Why 2021 presents an opportunity to build back better and take action on big societal issues like climate change
2020 was a year full of uncertainly. Not only did the pandemic affect our health and personal lives, it also fundamentally challenged our political, social, and economic norms too. Most notably though, the impact it had on how many of us think about tackling the big issues like climate change was huge. So, despite the […]
Texas, Climate and Equity
As a retired nurse, I am passionate about the health of my local community in Pleasantville, a neighborhood in Houston, Texas. I have seen first-hand how deep inequities impact on people’s lives, most recently in the face of a devastating winter storm that led to rolling blackouts that left about 4 million people across the […]
Growing Haiti’s food systems with determination and partners
Even before the novel coronavirus became a global threat, the United Nations had dire predictions for Haiti in 2020. A UN humanitarian agency report in December 2019 forecast that within months 40 percent of Haitians would “require urgent humanitarian assistance.” Causes included political upheaval, insecurity and rising food prices. Adding a pandemic to the mix […]
How new business skills are helping communities in Nepal
To create lasting change in Nepal, the solution needs to look to the future and provide communities with the skills they want. Farming communities tend to be aware of what they need to flourish, but are unable to access them. By joining the dots and helping communities improve their business skills, access tools and training […]
Business and Climate Justice: Putting People at the Centre of Climate Action
Climate change is affecting us all, but the most severe impacts are being felt by the most vulnerable people, who contribute least to the causes of the problem. Existing inequities – due to factors such as gender, race and income – exacerbate the risks to people’s lives and livelihoods. Inequity also affects people’s capacity and […]
Business Fights Poverty Fortnightly Round-Up
This month marked the anniversary of the WHO declaring the COVID-19 pandemic. This milestone presents an opportune moment to reflect on the devastating loss of life and opportunity that has been suffered – particularly by the world’s most vulnerable people. Alongside this, the anniversary has been a time for us to remember the countless acts […]
Innovation in the Face of Crisis: How to Support Entrepreneurs during the Continuing COVID-19 Pandemic
When the COVID-19 pandemic reached El Salvador, it delivered a blow to Fátima Meléndez, owner of Lafá Cake Boutique in San Salvador. Most of the company’s business came from providing cakes and dessert tables at weddings, which were cancelled indefinitely when El Salvador entered a strict, months-long lockdown. Lafá saw its sales plummet and even […]
Why living wages will help flower workers to ‘bloom back better’ after Covid-19
The flower and plant sector is an incredibly important source of hundreds of thousands of jobs in low-income countries, and is particularly vital for women who make up around half of the workforce. Globally, the export of cut flowers was worth over £6.75bn in 2018. However, with prices paid to flower farms for their products […]
It’s time to scale up regenerative agriculture: a win-win for farmers, food companies, and our environment
Conventional farming is one of the world’s greatest drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss, and we’re running out of time to reverse its adverse effects. But there is good news too: the largest study ever done on sustainable farming supports the idea that regenerative agriculture could be the answer to turning it all around. […]
Unleash the Accountant Warriors
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair When Upton Sinclair went undercover in Chicago’s meat packing district to depict the abhorrent conditions under which workers had spent their days at the beginning of the last century, an uproar followed leading to […]
Business Partnerships as a Force for Good
Business Partnerships for Global Goals (BP4GG) is a UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office programme which invests in partnerships with businesses to test and scale shared value initiatives that support achieving the SDGs. Managed by Mott MacDonald, the programme hosts the Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility, a rapid COVID-19 response facility partnering with 20 international agricultural […]
A day in CottonConnect’s Women in Cotton programme: Practical training, tangible changes
International Women’s Day is always a day for celebration at CottonConnect, as we recognize the capable women leaders within our own and partner organizations, and renew our focus on improving the lives of women in cotton farming communities. This International Women’s Day, we want to give an insight into a day in our Women in […]
A fair trade: putting farmers first in the fight for climate justice
The 22 February marked the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, the annual celebration of all things Fairtrade. It’s a time when individuals, companies and groups across the UK come together to share the stories of the people behind our food and products, and explore how trade justice can be part of the solution to the many […]
Seminar Video: What can companies do to include and support women farmers?
PROFILE Esther Ngumbi is an author, researcher, educator, mentor, speaker, and a champion for change around the issues of hunger, gender, education, youth activism, agriculture, sustainability, and public service. She works as an Assistant Professor, Entomology and African American Studies, at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She is the founder of organizations that […]
A new dawn for women smallholders in India
The work of a female farmer begins well before dawn, and continues well after dusk, and yet in terms of empowerment, agency, and ownership, many women farmers are still in the dark. In India, 85% of rural women are engaged in agriculture, yet only about 13% own land. Overcoming the gender gap with support and empowerment […]
Gender is a significant factor in private sector and disaster management
One of the key considerations of gender in private sector disaster management is that women are overrepresented in the economic sectors that are hit hardest in disasters, as well as in the informal sector which is specifically vulnerable to disasters. Some might say the selection of career is a personal choice. But is it? The World […]
Putting Women in the Driver’s Seat
In many traditional farming communities, women handle most of the manual work in addition to having responsibilities for home and family management, as many of them have never driven a car. They are consigned to work in planting, weeding, and drying beds while also managing the feeding, education, and healthcare of their immediate and often […]
CARE and Cargill’s cocoa collaboration: Transforming lives together
As two global organizations, Cargill and CARE understand the complexity of the interrelated challenges of community development, nutrition, improved livelihoods and women’s empowerment. But we also know the tremendous impact that can be unlocked when we work together toward shared goals: learning from one another, challenging each other’s assumptions about what’s possible, and finding new […]
Two Unusual Low-Cost Chicken Feed Options for Some of the World’s Poorest Entrepreneurs
In rural parts of Odisha, India, backyard chickens scavenging on farms and eating kitchen waste are a familiar sight. Scrawny birds patrol gardens freely, snatching up worms and insects, but they often become prey to larger predators. And since they don’t live in a coop, free-range chickens succumb to diseases that could easily be prevented […]
A Love Story Turned Passion Project
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, one can easily recognise it as a purely commercial endeavour that commodifies love. Healthy scepticism aside, there is increasing recognition of commerce as a touchpoint for driving social change. And why not, after all, found a business on such a simple universal principle as love? This is what Richard O’Connor […]