Smallholders Critical to Reigniting Rural Development in Asia
Rural poverty has declined throughout Asia and the overall economic performance has increased. Agricultural development has played a major role in these improvements with smallholder farmers in the lead. Around the world they already feed almost a third of the world’s population and produce 80 per ent of the food consumed in the developing world. […]
Joe Phelan: Time for Business and NGOs to Move from High Ground to Common Ground
By Joe Phelan, India Country Director, IBLF Change is afoot in India, as the debate on the role of business to support inclusive growth shifts from theory to implementation. The new landscape is one where companies are mandated by government to spend a proportion of their profits on CSR initiatives while major aid agencies are […]
How can business help tackle undernutrition?
There has been much talk over the last decade of the role of the private sector in development. In the beginning, we debated fiercely over whether there even should be a role – in fact this debate still rages on. But for many it became clear that excluding the private sector was not practical and […]
Kenya-based firm to provide 100,000 small farmers with micro-loans
For more news from the Business Call to Action please click here. New York/Nairobi, 11 November 2011 – Juhudi Kilimo, a Kenya-based investment firm, announced today that it will provide some 100,000 smallholder rural farmers in Kenya—more than half of them women—with access to micro-loans and basic financial training by 2016 as part of the […]
Seeking Great Business Ideas for Investment
The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), which invests in businesses wishing to implement commercially viable and high development impact projects in Africa, is launching three new competitions to spur business innovation and investment in: agribusiness development across Sub-Saharan Africa; renewable energy and adaptation to help small farmers in East Africa to adapt to climate change; […]
Innovations in local sourcing
Graham Mackay, CEO, SABMiller, speaking at the launch of Africa’s first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala’, will be brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller’s local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). Approximately 40,000 tonnes of raw cassava will be used annually in the production of Impala, creating new employment for over 1,500 smallholder farmers and […]
Africa: Consider Vocational training
It is worth recalling that vocational training is but one instrument for employment generation in Africa and, as such, should be kept in perspective. Whereas vocational training can develop appropriate skills and thereby improve labour supply and the “employability” of the work force, demand for labour depends on incentives for investment, including prices, the exchange […]
SABMiller launches first ever cassava lager in Mozambique
SABMiller plc, one of the world’s largest brewers, today announced the launch of the first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala’, will be brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller’s local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). The launch marks the latest step in SABMiller’s ambition to create a portfolio of high-quality, affordable beers made using locally-sourced […]
Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund Launches New South Sudan Funding Window
‘South Sudan: Wide open for Business’ read a recent headline on the Africa Business magazine. Juba and indeed South Sudan is bustling with activity. Driving through the capital city and to areas as far as Rock City, one can feel the developing vibrant business environment. The overwhelming response at the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund launch […]
Engaging the Private Sector to Advance Agribusiness, Food Security, Nutrition in Africa
Blog: The business of global hunger Last week saw around 400 business and development community delegates from 50 countries come together in Johannesburg to discuss how to foster inclusive growth in the agri-food sector by engaging the private sector (download the press release). The AgriBusiness Forum 2011, co-hosted by the UNDP and the European Marketing […]
Driving Private Sector Innovation to Fight Hunger
Business and food go hand in hand. Researching and developing new technologies that improve the quality of a seed or reduce the amount of time a farmer spends harvesting crops is largely done by the private sector. Private companies process, package, transport and market foods to all of us every day. So there’s no question […]
Transforming African Smallholders into Rural Entrepreneurs
Prices of certain basic food commodities have risen sharply in recent years. According to a 2011 World Bank report on food prices, global wheat prices have risen most, doubling between June 2010 and January 2011. Maize prices are about 73 percent higher. Increased food prices have had an adverse impact on food security worldwide: the […]
The Business of Addressing Global Hunger
Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are facing dire food crises. According to the ONE Campaign, the famine in Somalia could kill 750,000 human beings unless donors intervene. Meanwhile, in 2008, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported that approximately 32% of Africans are undernourished. The private sector, in partnership with donors, may […]
Is Business the New Aid?
Recently I had the opportunity to join a panel discussion organised by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) held in the margins of the just-completed series of UK Political Party Conferences (I spoke at the Liberal Democrat Party and Labour Party Conference Fringe Events; Sue Clark, Corporate Affairs Director of SABMiller, and board member of […]
The socio-economic impact of SABMiller in Ghana
Last month on this site, we profiled the prolific work of Professor Ethan Kapstein and his quest to tell the story of business’ contribution to development through hard data. For all those who have worked in this field for a while, and who have come to crave more than anecdotes and stories, the significance of […]
DFID's New Paper On The Role Of The Private Sector In Fighting World Poverty
Business Action for Africa Over recent years, the UK has increasingly emphasized the role of the private sector in its international development strategy. The Department for International Development (DFID) has been a pioneer among its peers, championing initiatives such as the Business Call to Action, the Business Innovation Facility and the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund. […]
DFID’s New Paper On The Role Of The Private Sector In Fighting World Poverty
Business Action for Africa Over recent years, the UK has increasingly emphasized the role of the private sector in its international development strategy. The Department for International Development (DFID) has been a pioneer among its peers, championing initiatives such as the Business Call to Action, the Business Innovation Facility and the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund. […]
Bridging the Worlds of Impact Investing and Inclusive Business
Attending this month’s SOCAP/Europe conference (see my blog about the event), I have been struck by the huge potential for connecting the world’s of impact investing and inclusive business. Both are effectively about using private capital to bring about positive social and environmental change. Very often both are focused on supporting small and medium enterprises […]
The GIM Initiative Releases 60 New Case Studies of Inclusive Business Models
The “Growing Inclusive Markets” (GIM) Initiative, a UNDP-led global multi-stakeholder research and advocacy initiative on inclusive business models (i.e. financially sustainable models that include the poor on the demand side as clients and customers, and on the supply side as employees, producers and business owners along the value chain), has recently released 60 new case […]
Joe Phelan: Rolling up Sleeves for Development
In the world’s top corporate boardrooms, its lecture theatres and in the planning sessions of think tanks and development agencies such as my own, much is made of uncovering new business solutions for development challenges. Inclusive innovation is the current buzz. This is important work. Today, in rural Maharastra, India, I was reminded of another […]