How Can Business Help Strengthen Provision of High Quality, Low Cost Education for the Poor?
The expansion of choices available to low-income families seeking primary education for their children has been one of the striking changes seen along the uneven path towards quality Education for all. The abolition of tuition fees in government schools in many countries over the past twenty years has often been accompanied by overcrowded classrooms and […]
Virtual Reality Training in Southern Africa
Every fan of horror movies knows that a person wielding a chainsaw can cause some serious damage. The tool is rated as one of the most dangerous available; one wrong move and its user could lose a limb. In Southern Africa, forestry students don’t have to worry about that anymore. They are now using a […]
A Nigérien Entrepreneur Finds Her Niche in Camel Milk
Last month, I travelled to Niamey, Niger’s capital, where MCC Country Team Lead for Niger Kristin Penn and our Nigérien partners are hard at work on MCC’s $437 million compact to improve access to water for agriculture and livestock and expand access to markets. Around 80 percent of Niger’s population relies on the agricultural sector for its […]
The Counter-intuitive Nature of ‘recovery’ Lending
Microfinance, where small amounts of money are lent to people to start or grow a business – often in developing countries – is a familiar concept. When delivered responsibly, it helps people to earn an income to support their families. What happens though when disaster strikes a community that is depending on microfinance for its […]
A Collective Approach for Last Mile Distribution
By Emma Colenbrander, Practical Action Billions of people worldwide lack access to everyday products that are fundamental to a better life. Products like solar lights, water filters and clean cooking solutions are transformative for poor families, and essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. A range of businesses – called ‘last mile distributors’ – work […]
WASH: Solving the Global Sanitation Crisis
As a global crisis that affects over two billion people, water sanitation has turned into the first and primary concern of many of the world’s leading organizations. In fact, the CDC considers water sanitation an essential problem that needs to be solved by the end of this century. Today, there are about 2.4 billion people […]
Supporting Entrepreneurs in the Pursuit of Peace
As a marketing executive, New York advertising executive Sabrina Prince has launched many brands. And after 15 years in the field she was looking to contribute her expertise to the global good. A Google search for “entrepreneur, peace, volunteer, women,” brought Sabrina to Bpeace, a nonprofit that matches business experts with entrepreneurs in challenged economies […]
NGO Partnerships Give Businesses the Teeth to Be Social Activists
Let’s start with the obvious: your average ice cream company doesn’t have much to say about the refugee crisis in Europe. Equally obvious: Ben & Jerry’s is not your average ice cream company. We mix activism and a social mission in with our famous chunks and swirls. And we know that to drive real change, […]
SDGs: What Part Do Forests Play?
Deemed as the ‘lungs of the planet’ and covering 30% of the earth’s surface, forests are essential to supporting all life on Earth. Not only do forests provide a wide array of ecosystem services, such as absorbing greenhouse gases and regulating water quality, there are also over a billion people who depend on forests for […]
The Agricultural Models We Want Tomorrow
Rana, 45-year-old Egyptian mother of three, sells her vegetables on a wooden cart at the side of a dusty and bustling road in the heart of the Sayeda Zeinab district of Cairo. She stands there from sunrise to sunset every day to earn enough money to feed her children. Despite a relatively steady flow of […]
Access to Energy Through Mobile Is Changing Lives
Over the last decade, the rapid growth of the mobile industry in developing countries has surprised observers. Access to mobile has increasingly outpaced access to basic services such as energy, water and sanitation. In fact, due to the slow expansion of the traditional energy grid, 1.2 billion people around the world still live without access […]
In Solar Supply Chain, Women Entrepreneurs are Key to Reaching Remote Areas
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people don’t have access to electricity. Eighty percent of them live in rural areas that have no grid electricity. Moreover, a dispersed population makes grid expansion financially and logistically challenging. With seemingly few alternatives, the majority of the population in the region turns to fuel-based energy such as kerosene for […]
Meet the Winner: The Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security
Interview with Dr Filippo Bassi of ICARDA and Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security Winner The winner of the 2017 Olam Prize for Innovation in Food Security epitomises what is possible when you put the farmer at the centre of all you do. The winning research by Dr Filippo Bassi of ICARDA (the International […]
Meet the Winners: The Louis Malassis Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food Security
Interviews with The Louis Malassis Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food Security Winners Scientists hold some of the key answers to so many of today’s agricultural challenges at their fingertips. Our support for this community is a vital if we are to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Agropolis founder Louis Malassis knew this, long […]
Delivering on the Promise of Inclusive Business
Back in November 2008, on a hot, dusty day in Dar es Salaam, I vividly remember the moment I met Lillian Kessy. I was immediately struck by her confidence, dignity and determination. Only a year earlier, Lillian was in a desperate financial situation. By the time I met her, she was busy building a small […]
A Low-carbon Economy: Technologically Possible, Economically Attractive
Climate change is real. Pacific Islands cannot get out of the way of rising waters. Arctic maritime ecosystems cannot escape warmer waters. People often cannot flee hurricanes in time. And even someone reading the news in an armchair may find it impossible to avoid reports on how a changing climate endangers the lives of us […]
A Paradigm Shift
By Stephanie Manciagli, Specialist of International Replicas for the Poverty Stoplight at Fundación Paraguaya Since the onset of the new millennium, there have been tremendous evolutions in human welfare. During the last two decades, development theories and strategies taken by international actors have integrated lessons learned from previous decades, recycling the themes that worked and […]
How Can We Create an Enabling Environment for Inclusive Business?
How can we create an enabling environment for inclusive business? When I started to work on this question on behalf of the DCED’s Business Environment Working Group, I expected a relatively straightforward scan of the literature – after all, quite a bit has now been written about what governments can do to help inclusive business […]
Inviting Start-ups (and Up-starts) to Solve Global Problems
The saying goes that two heads are better than one. We believe it gets even better when you bring a lot of different talent together to collaborate and solve urgent global challenges. HelloScience, supported by Novozymes, is an online open innovation network for entrepreneurs, researchers, NGOs, associations and companies. It aims to foster collaboration across […]
Designing for People, Not Problems, Will Help Us Tackle the Global Sanitation Crisis
Toilets have transformed the way we live today. From health, to safety, to convenience – being able to access a toilet from the comfort of our own home no longer seems like a luxury. That’s why to many of us, World Toilet Day – which takes place this week on 19th November – may seem […]