Achieving Scale and Impact Supporting Small Businesses
Earlier this week, to mark Global Partnerships Week, Business Fights Poverty and the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School released a new case study on the partnership between SABMiller, the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and FUNDES to empower 190,000 small-scale retailers in Latin America by 2020. Called 4e Camino […]
How USAID Partners with Business for Development Impact
USAID works with a diverse array of partners. Among these partners, the private sector—global and local businesses, financial institutions, investors, and entrepreneurs—has a unique and growing role to play in global problem solving. USAID partners with the private sector where there is strong alignment between development objectives and business interests. Today, there is increasing overlap […]
Small-Scale Retailers and Social Innovation
In Latin America, the tendero, or small neighborhood shop, is a vital community element in small towns and cities; and for many companies, it’s an important distribution channel for consumer goods. In some cases, tenderos represent 50% of companies’ total sales. If you have ever visited one of these small shops, you will find virtually […]
Co-Creating Solutions to Get Every Child Learning
Edtech companies are in the business of building bridges — providing new tools, models, and pathways that look to improve education, whether it’s through innovative business models or new delivery platforms that can effectively reach learners at scale. Pearson is excited to continue in that vein in our new partnership with Save the Children called […]
Helping Small Businesses Thrive in Africa
I recently had the pleasure of meeting a group of small retailers in Colombia, women and men from among the 780,000 “tenderos” in SABMiller’s value chain in Latin America. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about the “4e Camino al Progreso” (4e) programme developed by my Latin American colleagues together with their […]
Putting Enterprise at the Heart of the Post-2015 Agenda
The international community is busy defining a new set of “Sustainable Development Goals” that will shape the agenda when the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire later this year. One striking improvement is the emphasis being placed on inclusive growth, jobs and enterprise. And in that context it is encouraging to see the draft SDGs […]
Empowering Small Retailers at Scale
Latin America is an important region for SABMiller’s growth strategy. Small-scale retailers, called “tenderos,” are critical to our business there. These retailers are located close to their customers in environments that are difficult for “big box” stores to serve. They let customers with low and unpredictable incomes, no transportation, and no storage space at home […]
SABMiller Supporting Shopkeepers in Latin America
How can big corporations use their power to engage in social inclusion and impact? To discover how the world’s second-largest brewery is making it happen, download this SABMiller case study which I wrote based on my work with them. The case gives insight into SABMiller’s strategic move to incorporate thousands of small business into its […]
Lessons from a Small Business Program in Latin America
In 2012, multinational brewer SABMiller took stock of all of the corporate social investment programs in its portfolio in the six Latin American countries in which it is the market leader: Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador. What they found—42 separate, often small-scale initiatives—was perhaps not surprising, given that SABMiller’s subsidiaries in those […]
Using Mobile Money for School Fee Payments
Sometimes it seems like everyone is talking about mobile money. Last week Jim Kim said that he sees mobile money as a path to give financial …. Bill and Melinda Gates boldly bet that mobile money will help the poor transform their lives in the next 1…. We responded with a piece on how NGOs […]
Gender Equality: Good for Women, Business & Development
As we approach International Women’s Day, some might question whether we still need an officially designated day to champion women’s rights. Some might say that we now enjoy equal opportunities in our workplaces and in society at large, and that the battle has been won. But while businesses are likely to have a gender policy […]
Gender Equality: Good for Women, Business & Development
As we approach International Women’s Day, some might question whether we still need an officially designated day to champion women’s rights. Some might say that we now enjoy equal opportunities in our workplaces and in society at large, and that the battle has been won. But while businesses are likely to have a gender policy […]
#girlhero: The Story of a Girl Fighting for Education
International Women’s Day – held on 8 March – offers a great opportunity to reflect on equal pay in the workforce, equal opportunity in the community, and equal access in society. But for me, above all, it is a time to reflect on the gift of education and the profound heroism of girls fighting for […]
Inclusive Business: Forget Business School Strategy
In the coming decades, the majority of the world’s economic output and market growth will come from the emerging markets. Already, the seven largest emerging markets collectively contribute more to global output than do the G7 countries combined. That said, once one gets beneath the aggregate statistics, these emerging – and dynamic – markets are […]
Innovative Young Africans Fixing An Education System
Illiteracy rates in West Africa were the highest in the world in 2009, but as recently as 2013 the World Bank reported that things were turning around. Across the region, many more children, especially girls, were enrolling in primary school. Despite these significant gains in enrollment rates, the underlying problem was glaringly clear: enrolling in […]
Solar Seaweed Drying Transforming Lives in Zanzibar
Dar es Salaam, Dec 10th, 2015: Seaweed farming in Zanzibar is undergoing a dramatic transformation thanks to an innovative new way to dry the product during the rainy season. Despite Zanzibar producing some of the best seaweed in the world, the industry is extremely inefficient. Production is among the lowest and cost per kilo is […]
Accelerating Sustainable and Inclusive Business
A growing number of companies are developing sustainable and inclusive business models that can offer positive developmental impacts—often partnering with the public sector, non-profit organisations, and foundations to leverage complementary capabilities and share up-front cost and risk. A new research report: “Growth for Good or Good for Growth?” by The Fletcher School at Tufts University […]
Unlocking Business Potential of Small-Scale Agriculture
Today’s farmers face an uphill battle. The uncertainties of climate change further complicate more familiar problems such as land degradation, land scarcity, and younger generations leaving agriculture. Many farmers in the developing world already face erratic climate conditions that frequently devastate their crops and herds and prevent them from investing in more productive agricultural technologies. […]
Evolving to Inclusive Finance
Transformative impact requires a range of financial services and products. It comes from a holistic approach, and that’s our strategy at Citi. Over the past decade, Citi, in partnership with governments, institutional clients and non-profit organizations, has attempted to build an inclusive financial infrastructure that enables long-lasting positive impact. We’ve worked on savings, payments, credit […]
What Drives Companies to Invest in Inclusive Business?
This month’s Editor’s Choice explores companies’ own perspectives on Sustainable and Inclusive Business. It’s a rare glimpse probing inside the company structures and lingo, to see what drives and what impedes company engagement. Growth for Good or Good for Growth is a new report by Monitor Institute, Citi Foundation and The Fletcher School at Tufts […]