Tag: challenges

How Can Business Accelerate Career Opportunity for Entry-Level Workers to Ensure the Future of Work is Strong and Inclusive?​

During Business Fights Poverty New York, a select group of professionals from the business, academia and the international development community explored how companies are responding to disruptive trends affecting the Future of Work, such as automation, the rise of artificial intelligence, and new forms of independent employment and how companies are preparing their workforce for […]

How to Take Donor Partnerships with Business to the Next Level of Scale and Impact?

It is now generally acknowledged that the additional $2.5 trillion annual investment in developing countries needed to achieve the Global Goals cannot be delivered without the active engagement of the private sector.  All sectors with a stake in the Global Goals, including governments, development organisations, business and civil society are therefore increasingly focused on unlocking […]

How Can Companies and Investors Collaborate to Embed Purpose Authentically into Business?

“How can companies and investors collaborate to embed purpose authentically into business?” As part of our Challenge on Purpose supported by GSK, VISA and Unilever, Business Fights Poverty convened a meeting of around 30 representatives from companies, financial institutions, NGOs and development institutions to discuss this pertinent topic. The benefits of business purpose – for […]

How Can Technology be Utilised by Businesses to Tackle Modern Slavery in their Global Supply Chains?​

Our New York Conference provided an opportunity to explore how strengthening companies’ two-way, real-time engagement with workers in their supply chains is improving worker well-being, and helping to address modern slavery. During the discussion, we uncovered emerging examples of technology assisting in this process, and asked what lessons we can learn from companies’ experiences to […]

A Conversation on The Future of Work at the 2019 Concordia Annual Summit

To mark the launch of a new Challenge supported by Walmart on the Future of Work, Enrique Ostalé, Regional CEO of UK, Latin America and Africa at Walmart International, and Zahid Torres-Rahman, Founder and CEO of Business Fights Poverty joined Brad Staples, CEO of APCO at Concordia’s 2019 Annual Summit, to speak about International Future […]

How Can Business Address Gender Equality Challenges Through Business Aware Practices?

This year, the first SDG Gender Index, produced by  Equal Measures 2030, found that 2.8bn women and girls are living in countries that are ‘failing’ or ‘barely passing’ on gender equality, and no country is on track to achieve full gender equality by 2030. Even the higher-scoring countries were unable to make significant progress on […]

Advancing Gender Equality Across the Value Chain: Engaging Men as Allies

Following international movements such as UN Women’s #HeforShe campaign, there is growing awareness of the need to engage men as allies for gender equality. What is less clear is what this might mean in practice for businesses in their efforts to advance gender equality. Business Fights Poverty has launched a Challenge, supported by AB InBev […]

Empowering Women in Toy Factories: Insights from Pilots in India

Ethical Toy Program and BSR collaborated on a women’s empowerment program that was piloted in three toy factories in India with a total population of 824 workers—including 198 women. The program, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, consisted of in-factory trainings on gender awareness, health, communications, and prevention of gender-based violence delivered to ‘Core […]

How Companies Can Tackle Gender Based Violence

Gender-based violence affects employees physical and mental health and well-being, leading to stress, anxiety, loss of self-esteem and motivation. Often women are forced to leave their jobs. It contributes to the gender pay gap and seriously affects women’s opportunities for advancement and career progression. Women usually bear the brunt of gender-based violence, although others are […]

Strengthening the MSME Ecosystem to Enable Business Growth and Social impact in Frontier Markets

For large companies operating in emerging and developing countries, Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) are key business partners along the value chain – as suppliers, distributors, retailers and customers. MSMEs can create access to untapped low-income markets. As retailers, clinics, pharmacies or service providers, they reach both rural and urban households with goods and […]

A Man’s Place: How Men Can Tackle Everyday Workplace Sexism

Women find it more difficult than men to progress into leadership positions. There is a fall-off in the proportion of women represented in management as the roles get more senior. Much evidence shows that unintentional gender bias is to blame. The spotlight has recently shifted away from ‘fixing the women’ to succeed in the workplace […]

Being Authentic About Purpose: From Words to Action

Recently, a group of 181 CEOs, collectively representing over 15 million employees and more than $7 trillion in annual revenues, declared that they are no longer putting shareholders before everyone else. The “Statement of Purpose of a Corporation”, issued by the Business Roundtable, is a bold re-imagining of the principles of corporate governance that they […]

How Technology Can Help Tackle Modern Slavery Through Worker Engagement

Modern slavery in supply chains: a global challenge Over 40 million people are in modern slavery. It is a crime affecting all countries, yet it is often hidden and difficult to measure. In a new Business Fights Poverty Challenge, we are setting out to explore how technology can help tackle modern slavery through worker engagement. […]

Inviting Men to Make a Difference: the #HeForShe movement

The case for gender equality is clear with estimates that £28 trillion could be added to the global economy if women participated equally. Yet according to recent reports, no country is expected to achieve full gender equality by 2030. Our ongoing Business Fights Poverty Challenge with AB InBev, CARE and Stanford University’s VMWare Women’s Leadership […]

How Can We Save Purpose from Purpose-Wash?

The common ground between the critics and champions of purpose is the desire for authenticity. Our Challenge on Purpose asks how we can move beyond rhetoric to embed purpose meaningfully and consistently across business. We initially identified Five Pillars to build authentic purpose within organisations and sought the opinions of the Business Fights Poverty network […]

The New ILO Violence and Harassment Convention: Signalling a Shift in Norms and Expectations

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.  In June, representatives from governments, unions and employers’ organisations gathered in Geneva at the annual International Labour Conference to commemorate a century of tripartite engagement at this, the oldest of the United Nations agencies. For those of us working on gender-based violence, sexual harassment […]