Enhancing Women’s Economic Empowerment in DRC
Historically there’s been limited evidence on what works to genuinely economically empower women in DRC’s agricultural sectors. But, thanks to ÉLAN RDC’s WEE Learning Series, that’s now starting to change. Women and working-aged adolescent girls in DRC are some of the most marginalised in the world. Disproportionately high rates of poverty, inadequate access to basic […]
HERproject at 10 – Celebrating HERsuccess, Inspiring HERfuture
Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day 2017—a good time to take stock of our collective progress toward gender equality. And such a moment of reflection is particularly relevant for HERproject this year, as we are hitting a big milestone: It’s our 10th birthday! On our anniversary, we’re taking a moment to think about what […]
#BeBoldForChange: To Empower Women, You Need to Work with Men, Too
On International Women’s Day, Alison Ward explains how Cotton Connect’s work with Primark to support women cotton farmers in India is sowing transformative change by engaging both sexes. #BeBoldForChange is the theme for International Women’s Day 2017. While progress has been made around the world, the latest estimates from the World Economic Forum reveal that […]
Mobilizing Private-Sector Investment to Transform Jordan’s Water System
Jordan is one of the driest, most water poor countries in the world, and population growth has put a strain on the country’s already limited water resources and aging infrastructure. The As-Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant is the primary facility for treating wastewater from Jordan’s Amman and Zarqa Governorates, home to about 5 million people, but […]
Fairtrade Fortnight: Don’t Feed Exploitation
‘Let’s not accept exploitation in industry’, says Fairtrade CEO Despite an increase in global demand for cocoa and the worldwide push to tackle poverty when the Global Goals launched last year, today many farmers who grow the crop live with poverty and exploitation – in Cote D’Ivoire 80% of the population still survive on less […]
Exploring the Accelerator Landscape
Hundreds of accelerators—intensive, short term programs that speed up the development of early stage ventures to succeed, or fail—have emerged around the world. While the concept began in Silicon Valley, international development funders have seen the model as a way to drive growth in emerging markets as well. And beyond just tech companies, accelerators focus […]
Invisible Lives: Understanding Youth Livelihoods in Ghana and Uganda
Beatrice had a busy day. It’s tomato season, which means she had to wake up extra early to go to the garden to harvest some ripe tomatoes. On her way, she made sure to feed the poultry and check on the goats. It’s also market day in her village, so after feeding her children and […]
Syngenta’s Grow More Model to Increase Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa
nd Samantha Krause, Strategic Initiatives Director, TechnoServe Smallholder farmers across Africa present the largest opportunity and challenge to Syngenta’s business. Limited knowledge of agronomy, cash constraints and very low confidence in produce markets trap farmers in low yield and low income cycles. Translated into numbers, it means that smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa produce around 25% […]
From Fiction to Fashion: Helps Business See Forests for the Trees
Dan Schiff, Global Engagement Manager, Fabric Of Change Initiative, in partnership with the C & A Foundation An Ashoka Fellow since 2003, Nicole Rycroft is a tireless warrior for the world’s forest ecosystems. The native Australian, now based in Vancouver, Canada, leads the environmental NGO Canopy, which works with business partners in the publishing and […]
SABMiller/ AB InBev’s Local Sourcing in Africa
SABMiller plc, which combined with AB InBev in October 2016, has been a pioneer in promoting local sourcing in Africa. Many of the company’s subsidiaries in Africa have created new brands and brewing processes which incorporate locally grown crops such as sorghum and cassava. This is based on a win-win-win model where: Local businesses can […]
Share your Views: Mapping the Oil and Gas Industry to the SDGs
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and IPIECA (the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues) have released for public comment a draft report: Mapping the Oil and Gas Industry to the Sustainable Development Goals: An Atlas. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 […]
The Kellogg Company’s Smallholder Sourcing
Kellogg has set bold sustainability and emerging markets growth targets, including supporting the livelihoods of 500,000 farmers and doubling its emerging market sales by 2020. The company recognizes the great potential that developing smallholder-inclusive agricultural supply chains in emerging markets could have in supporting these business and social impact objectives. Sustainability groups across many multinational […]
Sri Lanka’s Garment Workers ‘Stand Up’ for Rights
Shirone Kaushalya works in a factory producing leather jackets. But she rarely sees the finished product. The 30-year-old woman uses a hammer to pound on the ridges and bumps of raw leather until it is smooth enough for stitching. Then she hands the flattened material to the next station in production and grabs another piece […]
The Coca-Cola Company and India’s Mango Farmers
A typical smallholder mango farmer in India earns between just $4 and $16 per day. One of the reasons is that they have trouble accessing stable, profitable markets for their crops. Meanwhile, international corporations, like The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), view smallholder sourcing as an important part of their long-term goals; beyond its potential to generate […]
Designing Win-Win Relationships between Business and Smallholders
Around the globe, there are about 200 million smallholder farmers involved in commercial supply chains. And while many multinational corporations have made commitments to increase their investments in sustainable supply chains and distribution models that engage these smallholders, these initiatives have often struggled to gain real traction. That observation spurred a unique partnership: with support […]
New Evidence Supporting the Business Case for Investing in Female Garment Workers
CARE’s programmes on dignified work have for a number of years included training sessions for women in factories. Recent research provides further evidence, backing up our own findings, that investing in training for women workers makes good business sense for factory owners. A key initiative that we have been involved in implementing has been the […]
Sustainable Business Leadership in 2017: Game On
At the start of last year, we were still riding the highs of 2015, which saw important progress on sustainable business. The year just past, 2016, for multiple reasons, was less positive. How will 2017 break the tie? Let’s start by looking back to where we were a year ago. Here’s the good news: The […]
Making DFID’s Economic Development Strategy Work for Women
CARE firmly believes that inclusive economic development is at the core of eliminating extreme poverty and injustice. So we welcome DFID’s focus on this agenda and their long-awaited strategy, published this week. What we are most concerned about now, though, is how it will deliver for the world’s poorest women. We should be cautious about […]
These 5 Innovations Will Transform the Lives of Smallholder Farmers
This article is part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017. From artificial intelligence, to precision agriculture, to the internet of things, emerging technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way food is consumed, handled and produced. But which technologies could most powerfully transform the lives of smallholder farmers? These, after all, are the […]
What prize awaits Businesses that Embrace the Sustainable Development Goals?
By Sue Adkins, International Director, Business in the Community As the Business Sustainable Development Commission launches its report Better Business, Better World as the World Economic Forum in Davos, marking the first anniversary of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sue Adkins, International Director at BITC looks at how businesses are embracing the SDGs. The […]