What smallholder cotton farmers need to build financial and agricultural resilience
During my journey of working with smallholder farmers I have observed that farmers in South Asia face many challenges related to climate change, increased cost of production, lack of awareness of sustainable agriculture practices, and marketing of crops. The COVID-19 pandemic has added new challenges to farmers’ lives. As an organisation, we have kept in […]
Which supermarkets are doing the most to protect the rights of food workers?
As the Coronavirus pandemic drives home the importance of the frontline workers producing and supplying our food, Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign to improve the conditions of people in supermarket supply chains is more relevant than ever. And yet, the 2020 Supermarket Scorecard highlights that no supermarket is doing enough to combat human suffering in […]
New Ways of Thinking, Convening, Leading
It feels like a lifetime ago that WWF and many other organizations identified 2020 as a potential ‘Super Year’ for nature and people. Big United Nations decisions under international conventions on climate change and biological diversity were to take place, complemented by negotiation of a Global Oceans treaty; and in its 75th anniversary year, the […]
Fairtrade Calls for Full Sector Response to Shore up Cocoa Farmer’s Livelihoods Through the Crisis
I am really pleased to announce that, this week, we’ve launched our Cocoa Sustainable Livelihoods Landscape Study. Co-authored by Naomi Somerville-Large and Antonio Capillo at the Fairtrade Foundation, this study is published as part of our partnership with Cocoa Life – Mondelēz International’s global cocoa sustainability programme. This is a groundbreaking piece of research which […]
Rebuild Better: How to Support Farmers and Workers Through the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond
It’s hard to predict what this crisis may have done to speed up the consolidation of China’s influence in the international development sector (and beyond), what kind of USA administration we’ll be left with at the end of it all, and what the future of multi-lateral intervention on the wicked problems of global poverty and […]
Closing the Living Income Gap for Farmers – From Theory to Practice
Our vision for living income is both radical and simple: all cocoa farmers should be able to earn an income that provides them with a decent standard of living, sufficient to cover the cost of sustainable production as well as everyday expenses like a nutritious diet, children’s education and healthcare. With some complex mathematics it’s […]
What’s the Impact of Sustainable Farming on Smallholder Suppliers in Ethiopia?
In Ethiopia, the agriculture sector employs more than 70 per cent of the country’s population of 105 million people. The vast majority are smallholder farmers who practice subsistence farming and are relatively disconnected from global markets, and whose livelihoods are vulnerable to a number of risks such as uncontrollable weather conditions, crop disease and pests. […]
Don’t Allow the Coronavirus to Open Up Another Front
WHO has called for a “whole of government, whole of society” approach to combatting the pandemic. Beating COVID-19 requires more than just a health system response; it involves every person, everywhere, and every sector. We are all in this together. Food is our most basic need, and we must defend our food systems and the […]
Covid-19: ‘We Won’t Get Back to Normal Because Normal was the Problem’
The crisis is set to generate a loss of at least 1.5% or $1 trillion worldwide, which would technically mean a global recession with all major regions affected and a devastating impact on the poorest countries. Plans for recovery are already being discussed, with a focus on the financial stimulus needed to help economies recover. But […]
Fairtrade Together: COVID-19 Briefing
Fairtrade is gathering updates from around the world about how COVID-19 is affecting producer organizations, family farmers, and workers. The flower market in Africa, especially Kenya, is facing unprecedented challenges due to the inability to ship their goods to Europe via commercial airlines, which have stopped their routes. As a result, workers — whose livelihoods […]
Cohabiting with a Virus: We Must Learn to Live Life on Land More Sustainably
On Saturday 21 March, the world celebrated the UN’s International Day of Forests. But instead of stepping out into nature or joining one of the many activities planned to recognise this day, many of us are – voluntarily or not – staying put in our homes, amid the bleak global fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. […]
Why Off-Grid Energy Matters…And How it Can Matter Even More
That’s why we commissioned 60 Decibels to aggregate and share, for the first time, data collected on 49 off-grid solar companies in a new report – “Why off-grid energy matters” – launching this week at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum & Expo in Nairobi. This was no small undertaking – it includes data from across 17 […]
Living Income: A Story From Measurement to Impact
Living income and the poverty line There’s an important distinction between living income and poverty lines. While poverty lines are generally concerned with subsistence; decency and resilience underpin the concept of living income. It is about earning enough to live a decent life with a buffer for the unexpected. In the past, for many, the […]
Why ESG is Core to Long-Term Success in Venture Capital
Successful VC-backed companies have the potential to create large numbers of jobs and deliver impactful services. This is particularly true in emerging markets where the technology-enabled firms targeted by VC investors can leapfrog market constraints to enable large-scale access to essential products and services, including to under-served groups, and create a path into the formal […]
Is Davos Signalling the End of Business as Usual?
From the vast bushfires of Australia to the not-so-snowy mountains of Davos, the impacts of climate change are impossible to ignore. This week, the world is watching the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting to gauge how global leaders will react. Government and business leaders are already responding to the need for concrete action – including UK leadership and commercial giant Microsoft – by […]
It’s Time We Understand All of a Business’ Impacts on People and the Planet
Many of us are entering the new decade with a sense of urgency as well as possibility. Whilst we know more and more about the global threats to society and the environment, we are increasingly made aware of the opportunities to actively contribute to positive change. This awareness is reflected in the way that we […]
Sustainability and Profitability Can Co-Exist. Here’s How
There is an urgent need for businesses to look beyond the bottom line. Businesses with ESG principles built into their strategy, can mitigate risk and drive profitable growth. The onus lies with business leaders to figure out the right balance between short-term and long-term priorities. As part of my routine interactions with colleagues, industry peers, […]
Top Stories of 2019
While the social impact and business agenda is shaping up for 2020, we first wanted to share the most popular stories we published in 2019 with you. A huge thank you to the authors featured in this list and to all of you who made contributions. We hope these stories inspire you and welcome your submissions this year*. 10 Seven Key Learnings for Corporate Partnership Leads in […]
10 Trends That Should Be on Your Board’s Radar
Ten things that caught my attention on the topic of business and social impact: 1.Climate change goes social: Global CEOs rank it as the biggest threat to business. But it has taken Greta Thunberg leading six million people to strike for the climate on one day to generate a feeling of real action. The global […]
Nestlé’s System to Tackle Child Labor Works – Now We’re Scaling It Up
Our system was successful in tackling child labor in just over half of cases in the 2019 reporting period. Strong progress, but now we’re going further. What underlies the successes we’ve had, and how can we improve? Well, the system’s strength stems from the fact that we’ve built it from the ground upwards. Our 1,640 […]