In Benin, Young Entrepreneurs are Tackling the Plastic Problem
The room is unassuming, with pale blue walls and sunlight that filters in from the open door. Inside, Babatundé Oguidi meticulously arranges biodegradable bags and boxes on a large wooden table. A massive chalkboard covers one wall, filled with a seemingly endless list of new and completed orders. On the opposite wall, the company’s mission […]
Making Supply Chains Safe for Women Workers: Where Compliance Programs End, Supplier Relationships Matter
The Guardian reported on a recent study of Vietnamese clothing, footwear, and outdoor wear manufacturers, which found that “workers in Vietnamese factories have been harassed, groped, and even raped”. This was both sadly shocking and sadly predictable. Though compliance programs are in place, they have not guaranteed harassment-free work environments. The prevalence of harassment is sadly shocking: […]
Smallholder Coffee Producer Organisations Can Thrive as International Businesses
Coffee is the world’s most popular drink – around 2 billion cups are consumed every day. In the UK alone, we are responsible for approximately 95 million of those. There’s no arguing that it’s big business. For brands whose business is dependent on selling a consistent, high-quality product, having a reliable supply chain is essential. […]
Competing in the Digital Age – Building Job Opportunities in Uganda and Kenya
After her second-hand clothing business failed, Faith struggled to find reliable work in Nairobi, where limited opportunities and a largely informal work market make it difficult for young Kenyans to find employment. A friend suggested she try Lynk, an online job-placement platform that pairs day labourers with businesses and households. Through its digital platform, Lynk […]
Gender Equality: Closing the Gap in the Private Sector Around the World
Let’s be honest, in the world of development, the private sector has not always been our partner of choice in the race to achieve gender equality. There has been a perception that business actions in this area are merely front-line measures or meagre efforts that simply impose quotas on boards of directors. These assumptions are […]
New Ideas are Essential to Ward off Global Water Shortage Threat
Agriculture is a water intensive sector, accounting for 69% of the world’s water abstraction according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. As climate change drives global temperatures higher, the pressure on our water resources will grow. Given there are already over 800 million people who don’t have clean water close to […]
Giving Women Better Access to Finance Could Unlock $330 Billion in Annual Global Revenue
Lack of access to finance remains one of the major barriers facing women entrepreneurs in marginalised communities across the world. 80 per cent of women-owned businesses with credit needs are either unserved or underserved – a US$1.7 trillion financing gap. CARE International is responding to this injustice by launching our ‘Access Approved’ campaign. We are […]
People Power Fighting Malaria in Tanzania
Comic Relief and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) joined forces in 2015 for a five-year partnership to fight malaria and strengthen health systems in countries worst affected by the disease. The two organisations teamed up in support of global efforts to help improve health systems’ capabilities to fight malaria – a disease which still claims almost half a million […]
Practical Action and the IKEA Foundation: Can Small Holder Farming Really Work for Some of the World’s Poorest?
Practical Action and the IKEA Foundation have launched a new partnership. Worth €6.4 million, the partnership will help rural people in Kenya earn a decent income from farming. Together, we want to break the cycle of poverty in rural communities. In the Lake Victoria basin of Kenya, farming is the main source of income for […]
Water-Wise Coffee: Making Sustainable Business Profitable in Ethiopia
Community members in the Aleta Wondo district of southern Ethiopia had a problem on their doorstep: their river was polluted. The students of Habaja Primary School, built on its banks, complained about the river’s smell and that they couldn’t use it for gathering water or washing. Their parents in the surrounding communities also struggled, as […]
WE SOLVE: A Unique Partnership Creates Jobs for Women and Breaks the Barriers to Clean Energy
The Arusha region is home to Tanzania’s nomadic Maasai and other communities who farm and herd in the plains around Mount Meru. Communities here face life without light as soon as the sun sets, meaning that kids can’t play in the streets or study and families are often dependent on expensive and toxic fuel-powered resources […]
We Learned Simple Ways to Improve the Local Environment and Our Income
In the Nawa region in Côte d’Ivoire, Mondelēz International’s Cocoa Life partners with Impactum and CARE International to engage women and address climate change and deforestation through a Green Entrepreneurship pilot project. They are helping women learn the knowledge and skills needed to create a sustainable future for cocoa farming communities, and generate income for […]
How is Cross-Sector Collaboration Driving Transformative Social Impact in the Luxury Industry?
BFP: How can cross-sector collaboration be harnessed to deliver change in the luxury industry? AL: At Oxfam we look to drive transformative change across the programmes that we run and our focus is on long-term systems change as opposed to short-term “project” work. Our work with the private sector is rooted in this principle because […]
Helping Women Thrive: Give a Loan, Create a Community Role Model
Most of these women have simple dreams and plans for themselves, whether it is to provide food for their children, obtain books to go to school or access clean water. And microfinancing organizations and crowdfunding platforms like Kiva are helping women achieve them. Kiva is an international nonprofit based in San Francisco with a mission […]
Claims, Credibility and Landscape Approaches
The idea is a compelling one. Rather than looking at individual sites, suppliers or sectors, these approaches recognize that issues like deforestation, habitat conversion, land rights and rural development are often best addressed at a larger scale – across whole landscapes or jurisdictions. Bringing together all stakeholders – producers, sourcing companies, governments, civil society, NGOs, […]
Celebrating IWD 2019: M&S Joins Better Than Cash Alliance
There’s no normal day working as the Global Ethical Trade Manager at M&S. On Monday I might be in Cambodia meeting a programme delivery partner, by Friday I’m back in London running a compliance report on a proposed new supplier or co-ordinating a weekly call with our regional managers based around the world. Since starting […]
How Can We Address the Global Sanitation Challenge? Insights from “Make a Splash! Toilets for All”
Japan’s maker of water and housing products, LIXIL, has invested in a sustainable social business – SATO – to help bring affordable toilets to those that need them. In 2018, their work on SATO led them to a new partnership, “Make a Splash! Toilets for All.” with UNICEF to tackle the global sanitation challenge. How […]
Spearheading Change within the Chocolate Industry to Protect the Forests where Cocoa is Grown
At Mondelēz, we know that real lasting change for the better can only happen via cross-sector collaboration and commitment. That’s why, as a founding member of the Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI), we are leading the way with ambitious action plans and calling on the industry to do the same, in order to protect and […]
Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Needs to Start at Home
Here are two deeply troubling facts: Very few countries in the world have achieved true gender equality. None of the remaining countries are on track to achieve it by the 2030 target world leaders agreed upon under the Sustainable Development Goals. “It appears that more girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely […]
Businesses for impact in the spotlight: 4 insights into transforming access to financial services in Nepal
Amit Agrawal is a Nepali tech entrepreneur and CEO of Janaki Technology Pvt Ltd, an award-winning software company that operates the digital wallet Khalti. Amit recently participated in the SPRING Accelerator programme, which helps growth-oriented businesses in East Africa and South Asia develop innovations that transform the lives of adolescent girls through human-centered design (HCD) – a […]