If you are helping business, how can you achieve your charitable purpose?
This month is our one year anniversary of arriving in Zambia, to launch COTZ, an academically rigorous trial, to test the ‘ColaLife’ concept: how can we emulate Coca-Cola, to get simple medicines out to the remote rural villages where the world’s top brand seems to reach? We’ve had our share of set-backs and frustrations, but […]
Does your business fight poverty? Get recognised and inspire other companies
At Business in the Community we believe that profiling best practice is one of the most powerful ways to bring about change. This is at the heart of how we support business to address global poverty. 65% of our members think that learning from case studies of initiatives of other companies help them contribute better […]
TEDxEuston 2012 – Challenging Conventional Wisdom, 1 December, London
Improving the lives of workers and producers through global value chains
Dr Stephanie Barrientos, Capturing the Gains, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester We are all aware of companies in the North that source in developing countries. For decades, campaign groups have put them under pressure for poor working conditions in their global value chains. But what happens when the lead firms in those global […]
THE LAST 500 FEET
By Paul Polak, Founder, iDE, Author Out of Poverty Developing new practical and profitable ways to cross the last 500 feet to the remote rural places where poor families now live and work is the first step towards creating vibrant new markets that serve poor customers. In rural Orissa, India, the women are not permitted […]
Paul Polak: The Last 500 Feet
By Paul Polak, Founder, iDE, Author Out of Poverty Developing new practical and profitable ways to cross the last 500 feet to the remote rural places where poor families now live and work is the first step towards creating vibrant new markets that serve poor customers. In rural Orissa, India, the women are not permitted […]
Global Social Business Summit 2012, 8-10 November, Vienna
Creating Shared Value: the role of business in development
Nestlé, in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is co-hosting the 4th edition of the Creating Shared Value Forum on Monday 5 November in New Delhi, India. This will take place at 9:30 AM – 18:00 PM IST / 04:00 AM – 12:30 PM GMT. The theme of the […]
Market Place Revolution: Leveraging Business Networks for Impact
This November 8-9, an international business conference will be hosted just outside Chicago, Illinois. Individuals from over 20 different countries will be in attendance, many of whom are part of the global business network of Partners Worldwide, an organization that works to empower and equip owners of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing communities […]
Fostering the Growth of Inclusive Businesses
Doing business with the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) isn’t exactly “business as usual”. From the start-up to the scale-up phases companies doing business with the poor come with their own set of challenges. How to overcome challenges for scaling-up and replicating commercially viable inclusive business modelswas the focus of the first G20 Inclusive Business […]
Power of Innovation – To Change the World
“We need to use the power of technology and the creative power of young people. By combining these together you can solve these problems. It’s possible!” ~ Professor Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner We live in extraordinary times. Financial crises and economic crises are looming large in many parts of the world. Social […]
Driving Forward Results Measurement in Private Sector Development
There is still relatively little rigorous evidence available for the effectiveness of many private sector development (PSD) programs and strategies. Private sector development (PSD) practitioners are facing increasing pressure from donors to rigorously monitor and report their results, often by applying approaches with these they are unfamiliar or uncomfortable. Measuring the results of PSD programming […]
The Power of We
October 15th is Blog Action Day, and the theme this year is “The Power of We”. That idea is at the very heart of Business Fights Poverty. I am continuously blown away by the energy and innovation of individuals around the world who are pioneering new ways of fighting poverty through business: just take a […]
What Does it Mean to Own and Operate a Socially Conscious Business?
As a new socially conscious business owner, I ask myself this question all the time. What social indicators could be affected through Evolvemint’s product line? I am intimate with each part of the supply chain for the silk scarves (and upcoming line of dresses) but I have developed some rules to ensure gender empowerment and […]
Fashioning Women’s Development
Women and fashion have a longstanding and complex relationship: often a source of joy as well as contempt. In the sleek surroundings of a London Soho art gallery, Rook and Raven, two leading female sustainable fashion experts exposed some ugly truths about fashion, and the visionary efforts underway to revolutionise the industry as part of […]
Social Business Conference 2012, 9 October, London
Reasons to be both hugely disappointed and very excited
In an interview for Making It Magazine, sustainability specialist, Paul Hohnen, answers questions about ‘greenwash’, sustainable development, and what governments and the UN need to do to save the planet You have worked on economic and environmental issues for over three decades, as an Australian diplomat, as a Director of Greenpeace International, as Strategic Director […]
How fertilizer can double cocoa production
Until now little was known about fertilizer use for cocoa. For instance, to what extent does fertilizer affect cocoa farms? How much does it cost, and which returns on investment can be expected? A pilot study on the impact of fertilizer by Francois Ruf from CIRAD, funded by IDH, Mars and Yara, gives an interesting […]
Sigrid Kaag, Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant Administrator, UNDP
Sigrid Kaag, Assistant Secretary-General and Assistant Administrato… from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo. Recorded at “Business, the MDGs and Beyond”, New York, 25 September 2012. The event was convened by the Business Call to Action, Business Fights Poverty, the Overseas Development Institute, the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Global Compact. For more information, […]
Sahba Sobhani, Acting Programme Manager, Business Call to Action
Sahba Sobhani, Acting Programme Manager, Business Call to Action from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo. Recorded at “Business, the MDGs and Beyond”, New York, 25 September 2012. The event was convened by the Business Call to Action, Business Fights Poverty, the Overseas Development Institute, the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Global Compact. For […]