6 Ways Businesses Can Be Inclusive and Socially Responsive
The big question that us development professionals who are working at the intersections of development and business faces today is whether private sector led growth can be inclusive and socially responsive. Our experience on that count is mixed. Businesses obviously promote economic growth, jobs and other associated social benefits. However, the business models generally tend […]
iDE and innocent foundation: Creating successful NGO-Business Partnerships
Since 2006 non-profit organisation iDE UK and the innocent foundation have achieved a major impact in some of the world’s poorest communities in Africa and Asia. They have found new, innovative ways to create shared value that can offer insights into creating successful partnerships between NGOs and the business world. Creating shared value starts with […]
Product Paternalism – Consumer Choice at the BoP
Women’s empowerment means voter choice, partner choice, healthcare choice, reproductive choice, career choice, and consumer choice. Who would argue that a shovel, seeds, and a watering can are not useful and important products to sell in impoverished communities? Or school supplies, study aids, pens, and paper? Or a mattress to lift children off a dirt […]
Event Audio: Base of the Pyramid Consumers – Getting the Right Product to the Right People
Stoves, water purifiers, off-grid power, nutritious foods – so many innovative products and services are being developed for base of the pyramid (BoP) markets. But companies developing these products have to be innovative and creative in the face of several challenges: low purchasing power, traditional consumer preferences and logistical problems (such as inadequate infrastructure) that […]
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, […]
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 […]
Cocoa Life and Verification: A Circle of Learning
By Mil Niepold, Senior Mediator, Consensus Building Institute My job is to listen, and to encourage others to be excellent listeners. Listening means being open to hearing what people need and want, what works and what doesn’t. Listening gives others, especially those who haven’t been heard, a voice, and this is key to creating and […]
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 […]
Listening to New Voices in International Development
The global development discussion, like global development itself, often appears to be a one-way street: experts in the developed world discuss different strategies for uplifting the world’s poorest communities. It is a worthy but limited conversation, and too often does not include the perspectives of those on the receiving end of development policy. This needs […]
Mixing Business and Social- What Really is a Social Enterprise?
Of course we all know what a ‘social enterprise’ (SE) is in a developing country. It’s obvious, surely? It’s, um, a business that does good things for people, and also makes money. Don’t nit-pick! This is all about dynamism, creativity and innovation. Well, OK, point taken. But nagging doubts remain. What sorts of good things? […]
Harnessing the Business Potential of Honey
I have recently been focusing my time on a honey production company called KEYDA, one of the two selected youth led companies on whom the business booster will be tested in the third phase of the pilot. To get a better picture of their current status and in order to assure a certain level that […]
Mo Ibrahim’s Recipe to ‘Deliver Africa’s Promise’
Alice Allen, Head of Advocacy, Care International UK What do you get if you combine the youngest participant in the 2012 Olympics (13), ‘making agriculture sexy’ and the establishment of a business corruption index? The answer? Africa delivering on its promise and fulfilling its economic and social potential, according to the Sudanese-born, global mobile communications […]
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 […]
Mixing Business and Social: What Really is a Social Enterprise?
Of course we all know what a ‘social enterprise’ (SE) is in a developing country. It’s obvious, surely? It’s, um, a business that does good things for people, and also makes money. Don’t nit-pick! This is all about dynamism, creativity and innovation. Well, OK, point taken. But nagging doubts remain. What sorts of good things? […]
Existing Opportunities for Internet-Enabled Development in Africa
Access to the Internet propels both business growth and economic development, a fact that has been well documented, most recently in our Impact of the Internet report. Yet conversations on information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in Africa frequently focus on SMS programs,mobile money, or the need for better infrastructure. These elements are important, […]
Assessing Corporate Human Rights Impacts – Lessons from Kenya
When I returned from Kenya last August, one sentence particularly stuck in my mind. A Maasai farmer being interviewed about the impacts of tourism said: “Tourism is like clean water in a fast-flowing river that is rushing past, which we have no means to enter.” This view was widely shared by employees, beach sellers, community […]
What your BOP strategy is Missing: A Gender Lens
Debate on the possibilities at the base of the pyramid (BOP) is ubiquitous; nonetheless, too often regulated to a post-script is that frequently when we refer to the BOP what we actually mean is women at the BOP. It’s time to stop discussing the BOP as a single, homogenous entity and start looking more specifically […]
What Your BOP Strategy is Missing – A Gender Lens
Debate on the possibilities at the base of the pyramid (BOP) is ubiquitous; nonetheless, too often regulated to a post-script is that frequently when we refer to the BOP what we actually mean is women at the BOP. It’s time to stop discussing the BOP as a single, homogenous entity and start looking more specifically […]
Business Engagement in Fighting Rural Hunger and Poverty
Government assistance is simply not enough to tackle rural poverty. The U.S. food security program, Feed the Future, is a relatively new effort to target key countries and communities to promote food security. It is vitally important and has been carefully-designed and implemented. Feed the Future is focused on 19 countries; but food security and […]