CARE Bangladesh’s Rural Sales Programme: Empowering Poor Women?
Base of the pyramid (BoP) approaches have been attracting a lot of attention in business and development circles lately. Although typically associated with highly publicised schemes such as Grameen’s “village phone ladies” and Hindustan Unilever’s “Project Shakti”, a number of BoP initiatives have sprung up across Africa and Asia to address a range of development […]
Fashion: A Catalyst for Change
The potential of the private sector to reduce poverty is well recognized; however, this has not been evident in the fashion industry. Fashion is one of the most globalized sectors, providing employment to more than 60 million people, mainly women and unskilled workers from poor economies. And it is expanding. According to Datamonitor, 2010, the […]
Global Entrepreneur Week
Youth Business International (YBI) is a global network helping aspiring entrepreneurs in 34 countries, so helping to promote a culture of entrepreneurship is a full time job for our hundreds of staff. Nevertheless the few months leading up to the end of each year are particularly hectic. In November 2011 we celebrated our International YBI […]
Stanford Social Innovation Review Showcases GAIN’s High Impact Approach to Tackling Malnutrition
The Stanford Social Innovation Review, in its article “Challenging Change: Making Collective Impact Work”, has cited GAIN for developing a model of collaboration that achieves large scale progress in the face of the urgent and complex problems of our time. The model is based on partnership across public and private sectors and implies recognition of […]
Ida Horner Meets: Stephen a farmer from Kikube, Uganda
Ugandan entrepreneur, Ida Horner, attended the recent Villages in Action conference in Kikube, Masindi, Uganda, on behalf of Business Fights Poverty, the event’s sponsor. We asked Ida to meet up with some of the business owners in the village to get an insight into their businesses, the challenges they have had to overcome, and the […]
The SAB Foundation Invests in Social Innovation
The inaugural SAB Foundation Innovation Awards recently recognised innovators who are helping improve the lives of low-income South Africans. The Awards are part of the SAB Foundation’s focus on igniting a culture of entrepreneurship in South Africa as a source of economic growth, job creation and innovation. The awards aim to showcase and scale commercialisable […]
Empowering Women Through Business
At a recent event in London organised by Business Action for Africa, UK Department for International Development and the Institute for Development Studies titled: “Advancing Gender Equality through Business and Partnerships”, we discussed the compelling economic and business case for investing in the economic empowerment of women. We know that improving the economic position of […]
CDC Sets Up Pragati to Invest in India’s Poorest States
India’s rapid economic growth has been well documented. As has its space programme, aid programme and the number of billionaires who hail from the world’s largest democracy. But India remains a country of stark contrasts, as anyone who has travelled there can attest. According to the Multidimensional Poverty Index developed by the Oxford Poverty and […]
New Ventures to Promote Clean Energy
Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank More than 12 million low-income people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will gain access to clean energy following four companies’ commitments made today to the Business Call to Action, a global leadership initiative that promotes sustainable economic and social development. The companies also expect to create approximately 42,000 […]
BBC World Challenge 2011
This week sees the end of this year’s BBC World Challenge. There are just a few days left for you to vote for your favourite sustainable business and project: the 12 Finalists are profiled below. Vote before midnight (GMT) 11th November. TRASH TO CASH Hand in Hand – biogas energy, India Food waste from restaurants […]
Seeking Great Business Ideas for Investment
The Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), which invests in businesses wishing to implement commercially viable and high development impact projects in Africa, is launching three new competitions to spur business innovation and investment in: agribusiness development across Sub-Saharan Africa; renewable energy and adaptation to help small farmers in East Africa to adapt to climate change; […]
SABMiller launches first ever cassava lager in Mozambique
SABMiller plc, one of the world’s largest brewers, today announced the launch of the first ever commercial-scale cassava-based beer. The beer, ‘Impala’, will be brewed in Mozambique by SABMiller’s local subsidiary, Cervejas de Moçambique (CDM). The launch marks the latest step in SABMiller’s ambition to create a portfolio of high-quality, affordable beers made using locally-sourced […]
Transforming African Smallholders into Rural Entrepreneurs
Prices of certain basic food commodities have risen sharply in recent years. According to a 2011 World Bank report on food prices, global wheat prices have risen most, doubling between June 2010 and January 2011. Maize prices are about 73 percent higher. Increased food prices have had an adverse impact on food security worldwide: the […]
Wallpaper Over Malaria
To most people, wallpaper serves an obvious purpose: to decorate homes. But in rural villages across the developing world, an innovative type of wallpaper may soon help protect families from malaria. Malaria is among the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases, claiming the lives about 1 million people every year, according to the World Health Organizations. […]
Monitise Granted Licence to Bring Mobile Money to Nigeria
Monitise plc, the technology company delivering mobile banking, payments and commerce networks worldwide, is set to build Nigeria’s first mobile shared financial services platform after being granted a Mobile Payment System Provider licence to provide mobile money services by the country’s Central Bank. The Monitise technology platform is designed to be shared by various banks […]
The Socio-Economic Impact of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited
Earlier this month, Professor Ethan Kapstein launched his latest report quantifying the impact of business on development – this time on Newmont Mining in Ghana. (See my previous blog about his studies on SABMiller, Standard Chartered and Unilever). The impact of mining on local communities and the wider economy has been the subject of much […]
Spanish fashion chain Zara takes action on sweatshop labour in Brazil
Microlending with Kiva – the lender experience
Trading fruit in Cuzco market. Selling mobile airtime in Nairobi. Embroidery in the Guatemalan highlands. These are some of the vibrant images I have of ‘private sector activity’ around the world. So when we say ‘Business Fights Poverty’, we should remember that small businesses are the heart of the issue in many communities. Commerce and […]
Fashion Forward Running Apparel to Create Jobs in Kenya
Below is the press release for a non-profit called Kourage that I’ve built over the last 3-years. Back in 2008, I was a PhD candidate studying comparative political economy, specifically the economic and political effects of export-processing zones. I always felt ‘fair trade’ companies got it wrong, that they are so westernized, focusing all operatings […]
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves
Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires – the primary means of cooking and heating for nearly three billion people in the developing world – causes 1.9 million premature deaths annually. According to the World Health Organisation, almost all of these deaths are linked to lung health issues, with slightly more than half […]