Financial Products and Training: The Winning Formula?
It is now widely accepted that a key component of financial inclusion, that is providing poor and low-income people with access to appropriate and affordable financial services, is financial literacy. This, of course, makes perfect sense. After all, what is the good in providing the tools if the recipients do not fully understand how to […]
Public-Private Partnerships Critical to Fighting AIDS
Interview with Dr. Huma Abbasi, General Manager, Global Health and Medical, Chevron, and Mark Viso, President and CEO, Pact December 1, 2016 marked the 28th World AIDS Day – observed to commemorate those who have struggled with the disease and those who continue to fight against it. Despite huge advances toward ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, […]
Combatting Illegal Logging with a Responsible Timber Exchange
The illegal production and trade of tropical timber is one of the main drivers of environmental degradation worldwide, leading to loss of habitats and biodiversity, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, human rights abuses and corruption. Sustainable forest management can provide livelihoods for forest peoples, and economic activity in rural areas, but these benefits are erased when […]
Lightening the Load of Women’s Unpaid Care Work
We’re excited to announce a three-year partnership with Unilever’s Surf brand that aims to recognise, reduce and redistribute the amount of time spent by women and girls on unpaid care work. In some parts of the world women and girls currently spend as many as six hours a day on unpaid care work – a […]
Corporate Volunteers from Syngenta are Honoured at First Ever VSO Volunteer Awards
A team of volunteers from global crop science company, Syngenta, have won an award for transforming the lives of marginalised farmers in Bangladesh. Team Leader, Anna Maria Klimza, picked up the award on behalf of her colleagues at a prestigious event in London earlier this month, hosted by leading international development charity, VSO. This award […]
Addressing Social Norms to Stop Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Factories and Farms
“The workload is tremendous here. They swear at us when we fail to complete the work. … They scold. They say, ‘Hey you! Daughter of a bitch, daughter of a pig! How come so much work has been piled up?’ …At such times I feel really bad. … I cannot stand this. I cry. I […]
Can Complex Development Be Explained on a Bar of Chocolate?
How can Mondelēz International – the world’s biggest chocolate company – show their consumers that their chocolate is produced in a sustainable way? I was recently in Ghana with a group of Mondelēz’s European staff, seeing for themselves how their company is working with cocoa farmers through its Cocoa Life sustainability programme. The purpose of […]
How Can Businesses Know What Impact Their Sustainable Sourcing Decisions are Having?
By Lara Koritzke, Director of Development and Communications, ISEAL Alliance Many businesses have publically committed to sustainable sourcing targets and regularly report on their progress towards these targets. The aim of course, in choosing to source raw materials that are sustainably produced, is to create a sustainable supply and have a positive impact on environmental […]
Businesses are More Sustainable than Projects
In Britain, everyone has to pay their Council Tax, and that covers the cost of collecting rubbish. We moan if the bin men miss a week. In informal urban settlements in many developing countries, there’s no waste collection service. I recently visited Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, where in 2015, 70% of its 2 million […]
10.5 Million Opportunities – Leveraging Savings Groups with Business Training
Hand in Hand International Ten-and-a-half million. That’s the number of Savings Group members worldwide. For more than two decades, in 70 countries, the groups have been credited with banking the unbanked, improving women’s economic empowerment and strengthening social cohesion. Now, according new research, another triumph can be added to the list: boosting business incomes by […]
Making the Most of Sustainability Opportunities
Environmental and social considerations are often presented as risks to businesses. However, if they’re properly integrated into strategies and decision-making they can very much become opportunities. For example, research from KPMG suggests implementing measures to improve job quality can increase profit margins by as much as 0.4 per cent in industries where profit margins typically […]
Improving Learning for Syrian and host community children and youth in the Middle East
How does a company make a meaningful impact in addressing a major societal challenge? How do we leverage our core expertise and capabilities, and do so in a sustainable way that doesn’t fade away as the media turns its attention to the next big crisis? Over the past couple of years we’ve given this a […]
Coca-Cola’s Contribution to Stability, Growth, and Optimism
In my article, I review the role of a global commercial organization, The Coca-Cola Company, in contributing to national stability in developing markets through a strategic approach to social and economic contribution. The company’s initiatives complement the role of policymakers, who are primarily responsible for the safety and prosperity of citizens, often using the Golden […]
Supporting Cacao Producers in Latin America
UK Chocolate Week celebrates the world of fine chocolate from 10th to 16th October, 2016. Chocolate Week aims to promote fine flavour chocolate, independent artisan chocolatiers and chocolate companies who work in direct partnership with cocoa farmers, encouraging consumers to pay a fairer price for their chocolate. Christian Aid has been actively engaged in high […]
How to Effectively Engage Business on Human Rights
Since the publication of the UN Guiding Principles and new regulation such as theModern Slavery Act, engaging business leaders on human rights has become extremely important. As the lead on human rights at SABMiller, one of my challenges has been to demystify the topic and help people focus on what it means in practice– all […]
Climate-Smart Agriculture Empowering Rural Smallholders
Since it was presented by FAO at the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change in 2010 as an approach to achieve sustainable agricultural development for food security under climate change ‘climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA) has gathered both praise and criticism. While it has been defined as consisting of three pillars (increased food production, […]
The ‘Root’ to Women’s Empowerment
Growing up in rural south-east Nigeria, as the first born child in my family, I assisted my mum in her small business as she struggled to make a living. When the opportunity to go and live with my aunt in eastern Nigerian arose, I was excited; I thought I would be relieved from the hard […]
One Year of Inclusive Business Models in Bangladesh
Six Inclusive Business (IB) models dedicated towards SRHR were launched on the 25th August, 2016. In the last one year, the project has relentlessly worked to establish a sustainable solution to the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) of 3.5 million female Ready Made Garments (RMG) workers. In the continuous effort to improve lives […]
African Diaspora: Mobilizing Resources and Skills in Uganda
African diaspora love their heritage countries and most send support in various forms to their families that remained behind. Most send money and it has been noted that remittances to Africa have surpassed Western aid. Beyond sending money, Africans in the diaspora have setup various networks to address issues impacting entire communities back home by […]
Investing in Human Capital
“Gringa Abroad”: 1st Installment from Valle del Cauca, COLOMBIA “¡Linda! “ I heard my name one hot day in Valle del Cauca, Colombia. “¿Me Recuerdas?” (Do you remember me?) – I turned to face a familiar girl in the street. After a pause her name crossed my lips… “¿Ángela, eres tú?” (Is that you, Angela?) […]