Innovations in Safe Water for Millions
Unsafe drinking water is a global problem that affects more than 660 million people every day. And yes, we know there are low-cost solutions that have been proven to work in rigorous scientific studies – for millions of people with the least access to safe drinking water. Evidence Action is a social enterprise that develops […]
Water for the Poor Prorgamme
Manila Water Company is a Finalist in the Unilever Global Development Award supported by Business Fights Poverty. We asked them some questions about their programme and the global development impacts achieved. Q) What challenge does Manila Water Company serve to change? Poor access to water leads to major health risks such as diarrhoea and other […]
To Help Save Children’s Lives, We Need to Be Bold
Only by breaking down boundaries and working together in unprecedented ways can we tackle the entrenched issues which cause millions of children to continue to die each year from preventable causes. That was the shared understanding which brought GSK and Save the Children together three years ago, creating a groundbreaking partnership to help save one […]
Delivering Dignity through Healthcare
Geel Medical Services is a Finalist in the Unilever Global Development Award supported by Business Fights Poverty. We asked them some questions about their programme and the global development impacts achieved. Q) What challenge does GEEL Medical Services (GMS) serve to change? A) The doctor-patient ratio in rural communities in sub Saharan Africa is much […]
Unleashing Inclusive Business Towards the SDGs
The Business Call to Action (BCtA) – a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) hosted global platform showcasing private sector contribution to the SDGs through inclusive business – in collaboration with Inclusive Business Accelerator (IBA), SNV Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), The Partnering Initiative (TPI) and Business Fights Poverty hosted an invitation- only event to discuss how […]
Preparing to Stop Drug-resistant Malaria
By David Reddy, CEO, Medicines for Malaria Venture and Jürgen Brokatzky-Geiger, Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, Novartis. No child should ever die from a mosquito bite. Yet, today, in an era of extraordinary medical advancement, a child dies of mosquito-borne malaria every two minutes. Last year, this agonizing blood disease caused by the malaria parasite […]
Pointing the Way for Cross-sector Collaborations
One of the most striking aspects of the current healthcare landscape is the way that the whole world is now so interconnected and so interdependent. This is changing the way we see health, creating a new global perspective that will affect the way we need to act. Against this backdrop, we need to understand better […]
Four Reasons Why GSK and Save the Children’s Partnership Stands Out
In recent years, collaboration between companies, governments and civil society has become an integral part of the development landscape. Its importance has been underlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which all sectors recognise cannot be achieved without partnership and the contribution of the private sector. Growing numbers of businesses are entering into partnerships, whether […]
4 Key Trends in Business Action for Global Development
The 2016 Unilever Global Development Award supported by Business Fights Poverty saw an unprecedented number of applications from companies globally. This year was an important year in the Awards as it coincides with the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the start of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The programmes seen in this […]
Unilever Global Development Award Finalists Announced
The Annual Business in the Community Awards programme today has announced the finalists of the Unilever Global Development Award, supported by Business Fights Poverty. The Award celebrates businesses that are embedding Global Development and the principles of the MDGs into their business models. 2015 marked the conclusion of the MDGs which have now evolved into […]
A New Plan to Fight a New Health Challenge
While the headlines might focus on Ebola or yellow fever, Africa is slowly winning the fight against infectious diseases. They will remain a challenge for decades to come, but the real threat of the future is expected to come from elsewhere: non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Soon, NCDs are likely to […]
Making the Global Goals Our Business
Not everyone gets to live their dream job, but I feel extremely lucky and grateful that I do. I lead GSK’s global employee volunteering efforts, including PULSE, our flagship program. PULSE is a skills-based volunteering program that matches up to 100 high-performing employees each year with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in need of their expertise […]
Co-creation Shaking Up the Health Sector
Imagine that you are the founder of a healthcare start-up. You have passion, experience, and a strong team of changemakers around you – but you lack the resources to take your organisation to the next level of growth. Now imagine that you are given the opportunity to work with one of the world’s leading healthcare […]
Investing in Social Enterprise to Fight Poverty
Rupert Scofield will be speaking at a dinner hosted by Women Advancing Microfinance UK on Tuesday 10th May in London. He will talk to us about the work FINCA does and the impact it’s having, in particular in the social enterprise and innovation space. Tickets to the event are available here. Ahead of the event, […]
Social Entrepreneurs Defining the Future of Healthcare
There is a global crisis in healthcare; the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that one billion people lack access to basic care, and a further 100 million are pushed into poverty trying to access it. The situation doesn’t look likely to improve. The WHO estimates that there will be a deficit of more than 12 […]
Design Funding in Emerging and Frontier Markets
Earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, we welcomed the launch of Convergence: a platform that helps public and private investors find and connect with each other to co-invest in “blended finance” deals in emerging and frontier markets. Blended finance is the use of public and philanthropic funds to attract private capital […]
2016 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
Kicking off this week’s 13th Annual Skoll World Forum, we are pleased to announce the six recipients of the 2016 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations are disrupting the status quo, driving large-scale “equilibrium” change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. This year’s […]
Can Social Enterprises Fill the Aid Gap?
The scale of social enterprises varies around the world, and there is no place where they have had such a long history or have grown to be quite as sophisticated as in Bangladesh[1] and largely without a supportive policy framework. With the country moving towards middle income status and aid money expected to dry up, […]
Four Steps to Help Widen Access to Innovative Medicines
Getting medicines to patients living in the world’s poorest countries is no easy feat. A dearth of trained health workers, out-of-pocket payments, poorly stocked clinics and unreliable transport links can all conspire to keep medicines out of reach from those who need them. When it comes to unlocking such a complex challenge, there’s no single […]
Refugee Crisis, Business and Partnerships
When a natural disaster happens we look to the government, public services, NGOs and charitable organisations to come to our rescue. But as the current European refugee crisis has shown, governments can be slow to react. While bodies of drowned refugees wash up on the shores of Greece and Turkey, the EU country representatives are […]