, to human health threats caused by extreme weather events. As a result, businesses are increasingly building a climate change agenda into their own risk management strategies. But how can a company such […]
Goodbye Cotton, Hello Hemp?
Cotton. You love it, I love it, but Mother Nature freakin’ hates it. About 20 million tons of cotton are produced each and every year, making it far and away the world’s most profitable non-food crop. But it’s resource intensive in a big way. It takes about 20,000 liters of water to produce just one […]
Top 10 Blogs of 2015
It’s been another busy year on Business Fights Poverty with between one and two stories published every weekday on our homepage. Thank you to all our members and Content Partners who shared their insights with the community. With the New Year imminent, we thought we’d once again take a look at the most popular articles […]
Understanding and Tracking Social Impacts of Business
2015 was a year of progress. We have a long way to go to understand, track and strengthen the social impact of business. But we are beginning to ask the right questions and shape better tools. In case you missed them, these are my top highlights of 2015 for building the impact measurement space for […]