Innovations to Protect Farmers from Climate Risks
Farmers in India are accustomed to a certain amount of weather extremes. Much of Indian agriculture is oriented around monsoon seasons that regularly feature torrential rains. But reports from the World Bank and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn that, as climate change begins to alter weather patterns, growing conditions in the […]
The Impact of Mobile on the Development Sector
‘Africa is not just a mobile-first continent, it is mobile only’ – CNN[1] While commercial business has taken the lead in optimising the opportunity mobile presents in Africa, the development sector is catching up. Now, every aid and development organisation is being forced to think actively about how mobile relates to its core business. Africans […]
Travelling to Meet Changemakers
It was an inspiring and very humbling experience for me to visit social entrepreneurs, to see their work with my own eyes and to learn from their struggles and successes. It was in 2012, when I participated in a tour of Journeys for Change in India, that I realized that watching videos and reading about […]
'Business is Best' in Uganda
How much can you learn about the entrepreneurship culture of a country in one week? The answer, when you are travelling hundreds of miles with the Enterprise Uganda team, is a truly incredible amount. Late last year I was lucky enough to travel to Uganda along with Sarah Shearman, finalist in the Guardian’s International Development […]
‘Business is Best’ in Uganda
How much can you learn about the entrepreneurship culture of a country in one week? The answer, when you are travelling hundreds of miles with the Enterprise Uganda team, is a truly incredible amount. Late last year I was lucky enough to travel to Uganda along with Sarah Shearman, finalist in the Guardian’s International Development […]
From Bean to Bar, Putting Farmers First
Charley Wheelock founded Woodblock Chocolate with a commitment to trading fairly with cacao growers in the Caribbean Islands and South America. That direct trade relationship–a deeply personal approach to business in which Woodblock builds relationships with the first rung on the value chain–is imbedded in the company’s DNA. “The good you can do with cacao […]
A Road to Market for Haitian Mangoes
I arrived in Haiti one year after the devastating earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010. Life in Port-au-Prince was still chaotic, evidence of not only the natural disaster, but generations of economic distress. But I quickly discovered something else about Haiti – its proud, defiant people, refusing to give up. Throughout that first year, my Haitian […]
Job Creation in South Africa
Unemployment in South Africa, especially amongst young people, remains one of our country’s most pressing challenges. It is estimated that three million young people are currently unemployed, representing nearly three quarters of overall unemployment in the country. For some, starting a business offers an alternative to finding a job, although for many a weak culture […]
Breaking Down Financial Barriers to Healthcare
There is an African proverb which says: “If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, travel with others.” Travelling fast is all very well. But to go far – to secure genuine, long-lasting development that helps people live healthier, more productive lives – then travelling with others is paramount. […]
Helping Small Enterprises to Grow
In Latin America, small-scale shopkeepers – Tenderos – are a critical sales channel for SABMiller, accounting for 40% of sales volume in the region. We estimate that 400,000 Tenderos in our value chain in Latin America fall in to the “survival” or “necessity entrepreneur” category, meaning that they run their stores to generate income to […]
How to Build Enterprise Development Programmes
Companies have a critical role to play in driving more inclusive and sustainable models of development and, in certain cases, solving specific development challenges. At the same time, there are significant opportunities to discover profitable new business models. Perhaps one of the most powerful ways in which large companies can have a mutually beneficial impact […]
Sustaining and Scaling the Impact of Enterprise Development Programmes
Companies have a critical role to play in driving more inclusive and sustainable models of development and, in certain cases, solving specific development challenges. At the same time, there are significant opportunities to discover profitable new business models. Perhaps one of the most powerful ways in which large companies can have a mutually beneficial impact […]
Enterprise: Focusing on the Next Generation
UNICEF refers to early childhood (pre-natal to eight years old) as the “years of wonder.” In no other period in human life is the brain so responsive to changes in the environment and so able to learn, grow, and develop. Billions of highly integrated neural circuits in the brain are established through the interaction of […]
Pushing the Boundaries of Multi-Sector Partnerships
The simple habit of handwashing with soap is not universally practised and traditional hygiene promotion efforts have had limited impact. Research showed that fear of disease was not a key motivator of handwashing behaviour. Across key regions, a behaviour change was needed and campaigns were developed which looked at key motivations for behaviour change including […]
Improving Lives through Handwashing
Unilever’s health soap brand Lifebuoy is working with the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), an innovative model for helping poor rural African communities reach all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MVP is a community-led development approach based on an integrated package of interventions in all sectors including agriculture, health, education, infrastructure and business development. In 2012, […]
Empowering Mothers to Save Child Lives
Becoming a mother is one of life’s most joyous moments. In an instant perspectives change and the instinct to protect takes hold. Providing a safe and nurturing environment is top priority for mothers around the world. Imagine doing that in an environment where your child might not live to reach five years old. This is […]
Why Handwashing Matters
Working in almost 70 countries means I spend a lot of time traveling and meeting people. A father of small children myself, I try to start my day in the villages I visit getting to know the lay of the land with the kids, kicking a soccer ball around, or just goofing off as kids […]
Brands as a Lever of Change
There are some issues in the world that are so big, so entrenched, so important, that we cannot afford to leave them to any one type of organisation to address. Two million children every year not living to reach their fifth birthday because of diarrhoeal disease and pneumonia is one such issue. Each death is […]
Making Loans and Transforming Lives in Pakistan
It may be Christmas right now but it was quite fitting that as the holiest month in the Muslim calendar, Ramadan, drew to a close earlier this year lendwithcare.org celebrated the successful inclusion of our first Islamic Microfinance partner, Akhuwat in Pakistan. Like ‘traditional’ microfinance, Islamic microfinance is the provision of basic financial services to […]
Financial Inclusion in Zambia: Self-Made Women
Emma Chase worked in Zambia for 6 months to establish the relationship between MicroLoan Zambia and LendWithCare. This blog looks back at her time in Zambia. My first few weeks were spent getting to know the organisation and coming up with procedures for the partnership which sees local groups of women gain funding from backers […]