The Private Sector as the Driver of Development
Nine out of ten jobs in the developing world are in the private sector. Hum-drum enough, but for the development community this is something of an epoch. There is a growing consensus in international development that the private sector is the engine of development and donors and development stakeholders should design and plan around this […]
Post 2015 – 21st Century Leadership in Action?
There’s been plenty of discussion and debate in the past week or so as people have chewed over the report from Ban Ki-moon’s High Level Panel and its recommendations on the shape of the UN’s Post 2015 Development Framework. But what does this week’s news tell us about a longer term trend? About how the […]
Social Impact Investing And The G8
Adviser, Department for International Development (DFID) Last week the UK Prime Minister hosted a G8 event on social impact investment at the Bloomberg Auditorium in London. Social impact investments are investments that have both a social and a financial return and in the case of international development are targeted at enterprises which benefit the poor […]
Rice production in Cambodia: the poor farmer’s perspective
Rice farming in Cambodia can be a tough and uncertain business. Rainfall is highly erratic, both drought and floods being regular occurrences, land is often infertile or under-nourished and investment in new farming systems and technology is minimal. Yet approximately 60% of the Cambodian population rely on agriculture (mainly rice production) for their livelihoods and […]
A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development
Last July, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, brought together a High-Level Panel to advise on the development framework that should replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire in 2015. The group delivered its much-anticipated report at the end of last week, “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies Through Sustainable Development”. One of […]
A WaterFirst Health Model – Delivering Healthcare in Emerging Markets
HealthPoint Services’ “WaterFirst” sells inexpensive, clean water to prevent water-borne illnesses in remote communities in India. But villagers who visit HealthPoint units to buy water get a lot more: they can also purchase health commodities like sanitary pads, condoms, and nutritional supplements for pregnant women. Villagers can also access health services like vaccinations and diagnostic […]
Beyond income: Understanding the BoP from an access to development perspective
No matter how much practitioners agree on quantifying the Base Of the Pyramid (BOP) based on their access to development and basic needs, we still seem to be loosing the battle against income threshold fundamentalists. Beyond the traditional controversies calculating purchasing power parity (PPP) income measurements, due in part to the lack of comparable basket […]
GSK & Save the Children Partnership: From Ambition to Action
The High Level Panel on the post-2015 development framework submitted its report yesterday (Thursday 30 May), giving the first indications of the settlement that will replace the Millennium Development Goals when they expire two years from now. The debate has featured discussions on everything from plankton abundance to WiFi access, but one issue that stands […]
Businesses invest in projects that improve lives and protect the environment
An annual state of the market report launched today, shows that businesses across the world continue to see the value of investing in projects that reduce carbon emissions, protect the environment and improve people’s lives, as a way to demonstrate industry leadership and take responsibility for their impacts. Over the last year alone, the private […]
Empowering Agricultural Entrepreneurs to Sustainably Feed the World
At Cargill, sustainable food production is fundamental to what we do. Our core business is buying, processing and distributing grains, oilseeds and other agricultural commodities and selling them to customers that include food and beverage manufacturers, foodservice companies and retailers. These customers increasingly want to know – and want to prove to their consumers – […]
Business and the UN MDGs Post 2015 – Changing context: Business opportunity
In less than 1000 days, the world is due to keep true to its promise to the deliver the UN Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs), the framework that almost 200 governments signed up to in 2000 to address the most pressing issues of the world’s poorest by 2015. Much has been achieved but there is still […]
Defining a New Development Framework that Strengthens the Contribution of Business
Since 2000 and the launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sub-Saharan Africa’s citizens have experienced growing stability and security alongside a sustained and widespread economic transformation that has lifted millions out of poverty. Despite these advances, progress across a broad range of MDG indicators remains frustratingly slow and uneven. At a time when aid […]
Social Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation – Not the Same Thing
Social entrepreneurs are obsessed, quirky, and disruptive – and that’s why they can be so effective in creating major change. At the UN Social Innovation Summit held at the end of May in New York City, a plenary panelist stated that social enterprises and social innovation are “really the same thing.” This conclusion was not […]
Social Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation – Not the Same Thing
Social entrepreneurs are obsessed, quirky, and disruptive – and that’s why they can be so effective in creating major change. At the UN Social Innovation Summit held at the end of May in New York City, a plenary panelist stated that social enterprises and social innovation are “really the same thing.” This conclusion was not […]
The Battle against Snail Fever: The Business Sector’s Perspective
It is safe to say that most people aren’t familiar with schistosomiasis, or for that matter, many of the maladies the World Health Organization collectively refers to as neglected tropical diseases. The second most prevalent parasitic infection after malaria, schistosomiasis affects more than 200 million people – approximately half of whom are children – who […]
UK Government must increase investment in agriculture to end global hunger
We Parliamentarians of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Agriculture and Food for Development are calling on the UK Government, and specifically the Department for International Development (DFID), to invest in agriculture to combat the hunger that 925 million people around the world are undernourished face every day. Our latest Parliamentary Report, on “Home Grown […]
What are the most promising Base of the Pyramid business models in Latin America?
Housing, education and banking, increasingly through mobile technology, are three of the fastest growing areas for private companies doing business with the Base of the Pyramid. Thanks to creative and also profitable new business models, low-income Colombians living outside the formal banking system are buying homes and appliances like fridges and washing machines on credit, […]
The SunWater Project – Advanced Solar Technology for Poor Farmers
In my last article, you heard about SunWater, a project to build a radically affordable solar water pump for $2-a-day farmers that will transform small plot agriculture, create new water markets, and significantly increase incomes that will raise bottom-of-the-pyramid families out of poverty. Our target customers are small-plot farmers in India and Africa. These farmers […]
Innovative Business Solutions on Clean Energy and Climate Change
We at the African Enterprise Challenge Fund are currently searching for the most innovative business solutions aiming to impact the rural poor in the following three focal areas; access to affordable clean energy, technologies which facilitate climate change adaptation financial and information services connected to clean energy and adaptation to climate change. Mozambique is a […]
Innovative Business Solutions on Clean Energy and Climate Change in Mozambique
We at the African Enterprise Challenge Fund are currently searching for the most innovative business solutions aiming to impact the rural poor in the following three focal areas; access to affordable clean energy, technologies which facilitate climate change adaptation financial and information services connected to clean energy and adaptation to climate change. Mozambique is a […]