Business Action on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
2015 is set to be a landmark year for sustainable development. By the end of 2015, we should have in place a new set of global development priorities: the Sustainable Development Goals, a new framework for financing and delivering them, and a legally binding climate change agreement. A key difference today compared to 2000, when […]
What Is the Best Way to Measure Innovation?
Commenting on the state of innovativeness, Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and legendary Silicon Valley investor, remarked, “We asked for flying cars. Instead, we got a hundred and forty characters.” Really, Peter? Who asked for flying cars? Silicon Valley is, of course, obsessed with cars of many kinds – self-driven, electric, enabled by commands and […]
A Conversation with Erik Simanis
Erik Simanis is Head of the Frontier Markets Initiative at Cornell University. His work is published in leading management journals, including the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. He also writes for The Guardian’s sustainable business, and is a core faculty member of the Intrapreneurship Lab. His thinking is grounded in hands-on experience, […]
Local Investments for Local Farmers
Tanzania is a country of farmers. Most farmers own less than one hectare of land to grow produce to feed their families, whatever surplus they generate is used to fund their children’s education, healthcare and family emergencies. Small holder farmers are already vulnerable to crop failure, drought and poverty and this will be confounded by […]
Interview with Kamal Quadir, CEO of bKash, Bangladesh
Katie Allen interviews Kamal Quadir, CEO of bKash, mobile money provider in Bangladesh. Q1: Many of us have heard of the M-Pesa phenomenon that achieved great success in East Africa, but bKash remains under the radar. How is BKash different from other mobile money providers? Kamal Quadir: In terms of customer experience, bKash is no […]
Financial Inclusion: Hybrid Models for a Complex World
Fashion, fish and financial inclusion. What connects all three? In Bangladesh these are all part of an evolved structure put in place by BRAC that combines community empowerment with sustainability and shared values. BRAC is synonymous with business and market-based solutions in Bangladesh, where the breadth and scope of our work is felt at a […]
Donors’ New Role in the Fight Against Poverty
A remarkable thing happened over the past two decades: the world grew richer, freer, and more secure than ever before. The end of the Cold War in 1991 was a seminal event not least because it ushered in these trends. Democratic governance has flourished in many countries where a mere 20 years earlier repression and […]
Championing Responsible Sugar Production & Procurement
Our world is faced with dire global water challenges. A major contributing factor to these challenges is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the world’s water withdrawals. Sugar, a critical ingredient in many food and beverage products, including ours, is a highly thirsty crop and one of the most complex. While the sugarcane sector […]
Championing Responsible Sugar Production & Procurement
Our world is faced with dire global water challenges. A major contributing factor to these challenges is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the world’s water withdrawals. Sugar, a critical ingredient in many food and beverage products, including ours, is a highly thirsty crop and one of the most complex. While the sugarcane sector […]
Engage Your Supply Chain to Find the Mutual Benefits
Given that sugar is such a ubiquitous food ingredient and accounts for significant land use, it is heartening to see leading companies and development organizations prioritizing the sustainability of this ingredient. Global demand is projected to require an estimated 49% increase in land under cane production alone by 2050. The sector is facing serious and […]
An IFC Perspective on Sustainable Sugar Production
As mentioned in Business Fights Poverty and the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s recent report on building blocks for sustainable sugar production at scale, IFC has been engaged in sustainable sugar activities since the early 2000s, when we collaborated with WWF to develop better management practices for tropical commodities such as sugar. In […]
Building Blocks for Sustainable Sugar Production
Business Fights Poverty is full of examples of companies taking action to grow their businesses in ways that expand economic opportunity, enhance access to “social” services like healthcare, energy, education, water and sanitation, and nutrition, and conserve shared natural resources. The key question is how to move these examples from the cutting edge to the […]
Embracing Emerging Market Entrepreneurship
Twice a year, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)convenes our Executive Committee—a group of fifteen international development leaders that guide ANDE’s strategy and provide operational oversight. At the most recent meeting, we opened with a “pop quiz” — What are the three biggest challenges facing small and growing businesses in emerging markets over the […]
Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Intensification
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Global food supply needs to increase 70 percent by 2050 to keep up with population growth and diet changes. How do we generate enough food without cutting down every last tree, and using every last drop of water? And how can we do it while preserving farmer livelihoods and keeping food affordable? […]
Own-label Tea Changing Lives in Malawi
In the UK we drink about 165m cups of tea every single day, yet the millions of farmers and workers who rely on the tea industry for their livelihood face numerous challenges. Their work can be physically demanding, prices are unsustainably low, and the sector is notorious for poor wages and working conditions. The issues […]
Time to View Small-Scale Farming as a Business
How can we feed the world’s growing population? It’s an age-old question that has resurfaced following the economic shocks and environmental stresses of the past decade. According to the latest data, the global population is expected to surpass nine billion by 2050, and much of this growth will take place in developing countries. For instance, […]
The Unintended Consequences of Inclusive Business
Last week we hosted a two-day conference, Inclusion Inc., at The Fletcher School, where we tested the idea that “the only competitive business is an inclusive business.” Inclusive business, or business that pursues opportunities in traditionally unattractive market segments, ought to be a strategic imperative for corporations and investors. Foregoing such segments would open the […]
Combating The Stigma of Glasses In India
Anna has just returned from staying with families in the urban slums in Kolkata, India. Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Why is it that people in developing countries do not often have convenient access to basic health services or medicines, but that Coca-Cola can be bought even […]
Women are the Crux of Africa’s Development
Recent estimates state that women provide approximately 70 per cent of agricultural labour and produce about 90 per cent of all food in Africa. At the same time, women and girls reinvest an average of 90 percent of their income in their families, compared to 30 to 40 percent for men. It is clear that […]
Joining Forces Vital for Resilient Communities
In 2014, the UN Climate Summit, the first ever U.S.-Africa Summit, dwindling natural resources, gaps between the rich and poor has propelled awareness of advancing solutions for our complex challenges. To be sure, the influence of climate change is fueling global economic volatility, posing threats to natural resources and wildlife habitats. What is certain is […]