Women’s Financial Inclusion in West Africa: From Policy to Practice
The Decade of African Women – launched in 2010 by the African Union – has seen significant strides made by African countries to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. Notable within West Africa has been the drive towards women’s economic empowerment. Launched in October 2010 as the Decade of African Women, 2010 to 2020 was […]
Driving Inclusivity in African Agriculture
Concordia recently participated in the Inaugural International Congress for African Agribusiness and Trade (ICAAT) at Rutgers University, an event that brought together African agricultural and political leaders with bilateral and multilateral institutions, overseas development organizations, U.S. agribusiness, agricultural investors, technical and policy experts, and African civil society representatives. The conference highlighted the importance of aligning […]
Translating the UN High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment into Action
Business Fights Poverty welcomed the creation early last year of the UN High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Not surprisingly, women’s empowerment is an issue of great importance to many members of the Business Fights Poverty community. In support of the Panel’s work we crafted a Challenge on Women’s Economic Empowerment, in partnership with […]
A New Way of Working with SMEs to Tackle the Refugee Crisis
By Kathryn Taetzsch, Senior Relief Coordinator & Private Sector Engagement Lead, Global Humanitarian Operations, World Vision International The scope of the challenge… a people-centered approach with “new actors” Out of about 65.3 Mio people who have been forcibly displaced, 21.3 Mio refugees worldwide require humanitarian assistance in recurrent or protracted crises. The international community is […]
The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity Searches for Innovative, New and Scalable Solutions for the Rural Poor
The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity has just launched its 2017 competition. The Fund is a US$ 50 million facility established by the Mastercard Foundation in 2015 with the aim of spurring financial systems development in rural and agricultural areas in sub-Saharan Africa. The Fund supports innovative financial solutions for design, pilot and testing […]
Rethinking Collaboration: Research Perspectives
On July 10 and 11, over 300 people came together for our annual flagship event, Business Fights Poverty Oxford 2017 at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The headline sponsor for the event was Mars Inc. It was held in association with the Center for Business and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin Madison and […]
Making ‘People Are Our Greatest Asset’ Ring True in Company Workforces
Young women working in Myanmar’s garment sector feel very far from being their employer’s ‘greatest asset’. ‘Disclosure’ is a hot topic at present, with the BBC dealing with the fall-out from disclosing the gender pay-gap amongst top presenters, the prime minister of Pakistan resigning following disclosure about his family wealth via the Panama Papers, and […]
Scaling Inclusive Business Models at the Nexus of Poverty and Environment
Scaling Inclusive Business Models at the Nexus of Poverty And Environment: Case Studies from the Philippines To date, many actors involved in poverty alleviation and environmental protection have operated in silos. Although both sectors follow ecosystem approaches, in the first, impact is seen as positive and desirable, and in the latter, impact is seen as […]
Shining a Bright Light on the Role of Digital Payments in Expanding Energy for All
In an age of evolving technology and development, there may be an extraordinary disconnect in addressing the problem of energy access. Consider Vivian who lives in the Western Region of Ghana, about an hour’s drive north of Takoradi. She has a farm but most of her income is derived from buying and selling cooking oil. […]
Why Business Needs to Step Up and Help Tackle Corporate Tax Avoidance
Through Oxfam’s work fighting poverty around the world, we see the devastating impact that not having basic services like clean water and healthcare can have on the world’s poorest people. You might wonder what links poverty and corporate tax avoidance. For developing country governments, tax revenue from companies provides a significant share of the money […]
Family Planning – It’s Everyone’s Business
To achieve the ambitious and urgent goal of reaching 120 million women with family planning will take significant political and financial will by governments – which is why the forthcoming Family Planning Summit is so welcome. But what about the role of business? How do we convince them that family planning is something that directly […]
Empowering Smallholder Farmers to Improve their Incomes
By David Norman, Challenge Director, Business Fights Poverty Millions of smallholders live in poverty, unable to meet basic needs. Smallholder farmers need to improve their incomes and competitiveness if they are to achieve and sustain a decent standard of living, reinvest in their farms, and continue to supply a sustainable crop to multinational companies. The […]
Why Water Conservation Can Help Businesses Tap into Global Goals
Sustainable Development Goal 6 recognises the importance of access to clean and safe water. It’s an issue that’s particularly important in India, where long and short term factors have led to an increase in demand while supplies have been strained. Since the 1930s, water use in India has increased at a greater rate than its […]
Using Technical Assistance to Build Impactful Businesses
In late 2012, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) launched the Impact Programme, an initiative aimed at developing new ways to foster the market for impact investment in Africa and South Asia. There are two investment vehicles under the programme: the Impact Fund (IF) and the Impact Accelerator (IA). The Impact Programme’s Technical Assistance […]
Unlocking Private Sector Investment to Deliver the SDGs in Challenging Places
There is an estimated $2.5 trillion financing gap needed to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Should the gap not be filled, it is possible that we will fail in the attempt to realise the global ambition to “end poverty and hunger, and achieve sustainable development”. The debate around the most effective models for […]
Why Should We Care About Menstrual Hygiene?
The theme of this year’s International Menstrual Hygiene Day (MHD) was education. The founders of MHD argue that education on menstrual hygiene changes everything. They call for improved information and menstrual hygiene education for boys, men, teachers, health workers and other professionals so that they can break down negative social norms and provide accurate information […]
Emerging Trends in Digital Delivery of Agri-finance
This is the first in a series of three blogs on the role of technology in the rural finance projects supported by The MasterCard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP). In this first blog, we explore the major trends in digital delivery that the Fund is seeing in its portfolio. In the second blog, we […]
Building Efficiency for Farmers in Kenya – Replacing Cash with Digital Repayments
The shift to digital payments has enormous potential for eliminating rural poverty. Success stories from places like Kenya show that potential can turn into real-life impact, as mobile payments help to boost productivity for smallholder farmers. Just this week, a new case study by the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance presents how the agriculture […]
Q&A with MCC Resident Country Director for Niger: Bolstering Niger’s Agricultural Sector
In July 2016, MCC signed a $437 million compact with the Government of Niger to improve access to water for agriculture and livestock and expand access to markets. In this interview, MCC Resident Country Director for Niger Kristin Penn discusses how, together with the Government of Niger, MCC is building stronger institutions and making foundational […]
Empowering Women through Corporate Value Chains: Getting the Data to Drive Scale
In certain circles, it is taken virtually as given these days that business culture and practices will need to change to achieve gender equality and empower women. Companies have become more open in acknowledging that unconscious bias and other, structural factors make it harder for women to succeed, and at the same time, they are […]