Impact Investing for Green and Inclusive Business
Green and inclusive businesses need finance – impact investing can provide this. Discuss with us along seven hot topics why impact investors and green and inclusive businesses are a perfect fit and how they could be better matched – from new kids on the block to the super-heroes in the field. Green and inclusive businesses, […]
Four Lessons From a Social Entrepreneur Tackling the Youth Employment Crisis in Southern Africa
News headlines are filled with stories of a growing youth bulge and impending youth unemployment crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. This is the bad news. Many social entrepreneurs are at work even now creating solutions to these types of challenges—a sort of counterbalance that shapes fortune out of misfortune. Young Africa (YA) founder, Ashoka Fellow Dorien […]
Developing Markets for Sustainable Growth
“Our business is profitable because it is inclusive” was how Javier Flores, green and inclusive entrepreneur from Peru, framed his success when he described the benefits of integrating social and ecological aspects in his business’ bottom line. Over 250 participants from more than 70 countries gathered for two days at the 16th International Business Forum […]
Why Intrapreneurship is More Than Just Another Buzzword
If there’s one word with a big chance of topping the list of most-used words in 2013, it is definitely innovation. While widely used by corporations, consultants, politicians and even presidents, many of them can’t tell you what it is or what they expect from it. Along with this broad attention for innovation comes a […]
Partnership Vital to African Innovation
One of the biggest obstacles to innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa is the lack of access to funding. It seems innovators cannot find investors and investors cannot find innovators. We have to bridge this gap. The Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) is a platform that addresses this challenge by identifying innovators, rewarding them, assessing their […]
5 Tips on How to Navigate your Corporate Ecosystem
What would Machiavelli say about the politics of a 21st century corporation? Surely, the recent financial crisis, media phone tapping and other corruption scandals would come as no surprise. In Machiavelli’s world, ‘the means justifies the end.’ But, what would he make of the political acumen of social intrapreneurs – individuals inside large companies developing […]
Why Does Africa Need Innovation?
Africa is standing at a turning point in its socio-economic history. Never before has the continent’s economy thrived as it is today and things can only get better. While most Africans will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by the 2015 deadline, they are determined and are implementing measures to ensure […]
Investing in African Ingenuity
The best way to build Africa’s capacity is to invest in local innovation and entrepreneurship. Africa is at a developmental turning point and Africans have stepped forward to be the leaders of the continent’s development in all facets of the economy. African innovators and entrepreneurs are creating solutions to our continent’s everyday challenges. By providing […]
Innovative Public-Private Partnerships for Education
The achievement gap between rich and poor is a complex and global challenge. Schooling alone is not meeting the needs of the poorest children. Innovative public-private partnerships for education could be part of the solution. South Africa’s schools face considerable challenges. The national average of 27 percent functional illiteracy masks significant and entrenched wealth and […]
Pitch Lessons from a Cubicle Warrior
In the world of social good, pitching is 90% of the battle – enrolling others into the change you believe. Gandhi did this. Martin Luther King shined with his ability to create a bridge into a tolerant and diverse future. Florence Nightingale wasn’t just a nurse, but a master storyteller. But what happens when you […]
Market & Social Impact Research: A Dual Approach
Having worked in the local sustainable energy sector for the last seven years, I cannot stress enough how important it is to conduct both market and social impact research. Yet most organisations tend to focus on one or the other. Enterprises and charities founded in countries where they operate, especially when they are led by […]
Market & Social Impact Research: A Dual Approach
Having worked in the local sustainable energy sector for the last seven years, I cannot stress enough how important it is to conduct both market and social impact research. Yet most organisations tend to focus on one or the other. Enterprises and charities founded in countries where they operate, especially when they are led by […]
Benchmarking Agriculture: Lessons from Doing Business
The proposed Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture (BBA) is a joint effort of the Doing Business and agricultural development teams of the World Bank and is partly based on the (in)famous Doing Business project. Doing Business is arguably the Bank’s highest profile publication and ranks countries’ business regulations and laws across ten key indicators, but […]
The Business of Agriculture: What’s missing?
By Alison Griffith,Senior Policy and Practice Advisor, Private Sector and Markets, Practical Action, and George McAllister, Director of Programmes, Garden Africa Smallholders have the potential to become the backbone of agricultural growth in Africa and to supply our growing demand for food – if they have the right environment. The World Bank’s proposal to develop […]
Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture
Smallholders have the potential to become the backbone of agricultural growth in Africa and to supply our growing demand for food. As Kato Lambrecht said in her blog yesterday, the policies and practices of governments can have a huge impact on whether or not they can realise that potential. The African Smallholder Farmers Group have […]
Making Markets Work for Smallholder Farmers
John Ngari farms a seven acre plot in Mbere Kenya. In a recent conversation he remarked that ‘It is an eye opener for us that farming can be a business. My sons can enter farming as a business just like any other. What I am looking for is to have my own, small-scale industry so […]
8 Insights from the Mind of an Intrapreneur
The inaugural 3-day Intrapreneur Lab offered a unique and intimate insight into the minds of today’s leading ‘social intrapreneurs;’ the enterprising individuals working on the inside of large corporations to create innovative business solutions that drive social change. Of course, entrepreneurial employees with noble motives have been part of large companies for years, but increasingly, […]
Intrapreneurship – A View from the Bridge
You’re on the Titanic. You see the iceberg. What do you do? You could just enjoy the party. After all, it’s probably too late to do anything so one might as well have fun. Alternatively, you could quickly make for the lifeboats and plan an escape while you still can. Or you could climb up […]
Combatting Modern-Day Slavery
How many slaves work for you? Paradoxically – in 2013 – the question is still very relevant, and you might be surprised by the answer. Depending on where you live, what you buy, what your lifestyle is, you have almost certainly been touched by slavery. Almost nobody is clean. Modern-day slavery takes many forms: human […]
5 Tools to Help Social Intrapreneurs Drive Change
What do Rosa Parks, Rachel Carson, Lech Walesa and a group of gay men at a New York bar in 1969 have in common with social intrapreneurs? According to David Grayson, Director of the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield University, they are all change agents – people who pushed against the status quo […]