Dulce Alejandre
This week Yvette Torres-Rahman, Parterships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Dulce Alejandre, Inclusive Business Manager for CEMEX. Hear how CEMEX’s Integral Program of Assisted Auto Construction (PIAC) is helping poor families build their homes and how the Self-Employment Productive Centers which are profit making micro-businesses are helping make the initiative self-sustaining. Dulce explains how […]
Shameran Abed
This week Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Shameran Abed, Director of BRAC Microfinance. Shameran speaks about BRAC’s growth, an NGO now servicing 5.5 million customers in Bangladesh alone. Their small ticket microfinance products service about 90% of their customers and the larger ticket loans aimed at smaller business customers (the missing […]
Genevieve Edens
This week Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty interviews Genevieve Edens, Impact Assessment Manager at Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE). ANDE has just launched an Impact Report on the state of the small and growing business sector which can be downloaded by clicking here. One of the key challenges highlighted in the […]
Sam Duby
This week Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty interviews Sam Duby, co-founder and CTO, SteamaCo. SteamaCo is a Kenyan company working to provide affordable, pre-paid power to rural customers. Hear from Sam how they are fulfilling the unmet needs in the energy access space. One example he speaks about is a microgrid. Essentially […]
David Auerbach
This week Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews David Auerbach, Co-Founder of Sanergy. Hear about what Sanergy does in Nairobi, Kenya, and how their approach is different to other WASH initiatives – they have created a business model around the entire sanitation value chain. David also speaks about how they came up […]
Neil Jeffrey
This week Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Neil Jeffery, CEO, Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP). Hear from Neil about what WSUP are focusing on and how in his view the private sector can play a role in expanding access to water sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Neil provides examples […]
Anna Gerrard
This week, Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Anna Gerrard, Technical Advisor: market-based and private sector programmes at Sightsavers. Anna just came back from Kolkata and spent some time with people in the slums. We hear about what she leant and why it is not straight forward to get people who need […]
Jaideep Prabhu
This week, Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing and Indian Business, at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Jaideed specialises in innovation. Earlier in his career he looked at innovation in more fluent societies, in large companies and latterly he started looking at innovation in developing economies, […]
Chad Jordan
Business Fights Poverty member, Chad Jordan, reflects on his first year as CEO of Arrow Global Capital, which seeks to provide credit access to small business entrepreneurs in emerging markets in order to increase local capacity in a sustainable manner – employment creation, borrowing capacity, leadership growth, food/healthcare security, & education access. It all started […]
Asyia Sheik-Ojwang
BFP: What do you do? A: I lead Coca-Cola South Africa’s public affairs portfolio. I focus on external stakeholder engagement, including managing the overall sustainability framework which includes a focus on women, water and wellbeing. BFP: What is the best part about your job/project? A: I love that Coca-Cola is committed to and invested in […]
Josefine Lindänge
This week, Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Josefine Lindänge, CEO, Hand in Hand International (HiH). Josephine speaks about HiH, her priorities and how job creation is at the heart of their strategy. Hear about her view on the role NGOs should play in terms of training and capacity building for small […]
Teodora Berkova
This week, Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Teodora Berkova, Director of Social Innovation for Pearson. Last week saw the launch of “Every Child Learning” a partnership between Pearson and Save the Children. Teodora talks about what the partnership is about and why they are focusing on access to quality education in […]
Maria May
This week, Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Maria May, Senior Programme Manager, BRAC Social Innovation Lab and Microfinance. BRAC is the world’s largest NGO in terms of people reached. Maria talks about what she sees as some of their most exciting projects. She describes the work of their Social Innovation Lab […]
Diana Pallais
This week, Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviews Dr Diana Pallais, newly-appointed Business Fights Poverty Ambassador for Business and the Sustainable Development Goals. Diana has most recently been the Managing Director and Interim VP, International Development at the global health NGO, PATH, overseeing the organisations global network of country-based programmes. Prior to […]
Keith Weed
Last week, Yvette Torres-Rahman, Partnerships Director at Business Fights Poverty, interviewed Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Unilever. Keith spoke about the issues they aim to raise awareness for through the Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Awards, and what the business case was for launching the Awards back in 2013. Keith also talked […]
Elizabeth Vazquez
BFP: What do you do? EV: As the CEO of the global non-profit WEConnect International, I am responsible for mission delivery and impact. At WEConnect International, we help women-owned businesses succeed in global value chains, by identifying, educating, registering, and certifying women’s business enterprises based outside of the U.S. that are at least 51% owned, […]
Thea Anderson
What do you do? I am the Senior Advisor at Mercy Corps focused on building and strengthening our inclusive finance portfolio. What that means is that I support our country teams to design and scale financial models and products that focus on those that are currently unbanked or underbanked. We focus on private-sector partnerships using […]
Juan Guardado
What do you do? I help lead NEI, a social enterprise pioneering the sustainable production of natural flavours in Tanzania, starting with vanilla, cacao and orange. What is the best part about your job/project? In my role, I get to build an amazing team and directly impact the lives of over 1000 smallholder farmers. And […]
Mike Quinn
BFP: What do you do? MQ: In Africa, there is a tremendous pool of entrepreneurs, business owners, and young people who dream of making money and serving their communities but who lack the right opportunity, resources and support to reach their full potential. Zoona (which means “it’s real” in Zambia’s main local language) offers these […]
Amanda Gardiner
BFP: What do you do? AG: I’m the Director of Partnerships at Pearson, leading our engagement with organisations focused on addressing the world’s biggest global education challenges, particularly those affecting underserved and marginalized communities. These organisations tend to be UN and donor agencies, NGOs, and multi-stakeholder initiatives like the Global Business Coalition for Education, Global […]