Addressing the Sanitation Crisis One Toilet at a Time
It’s hard to imagine what life would be like without a clean and safe toilet, but this is the reality for 1 in 3 people globally. World Toilet Day, celebrated annually on 19th November, has been a UN recognised day since 2013. It was set up to raise awareness of the health, emotional and psychological […]
Increasing Financial Inclusion in the Garment Industry
Today, BSR and theBill & Melinda Gates Foundationare announcing a new strategic partnership to increase financial inclusion for low-income women and men working in the garment industry in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Through this partnership, BSR will help garment factories in these countries transition from cash-based payroll or traditional direct deposit to mobile wallet accounts, […]
Collective Business Action to Reduce Maternal Mortality
“If you want to go far, go together,” said Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile phone operator, known for the incredibly successful M-PESA payments platform which has transformed the way money changes hands in Kenya. This time Collymore was making news during the recent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit at the United Nations […]
Making Solar Power Affordable
Author: John Converse Townsend, Ashoka Mexico’s solar energy market is booming. And that means more and more people, even those living on less than $7 per day, can afford clean electricity. The second-most populated country in the Americas is home to the fastest-growing regional solar market in the world. About 97 percent of Mexico’s population […]
Investing in Smart Technology
Luxury car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover invests in smart technologies and innovations which are key to its long term success and this focus extends far beyond building better-performing vehicles. The company recently won a Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development for reducing the environmental impact of its vehicles and operations and has set an ambitious target […]
Partnerships for 21st Century Development in Africa
This year, the United Nations (UN) officially adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rory More O’Ferrall FRSA describes how governments, civil society and industry are working together to address a complex social and development challenge. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs come into effect on January 1, 2016 and run through to the end of […]
Radical Partnerships to Give Newborns a Healthier Start
The first month of life can be dangerous. In 2013, almost three million babies worldwide lost their lives during those initial four weeks – a quarter due to infection. Many of these deaths could be prevented if the appropriate healthcare was within reach at the right time, in the right place. Newborn babies, wherever they […]
Business Supporting Development: Then and Now
The international aid charity CARE was founded 70 years ago to send ‘CARE packages’ of food and other essentials to people in Europe recovering from World War 2. And in putting together and delivering the aid packages, CARE got a lot of help from businesses… Tea was included in CARE packages sent to Britain (the […]
The Role of Business in the Fight Against Slavery
Today, there are an estimated 21 million people in slavery, in every country and region of the globe. 5.5 million of whom are children. Every person who wears cotton, carries a mobile phone, eats prawns or chocolate, or watches the FIFA World Cup, is implicated in this, because many of that 21 million are enslaved […]
Do Companies Have Obligation to Help Syrian Refugees?
“When we can’t afford both medicine and food, I tie scarves around my boys’ bellies at night so they don’t wake up crying from stomach aches because they are hungry.” —Fatmeh, a Syrian refugee in Lebanon The Syrian refugee crisis in the Middle East is a daily heartbreak that eludes simple solutions. Thousands are dying […]
How Successful Partnerships Will Fuel Agenda 2030
(SHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images) By Fiona Koch, Communications Manager, Ashoka Ireland All eyes were on New York last week as the UN launched its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); a new package of economic, social and environmental objectives designed to replace the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With 17 overarching aims broken down into 169 targets, the […]
Lifting Farmers Out of Poverty in Honduras
My family has been farming in Honduras for generations. In fact, at one time, my father was the largest cotton producer in the country, and all of my siblings and I studied agriculture while at university. So we know the important role that agriculture plays in lifting communities out of poverty, solving hunger issues and […]
Bridging the Gender Tech Gap
ohn Converse Townsend, Ashoka Gender equality is so much more than a women’s issue. It’s a sustainable development issue. Women’s empowerment not only has positive effects for local economies, but it is a predictor of better health outcomes and all but guarantees a more fair and stable society. This is not breaking news. But it […]
Turbo Charging Development: Making the SDGs a Reality
By Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever and Mark Gunton, CEO, Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership In New York last week global leaders adopted a set of ambitious goals and targets to set the world on a new course. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have committed us to eradicating extreme poverty, fighting injustice and inequality, and taking urgent […]
Hygiene as a Frontier for Good Health
It seems we are often on the brink of something historic or being given the opportunity of a lifetime but in the case of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in New York this weekend it may actually be true. If the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are fully implemented by their deadline of 2030 […]
A Seat at the Table: Pharmaceuticals and the SDGs
By Mario Ottiglio, Director of Public Affairs, Communications & Global Health Policy at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) After more than two years of intense negotiations, the United Nations’ 193 member states have unanimously agreed on a new Sustainable Development Agenda with 17 goals. Together with the UN Post 2020 Climate […]
Hidden Hunger is a Global Killer
As we celebrate the achievements under the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals and look to accelerate progress with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, a silent epidemic is afflicting more than a quarter of humanity — 2 billion people — around the world. It accounts for 11 percent of the global burden of disease. This epidemic disproportionately […]
Education to Children in Crisis and Conflict Zones
When catastrophe strikes, our first response is to send water, shelter, food and health workers. However, most catastrophes — be they conflicts, health crises or natural disasters — have devastating effects that last much longer than the initial onset. According to the UN, it takes an average of 17 years for families to return home […]
Improving Market Access for the Poor
What is the development issue? More than 80% of Malawi’s 17 million people live in rural areas, and agricultural labourers make up 90% of the total labour force1. Despite the fact that Malawi’s economy is based on agriculture, the country depends primarily on one major export crop – tobacco – which accounts for more than […]
What Does it Mean to be a BCORP?
Last month, ClimateCare became a Certified B Corporation. The B Corp movement might not be something you’ve heard about yet, but it is helping to highlight the opportunity businesses have to deliver positive impacts – for communities, health, environment, economic empowerment etc., as well as profits. B Corp has most of its fast growing member […]