Bridging Gaps: Cross-sector Collaboration is the Future of Sustainable Business
The world faces growing problems—natural resource scarcity and climate change, along with anti-trade and migration movements—that require more nimble policies, institutions and investments for sustainable development. Yet, current approaches are hobbled because they operate in silos across sectors. When stakeholders and policymakers operate in silos, maximizing one interest at the expense of everyone else’s, the […]
Inclusive Distribution: The Secret to Securing a Route-to-Market
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are well aware that emerging and developing markets represent their greatest growth opportunity. 90 percent of Unilever’s global growth and Procter & Gamble’s only growth came from emerging markets during 2008-2014. Yet, with the majority of population growth over the next 35 years expected to be in today’s developing countries, […]
Blockchain Will Bring Empowerment And Transparency To Development
The open source, decentralised database blockchain allows donors, aid agencies, NGOs and beneficiaries to operate transparent, agile and open networks. Software is eating the world. And it is also gaining more and more importance and changing processes in development. Access to smartphones is increasing fast. And as we are seeing the first fruitful outcomes stemming […]
Solving Bangladesh’s Skills Shortage Through Apprenticeships
BRAC Case study on Youth Employability Bangladesh has undergone an enormous transformation over the past forty years and has long been seen as an example of how aid can support progressive, pro-poor and country driven development. But a major issue has been holding the country back; young people and businesses in Bangladesh are facing a […]
USAID Partners to Invest in Africa’s Entrepreneurs
This week’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which brings thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, and policymakers to Johannesburg, South Africa, is an opportunity to build on the momentum of the Sankalp Africa Forum and reaffirm the development community’s commitment to invest in Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Sustainable entrepreneurship is a critical component of inclusive development. Entrepreneurs create jobs, […]
Enhancing Women’s Economic Empowerment in DRC
Historically there’s been limited evidence on what works to genuinely economically empower women in DRC’s agricultural sectors. But, thanks to ÉLAN RDC’s WEE Learning Series, that’s now starting to change. Women and working-aged adolescent girls in DRC are some of the most marginalised in the world. Disproportionately high rates of poverty, inadequate access to basic […]
Girls’ Economic Empowerment – Why Context Matters for Financial Education
Last year I wrote about why it makes sense for corporates to invest in girls’ education and introduced Credit Suisse’s Financial Education for Girls program that aims to improve the financial knowledge and life skills of approximately 100,000 girls. At the time, the program had been implemented for only 18 months. This year we are […]
#BeBoldForChange: To Empower Women, You Need to Work with Men, Too
On International Women’s Day, Alison Ward explains how Cotton Connect’s work with Primark to support women cotton farmers in India is sowing transformative change by engaging both sexes. #BeBoldForChange is the theme for International Women’s Day 2017. While progress has been made around the world, the latest estimates from the World Economic Forum reveal that […]
Co-Creating Partnerships to Achieve the Global Goals
With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) having significantly raised the bar regarding ambition and universality, there is agreement that we have to go well beyond business as usual. Achieving breakthrough progress in these rapidly-changing times requires a new mind-set and different behavior from all of us. “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not […]
Educating Girls – From Marginalized to Empowered
Pearson Case Study on Youth Employability Pearson and international NGO Camfed have announced an expansion of their existing partnership aimed at educating and empowering girls from low-income communities in Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Their work is being extended in Tanzania to support 6,400 more children in 80 schools. It is being led by young educated women, […]
Seven Lessons on Business-to-business Partnerships for Social Value from the Barclays GSK Partnership
In 2013, Barclays and GSK came together because we both believe that long-term success is inextricably linked to the wellbeing of the communities in which we operate. We developed a partnership bringing together the skills and expertise of a bank and healthcare company to test new models that would increase access to healthcare and improve […]
Exploring the Accelerator Landscape
Hundreds of accelerators—intensive, short term programs that speed up the development of early stage ventures to succeed, or fail—have emerged around the world. While the concept began in Silicon Valley, international development funders have seen the model as a way to drive growth in emerging markets as well. And beyond just tech companies, accelerators focus […]
Invisible Lives: Understanding Youth Livelihoods in Ghana and Uganda
Beatrice had a busy day. It’s tomato season, which means she had to wake up extra early to go to the garden to harvest some ripe tomatoes. On her way, she made sure to feed the poultry and check on the goats. It’s also market day in her village, so after feeding her children and […]
Bridging the Gap between Young People’s Career Aspirations & Ability to Succeed
Young people today make up the largest youth population in history. Their successes and struggles are as diverse as their personalities and aspirations. However, in all corners of the globe, this generation faces a common challenge: persistent, high rates of youth unemployment. Left unaddressed, the consequences reverberate across our cities and affect us all. When […]
SABMiller/ AB InBev’s Local Sourcing in Africa
SABMiller plc, which combined with AB InBev in October 2016, has been a pioneer in promoting local sourcing in Africa. Many of the company’s subsidiaries in Africa have created new brands and brewing processes which incorporate locally grown crops such as sorghum and cassava. This is based on a win-win-win model where: Local businesses can […]
Finding Better Ways to Prepare for Future Health Threats
Ebola, Zika, SARS and the return of avian flu to the headlines this week are reminders that the threat of a new epidemic is never far away. With increased air travel and populations on the move, it doesn’t take long for a virus to spread between countries and jump across continents, with potentially catastrophic results. […]
New Evidence Supporting the Business Case for Investing in Female Garment Workers
CARE’s programmes on dignified work have for a number of years included training sessions for women in factories. Recent research provides further evidence, backing up our own findings, that investing in training for women workers makes good business sense for factory owners. A key initiative that we have been involved in implementing has been the […]
Sustainable Business Leadership in 2017: Game On
At the start of last year, we were still riding the highs of 2015, which saw important progress on sustainable business. The year just past, 2016, for multiple reasons, was less positive. How will 2017 break the tie? Let’s start by looking back to where we were a year ago. Here’s the good news: The […]
Better Together: Unleashing the Power of the Private Sector to Tackle NCDs
Why Human-Centred Design is Critical to Preparing for Global Health Epidemics
With the announcement of a viable Ebola vaccine coming almost three years after the Ebola outbreak began, questions around how prepared we are to fight future pandemics remain unanswered. The vaccine stands out as one of the only concrete advancements made towards preventing future Ebola outbreaks. Globally, too little has been done to learn from […]