Investigating Inclusive Business Models in Africa
Woolworths through its Good Business Journey, has a comprehensive plan to make a difference in six priority areas: sustainable farming, protecting water supplies, reducing energy use, improving the management of waste, making a significant contribution to social development and supporting transformation initiatives As part of the company’s CSR investment, Woolworths was the first and main […]
HOW-TO MANAGE MISSION-RELATED MARTYRDOM
Every social entrepreneur knows there if is a huge difference between burnout and bummed out. Some days, indeed most days, we in the social sector are grieving over deplorable income inequality, the pathology of poverty, grinding gender discrimination and the talent loss of economic inopportunity. As Jessamyn Lau, formerly of the Peery Foundation, notes, “There […]
The Best Social Innovations of 2013
The SAB Foundation has announced the finalists of its 3rd Annual Social Innovation Awards 2013. A total of 26 finalists will vie for the R1-million first place prize, which will be used to grow and commercialise their product or service. The SAB Foundation Social Innovations Awards was first launched in 2011 by its chairperson, Cyril […]
7 Trends Shaping Africa’s Youth Employment Challenge
In 2001, Charles Maisel started a social enterprise because he saw potential in the young men who sit on the roadside in South Africa’s townships waiting to be hired for a day’s labor. He then flipped the problem into a solution. Charles understood the barriers: the short-term and unreliable nature of employment in the informal […]
Creating Opportunities for Rural Girls in India
A two-year-old girl named Arshi was one of last people in India to get polio. Her case is remarkable for a number of reasons. First and most obvious, her case – now more than two years old – shows the tremendous strides we’ve made against polio. There has been no case of wild polio in […]
Partnerships: The Best Hope of Transforming the Future
Many companies, like those who attended the recent event in New York (watch the video below) on “A New Global Partnership with Business”, are actively thinking about their role in helping deliver the Post-2015 sustainable development agenda. And that contribution is huge. In his speech to the General Assembly, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, recognized […]
Zambian Businessman Turned Environmental Campaigner Starts Africa's First Green Party
After years in the maize exporting business and fifteen years of fighting to protect the rich natural resources, environment and landscape of Zambia, Peter Sinkamba has decided it is time to swap his activist hat for a politician’s. All the same, he will keep his business hat on when trying to persuade corporates to jump […]
Zambian Businessman Turned Environmental Campaigner Starts Africa’s First Green Party
After years in the maize exporting business and fifteen years of fighting to protect the rich natural resources, environment and landscape of Zambia, Peter Sinkamba has decided it is time to swap his activist hat for a politician’s. All the same, he will keep his business hat on when trying to persuade corporates to jump […]
What a Waste!
When India changes its urban waste management system, it matters. Ashoka Fellow Ravi Agarwal has spent the past two decades moving mountains… of rubbish. He is counting on the youth to give the final push. With global waste measured in millions of tonnes, it is easy to question whether recycling your water bottle or daily […]
The Decade of Design: The Global Urban Solutions Challenge
To architects, it seems self-evident: good design can improve human well-being. But clients and communities are asking for more, including proof of the relationship of design, planning, and public health. In 2012, the American Institute of Architects and partners made a CGI Commitment to Action to establish the Decade of Design: Global Urban Solutions Challenge. […]
Doing Well By Doing Good In Colombia
The EPM Group is a Colombian utility company that provides water, domestic gas and electricity in Colombia and other countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico and Chile. Many of our clients belong to the low-income segment of the population. Instead of discouraging us, this reality has become a challenge in which innovation and, above […]
A Unique Opportunity to Reach the Rural BoP
The significance of harvest time for farmers is not going to shock many but less obvious, perhaps, is its importance for those trying to reach the rural BOP. Through its social enterprise, SunnyMoney, SolarAid has now reached over 3 million people with pico (<10 watt) solar lights, selling over 670,000 in East Africa and eradicating […]
Transforming India's Urban Waste Management System
When India changes its urban waste management system, it matters. Ashoka Fellow Ravi Agarwal has spent the past two decades moving mountains… of rubbish. He is counting on the youth to give the final push. With global waste measured in millions of tonnes, it is easy to question whether recycling your water bottle or daily […]
Transforming India’s Urban Waste Management System
When India changes its urban waste management system, it matters. Ashoka Fellow Ravi Agarwal has spent the past two decades moving mountains… of rubbish. He is counting on the youth to give the final push. With global waste measured in millions of tonnes, it is easy to question whether recycling your water bottle or daily […]
Enterprise-Driven Innovation in South Africa
Encouraging and fostering entrepreneurship is increasingly viewed as the best way to empower communities and bring about social change. Large corporations are joining in cross-sector collaborations with public bodies to support impact investment projects that accelerate social and environmental improvements. SABMiller has long placed Enterprise Development at the core of its long-term Sustainable Development strategy. […]
Achieving Scale
Scale is the single biggest unmet challenge in development and impact investment today. IDE, the development organization I founded, has helped some 20 million people living on a $1/day move out of poverty, but this is a drop in the bucket compared to the 2.7 billion people still living on less than $2/day. About the […]
It's Africa's Time: Encouraging Inclusive Business Models in Africa
While Africa’s challenges are well documented, there’s an increasing recognition that the continent is on an upward trajectory. And yet Africa’s wealth disparities are amongst the biggest in the world and over the long run this will undermine economic growth, productivity and the development of markets. Economic growth alone is not enough. As a result […]
It’s Africa’s Time: Encouraging Inclusive Business Models in Africa
While Africa’s challenges are well documented, there’s an increasing recognition that the continent is on an upward trajectory. And yet Africa’s wealth disparities are amongst the biggest in the world and over the long run this will undermine economic growth, productivity and the development of markets. Economic growth alone is not enough. As a result […]
Project Inspire: MasterCard & UN Women Support Youth Involvement in Women Empowerment Projects
This year marks the third year since we launched Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World – a digital initiative dedicated to inspiring young people to build sustainable projects that will benefit disadvantaged women and girls in Asia/Pacific, the Middle East or Africa – together with the Singapore Committee for UN Women. Aimed at […]
Project Inspire: MasterCard & UN Women Support Youth Involvement in Women Empowerment Projects
This year marks the third year since we launched Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World – a digital initiative dedicated to inspiring young people to build sustainable projects that will benefit disadvantaged women and girls in Asia/Pacific, the Middle East or Africa – together with the Singapore Committee for UN Women. Aimed at […]