What will the Modern Slavery Act Achieve?
This March saw the passing of the Modern Slavery Act in UK parliament. It includes a transparency in supply chains clause requiring large companies to publish an annual public statement on modern slavery. This should detail evidence of what actions they have taken to eliminate the risk and presence of in their business or supply […]
Harnessing Value Chains: Hand in Hand’s Experience
We see more companies recognising that they can make a contribution to wider economic, environmental and social progress and starting to adapt the way they do business. That is great, and is essential. But it is not enough. We have also to unlock the potential of poorer people, particularly women, to seize these opportunities. Hand […]
Boosting the Livelihoods of Dairy Farmers
The final report looks at a five-year market development project in Malawi, funded by Accenture that finished in 2014. The project addressed the bottlenecks and opportunities in the dairy industry in Malawi, where inefficient smallholder production (which accounts for 80% of the domestic milk supply) is contributing to the fact that Malawi has the lowest […]
Ghana Cocoa Growers Trained for Secure Future
The third report in VSO’s Producing Progress series looks at VSO’s role in Mondelēz’s Cocoa Life Programme. The series hopes to help us and others continue to improve livelihoods and strengthen the private sector in developing countries. The Cocoa Life initiative aims to support the cocoa-growing communities in Ghana that supply the global chocolate company. […]
Centres of Excellence Boost for Future Jobs
The first report in VSO’s Producing Progress series focuses on a programme in Kenya that tackles inequality through improving the provision of skills for entrepreneurship for marginalised groups, youth and women in particular. The reports draw out lessons from a variety of programmes, including those that improve employment opportunities, strengthen markets for smallholder producers and […]
Scaling Financial Inclusion for Micro-Enterprises
As world leaders gather in Addis Ababa to consider how to finance and deliver the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a recent dialogue in London attended by businesses, donors and civil society, has identified seven key actions to increase financial inclusion for micro-enterprises. Increasing finance to small businesses is an important priority for the Financing […]
Is Pakistan Really Open for Business?
After my first trip to the country last week, I’d say a resounding yes. And I’d also say that in the long-term, it’s business that will lead Pakistan to prosperity. But that means investment – and, despite the country’s impressive progress in recent years, international investors in Pakistan are in short supply. The Economist recently […]
Doing Good for Children is Good for Business
Lack of access to basic services such as water and sanitation, education and healthcare today prevent millions of children from surviving and realising their full potential. Combating the enormous threat these inequities pose to the wellbeing of children all over the world is a huge task and one that needs innovative ideas and solutions from […]
Ending Poverty Through Trade
How free trade can bring prosperity to people across the world. The playwright George Bernard Shaw once wrote that poverty is “the greatest of evils and the worst of crimes.” While Shaw penned those poignant words more than a century ago, the reality is that too many people still lead lives filled with hunger and […]
To Change the World We Must Change Ourselves
The Mediterranean sea has become a graveyard for Africa’s youth. Every day, we see images of what would appear to be a continent racked by conflict and poverty, and people risking – often losing – their lives in an attempt to flee . Yet Africa has 11 of the 20 fastest growing economies in the […]
Building a Grid-free Future with Limitless Potential
When we launched our “Going Off Grid” series last year on NextBillion, we were optimistic about the future of off-grid energy investment. At that time, the IFC-World Bank’s Lighting Africa Program predicted that Africa will become the world’s largest market for clean off-grid lamps, with up to 140 million people having access to better lighting […]
How Good ESG Standards Boost Business Competitiveness
Madagascar Lychee Export (MLE) is a lychee export station based in the port of Toamasina, Madagascar. The company buys fruits from collectors and local producers, and then processes, packages, and exports the fruit to European markets. Prior to 2010, MLE was a small, family-run business operating in a changing industry with rising standards and demands. […]
From Responsible Investment Standards to Implementation
Over the past ten years, environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have moved from the fringe to the centre stage – both amongst emerging market focused private equity investors and amongst businesses themselves. These issues have emerged as a material concern as result of various factors – including the need to manage reputational risks associated […]
The Co-operative Fairbourne Springs
The Co-operative is the only retailer to launch an own-brand ethical bottled water, in partnership with The One Foundation, raising funds for clean water and sanitation projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Social impacts Over 750 water pumps were installed or rehabilitated across 11 different sub-Saharan countries. Improved sanitation and adoption of good hygiene practices reduced the […]
Access to Sustainable Technology Through Microfinance
Pollinate Energy improved the lives of India’s urban poor by providing access to sustainable technology through microfinance, using a network of local distributors, termed ‘Pollinators’. Social impacts Children were able to study at night and adults able to do household work later, saving the daylight hours for productive income-generating work. Customers improved their health by […]
New Approaches to a Global Water Challenge
By Sue Adkins, International Director, Business in the Community PepsiCo works with partners to provide under-served communities with access to clean, safe water, and advocates for new approaches to global water challenges. Social impacts PepsiCo’s partnerships provided safe water access to more than 5.6 million people in developing communities worldwide. The partnerships produced innovative, replicable […]
Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods
SOIL provides affordable, ecologically sustainable household sanitation services to Haiti’s most impoverished urban neighbourhoods. Social impacts SOIL provided 2,220 people in Haiti with a safe place to use the toilet, reducing the incidence of waterborne diseases such as cholera. The compost created as a by-product supported ecological restoration and agricultural livelihoods, improving food security. The […]
Solar Lights: An Economic and Environmental Solution
T The largest distributor of solar lights in Africa is working to cultivate a sustainable market so that other players will enter the game, with the long-term aim of eradicating the kerosene lamp from Africa by 2020. Social impacts £190 million was saved by the world’s poorest families. Customers gained a total of 1.8 billion […]
A Safer Workplace For All: Business Takes the Lead
WBCSD Pledge inspires a global movement towards water, sanitation and hygiene Imagine that you are a coal miner working 100m underground in East India. You are on the sixth hour of your shift, covered in rocks and soot, and you need to go to the bathroom. Finding a safe and sustainable solution to meet the […]
The Business Case for Sharing the Global Water Bill
By 2030, the world will look back on the past 15 years with a sense of achievement, or lament a missed opportunity. The ambitious and transformational development agenda[1] due to be approved at the UN Summit in September[2] is setting the bar high, and there are similarly high expectations for the Financing for Development meeting […]