DFID, Business and the Post-2015 Agenda
Last week members of the UN High Level Panel met in London to discuss the successor to the Millennium Development Goal framework. The meetings, co-chaired by PM Cameron, President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, represent a unique opportunity to reflect on what new framework could drive poverty eradication when the […]
DFID, Business and the Post-2015 Development Agenda
Last week members of the UN High Level Panel met in London to discuss the successor to the Millennium Development Goal framework. The meetings, co-chaired by PM Cameron, President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, represent a unique opportunity to reflect on what new framework could drive poverty eradication when the […]
Post-2015: Why a focus on business responsibility and tax would be a missed opportunity
In contrast to twelve years ago, when the Millennium Development Goals were first agreed, now – as the world starts to think about what will replace them in 2015 – business is very much on the agenda. Business Fights Poverty has co-hosted two events that looked at this (one on Tuesday and one in September), […]
Fostering the Growth of Inclusive Businesses
Doing business with the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) isn’t exactly “business as usual”. From the start-up to the scale-up phases companies doing business with the poor come with their own set of challenges. How to overcome challenges for scaling-up and replicating commercially viable inclusive business modelswas the focus of the first G20 Inclusive Business […]
The Water Food Energy Nexus
By 2050 demand for resources is set to increase significantly as the global population grows to nine billion and becomes more prosperous. Global economic growth is being driven largely by emerging markets. Over the medium term, the World Bank estimates economic growth of 6% in developing countries compared to 2.7% in higher-income countries1. This is […]
The Power of We
October 15th is Blog Action Day, and the theme this year is “The Power of We”. That idea is at the very heart of Business Fights Poverty. I am continuously blown away by the energy and innovation of individuals around the world who are pioneering new ways of fighting poverty through business: just take a […]
Fashioning Women’s Development
Women and fashion have a longstanding and complex relationship: often a source of joy as well as contempt. In the sleek surroundings of a London Soho art gallery, Rook and Raven, two leading female sustainable fashion experts exposed some ugly truths about fashion, and the visionary efforts underway to revolutionise the industry as part of […]
The World We Want
In the years up to 2015, the world needs to remain focused on securing as much progress as possible on the current set of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the same time, discussions have already begun on the goals and targets that could build on and succeed the MDGs. On 25 September, UNDP joined forces […]
Provoking while Inspiring Market and Enterprise Development Strategies
In keeping to tradition, the SEEP Network’s Annual Conference will undoubtedly be challenging development practitioners on how to significantly leverage the impact of development investments and initiatives. The gathering has for a long time been used as a key industry platform to acknowledge and address the most current challenge areas, and cutting edge practices that […]
How fertilizer can double cocoa production
Until now little was known about fertilizer use for cocoa. For instance, to what extent does fertilizer affect cocoa farms? How much does it cost, and which returns on investment can be expected? A pilot study on the impact of fertilizer by Francois Ruf from CIRAD, funded by IDH, Mars and Yara, gives an interesting […]
Catalyzing smallholder agricultural finance
The world’s 450 million smallholder farmers represent a large – and largely unmet – opportunity for agricultural financing. As population growth and rising incomes create unprecedented demand for food, multinational companies increasingly rely on smallholders to secure their supply of agricultural commodities. As a result, smallholders present a compelling opportunity for buyers, lenders, and other […]
The Empowerment of Women is Key to Tackling Poverty
The Bellagio Initiative caught my eye last year because of the organisations who had established it, and the mission they had set themselves – namely, the collective pursuit of answers to some of the world’s most pressing and current questions. The initiative has just published an inaugural report “Human Wellbeing in the 21st Century: Meeting […]
Forget poverty. Let's talk about business
In an article I just finished for How Magazine on the future of design, I used Paul Polak as an example of why generalists are so important to the world right now. I said, “For example, it would be easy to think of global development pioneer Paul Polak as an expert in alleviating poverty, but […]
Forget poverty. Let’s talk about business
In an article I just finished for How Magazine on the future of design, I used Paul Polak as an example of why generalists are so important to the world right now. I said, “For example, it would be easy to think of global development pioneer Paul Polak as an expert in alleviating poverty, but […]
Practical Action Consulting is offering Participatory Market Systems Development training at the SEEP Annual Conference
Practical Action Practical Action Consulting (PAC) is holding a 2-day training workshop to introduce practitioners to the Participatory Market Systems Development (PMSD) approach at the SEEP Annual Conference in Washington DC. This technical training is aimed at enterprise and inclusive market development practitioners who wish to gain a greater understanding of Practical Action’s approach to […]
Clean water: a conduit for a healthier society and better business
As we prepare to publish our annual Global Sustainability Report next week*, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the importance of water, the most important ingredient in all of our brands, and underline our drive to improve water efficiency around the globe, particularly at our production sites in ‘water-stressed’ areas – predominantly in […]
The Next Digital Revolution
In May this year I had the pleasure of speaking at Seoul Digital Forum (Korea). I was stimulated and challenged by Steve Ballmer’s keynote address in the morning, especially the description of the new Windows 8 and all its bells and whistles. But I had one problem with it. What Steve talked about has no […]
The key to inclusive business- Getting better at partnering
“Partnering with other sectors is a bit like being a parent. Until you’ve experienced it for yourself, you really can’t appreciate what it’s like” – head of education partnerships of a multinational bank. Inclusive business (IB) projects, by definition, tend to sit in areas outside of companies’ traditional comfort zones. Whether providing incomes to disadvantaged […]
The key to inclusive business: Getting better at partnering
“Partnering with other sectors is a bit like being a parent. Until you’ve experienced it for yourself, you really can’t appreciate what it’s like” – head of education partnerships of a multinational bank. Inclusive business (IB) projects, by definition, tend to sit in areas outside of companies’ traditional comfort zones. Whether providing incomes to disadvantaged […]
Climate change and your supply chain – why doing nothing is not an option
Oxfam What happens when climate change impacts on source products that are part of a global supply chain? Oxfam posed this question to three multinational corporations to find out what companies can do to support the farmers in their value chains to adapt. At Oxfam we know that hundreds of millions of people are already […]