Why Business and Social Protection are Not Contradictory but “Two Sides of the Same Coin”
Longstanding (mis-)perception of the distinctiveness of business ambitions and Social Protection (SP) goals has inhibited identification of joint opportunities to leverage synergies for effectively addressing needs with market based solutions. This discussion is increasingly relevant for protracted (often chronic displacement) crises caused by conflict or weather induced disasters that create and exacerbate existing vulnerabilities among […]
Business on a Mission: How to Build a Sustainable Brand
By Andy Last, Co-founder, Salt Readers of Business Fights Poverty have seen story upon story of businesses stepping up their efforts to be a force for good in the world. Yet trust in business and business leaders remains low. Why is this? If businesses are doing more to do good, why doesn’t that translate into […]
Top 10 Discussions of 2016
2016 saw our 100th online discussion, with over 1,300 comments posted over the course of the year! Online discussions have played a central role in our new Challenges as a way for members to share insights on the Challenge question. From next year, we will be upgrading our discussion forum to make it easier to […]
Recycled Loans Recycling Plastic
Lendwithcare began supporting entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe, through Microfinance Institution Thrive, one year ago. I was able to visit the country recently and met some of the entrepreneurs that I – and 80 of you – had supported in June 2016. I met the Nokutenda group which comprises four women entrepreneurs all running different businesses. By […]
Building Resilience Among Micro Entrepreneurs in the Philippines
The Philippines ranks third in the list of countries in the world where a natural disaster is most likely to occur, after the Pacific islands of Vanuatu and Tonga. Although it is also prone to earthquakes, flooding and droughts, it is typhoons that strike the Philippines most frequently. The state weather bureau PAGASA estimates that, […]
Combatting Illegal Logging with a Responsible Timber Exchange
The illegal production and trade of tropical timber is one of the main drivers of environmental degradation worldwide, leading to loss of habitats and biodiversity, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, human rights abuses and corruption. Sustainable forest management can provide livelihoods for forest peoples, and economic activity in rural areas, but these benefits are erased when […]
Why Small Businesses are Vital to Building Urban Resilience
A record-breaking 272 mm of rainfall fell on Chennai, India on 1 December 2015, leading to a two-week flood which displaced 1.8 million, claimed over 300 lives and caused well over $7 billion in economic losses. Due to the flooding, some 14,000 individual Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) experienced a total of $250 million […]
Lightening the Load of Women’s Unpaid Care Work
We’re excited to announce a three-year partnership with Unilever’s Surf brand that aims to recognise, reduce and redistribute the amount of time spent by women and girls on unpaid care work. In some parts of the world women and girls currently spend as many as six hours a day on unpaid care work – a […]
A Call for More Entrepreneurs to Focus on Toilets
Entrepreneurs are everywhere these days, not just in the purely for-profit world but also those looking to create social, as well as financial, gain. As the international development community grows, entrepreneurial thinking is becoming ever more mainstream, with social enterprises demonstrating how to create businesses that deliver social benefit. As Naveen Jain, technology and spacecraft […]
Emerging Lessons on Scaling Inclusive Distribution Networks
One of the most difficult and underestimated hurdles to doing business in low-income markets is figuring out how products make their way from production to the final customer. In India, more than 90 percent of all retail purchases are made in 12 million kirana stores and in Mexico, more than 50 percent of retail business […]
Breakthroughs in Fertilizer Can Unlock the Riches in the Soil
Throughout history, the relationship between a farmer and his land has been symbiotic. As long ago as 6,000BC, Neolithic smallholders in Europe used nitrogen-rich manure to maintain the soil’s fertility, understanding that the land provides but it must also be “fed”. Later, soil health became so important that countries were prepared to go to war […]
How Can Businesses Know What Impact Their Sustainable Sourcing Decisions are Having?
By Lara Koritzke, Director of Development and Communications, ISEAL Alliance Many businesses have publically committed to sustainable sourcing targets and regularly report on their progress towards these targets. The aim of course, in choosing to source raw materials that are sustainably produced, is to create a sustainable supply and have a positive impact on environmental […]
Businesses are More Sustainable than Projects
In Britain, everyone has to pay their Council Tax, and that covers the cost of collecting rubbish. We moan if the bin men miss a week. In informal urban settlements in many developing countries, there’s no waste collection service. I recently visited Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, where in 2015, 70% of its 2 million […]
Investing in Malawi’s Power Sector
MCC’s $350.7 million compact with Malawi, signed in 2011, is designed to revitalize the country’s power sector to improve the availability, reliability and quality of the power supply and promote economic growth. MCC is investing in infrastructure to increase the capacity of Malawi’s electrical grid while also working with the Government of Malawi and the […]
Making the Most of Sustainability Opportunities
Environmental and social considerations are often presented as risks to businesses. However, if they’re properly integrated into strategies and decision-making they can very much become opportunities. For example, research from KPMG suggests implementing measures to improve job quality can increase profit margins by as much as 0.4 per cent in industries where profit margins typically […]
Collaborating Across Sectors to Further Global Health
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 specific goals, and 169 associated targets that set out quantitative objectives across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, all to be achieved by 2030 (United Nations, 2015). Health has been recognized as crucial for sustainable human development (Alleyne et al., 2013) and an essential contributor […]
Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance in Food and Agricultural Sectors
With the release in May of the final report and recommendations of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, GBCHealth has convened a group of global leaders to discuss the potential impact of AMR and their priorities for immediate action. The #GBCtalksAMR series, which will be published over the next three weeks is intended to supplement the […]
Coca-Cola’s Contribution to Stability, Growth, and Optimism
In my article, I review the role of a global commercial organization, The Coca-Cola Company, in contributing to national stability in developing markets through a strategic approach to social and economic contribution. The company’s initiatives complement the role of policymakers, who are primarily responsible for the safety and prosperity of citizens, often using the Golden […]
Why Business May Contribute to Peace
What is increasingly clear from our work at the SDG Fund (a UN development mechanism, multi-donor agency that brings together UN Agencies, governments, civil society and business to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals) the complexity of the SDGs converge a guiding set of principles of interest to all actors. Paloma Duran, Director of the SDG […]
GBCHealth Talks Antimicrobial Resistance with GE Foundation
Interview with Dr. David M. Barash, Executive Director, Global Health Portfolio & Chief Medical Officer, GE Foundation With the release in May of the final report and recommendations of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, GBCHealth has convened a group of global leaders to discuss the potential impact of AMR and their priorities for immediate action. […]