Fairtrade and the COVID-19 response – lessons for business and the food system
The rapid spread of COVID-19 and the resulting global restrictions, challenged everyone involved in the production of food all over the world. Fairtrade is no exception, working as we do with over 1.6 million farmers and workers supplying the UK’s supermarkets. Produce from Africa, Asia, and South America makes up 10 to 15 per cent […]
How to Safeguard the Livelihoods of Women Farmers and Entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 Pandemic
In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed our world, creating an array of new challenges on every continent while reminding us of persistent inequalities. In many places, the pandemic threatens to reverse recent gains made to advance women’s economic empowerment. To understand why, meet Olivia Massarula. Olivia owns a small grocery shop […]
5 Insights From Business Fights Poverty Global Summit 2020
Business Fights Poverty Global Summit 2020 was packed full of insights – with 70+ speakers across nearly 40 sessions and 5 themes – and free learning content from our event partner Pearson. It was great to be joined live by over 1,000 participants from all around the world. Our community also contributed 5 How-To Videos […]
The four blind spots companies working on purpose uncover
Avoiding difficult conversations, blaming others for our own mistakes, or going it alone too afraid of asking for help. We know what are personal blind spots and why they hold us back — even if we pretend we don’t. Similarly, by business blind spots, I mean those beliefs that companies are not aware of having, […]
Experts from the Business Fights Poverty Network share insights and practical tips in our new “How-To” Videos and Seminars.
The videos were put together by experts from across our network, as part of Business Fights Poverty Online 2020: Rebuild Better, and we are immensely grateful to them for sharing their expertise. All the Seminars and “How-To” Videos can all be accessed via this link. . Our Seminars are around 15 to 20 minutes long, […]
VIDEO: How do I measure my company’s sustainability performance?
Clara Barby is the Chief Executive of Impact Management Project. Also, Clara is on secondment from Bridges Fund Management, where she led the firm’s impact strategy throughout the investment cycle and across all fund types. “Impact measurement is a very precise tool of measurement that is increasingly what companies want to do in order to […]
Seminar: What is the latest thinking on employment-relevant skills for young people?
Linda Wanklin is a Researcher and PhD Candidate in International Affairs and Political Economy at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. Previously, she worked with Development Cooperation at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation and at the International Labour Organisation. Investing in training is really an investment in the company’s future. Once the […]
Innovation, Collaboration and Purpose: Three Lessons from the Pharmaceutical Industry to Strengthen the Global Health System
The last decade has seen substantial changes in how the pharmaceutical industry perceives its role in expanding access and affordability of pharmaceutical products, such as therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics, and in working with governments and civil society organizations to tackle global and community health challenges. Public opinion as well as changing stakeholder expectations, including among […]
Seminar Video: What are the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable?
Dr Dirk Willem te Velde is a Principal Research Fellow and Director for International Economic Development at the Overseas Development Institute. He is the Director of Supporting Economic Transformation and a Research Leader for the DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme. This crisis is likely to be much worse, two to three times worse [than the […]
VIDEOS: How to report on your company’s purpose, Integrated Reporting, GRI, SASB and more
Professor Robert G. Eccles is Visiting Professor of Management Practice at University of Oxford’s Said Business School. He was previously a tenured Professor and Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. Bob is the award-winning author of a dozen books, including seminal works on integrated reporting, sustainability, and the role of business in society. […]
Seminar Video: What is Driving the Purpose Debate?
Ben Kellard Director of Business Strategy at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Ben leads CISL’s business strategy advisory work. He has a passion for shaping organisational purpose and strategies that unlock people’s desire to improve their own and others wellbeing, while sustaining the environmental systems the organisation relies upon. Doing so prepares organisations […]
Rebuild Better. Rebuild Now
Hand in Hand, an NGO specialising in women’s economic empowerment, recently polled 800 our members in Kenya to find out how Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown measures were impacting their businesses. The results, if not entirely surprising, still managed to shock. Incomes had dropped by an average of 67 percent. Savings were down 69 percent and on course […]
How companies can take action to address white privilege
Like many, I have been reflecting on the injustice of racism since the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests and considering how my own actions might be perpetuating the interests of dominant white power structures within business. Over the last year the majority of my time was spent producing two Business […]
Three ways sustainable supply chains can help build better business in a COVID-19 world
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world in profound and unexpected ways. More than six million people have fallen ill from the virus and nearly four hundred thousand have died from it. The livelihoods of millions of farmers and workers have suffered, normal business has been disrupted, and the impacts continue to rise as the virus shifts to new regions. The jury is still out on how severe and lasting the economic damage will be, or whether the pandemic will spur urgently needed action on climate change, rising inequality and sustainable development. One thing we […]
What smallholder cotton farmers need to build financial and agricultural resilience
During my journey of working with smallholder farmers I have observed that farmers in South Asia face many challenges related to climate change, increased cost of production, lack of awareness of sustainable agriculture practices, and marketing of crops. The COVID-19 pandemic has added new challenges to farmers’ lives. As an organisation, we have kept in […]
Indigenous Perspectives on Poverty Eradication, Corporate Engagement and the SDGS
Indigenous Peoples play an essential role in land management, clean water and in maintaining the diversity of global food systems. Even though they make up less than 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous Peoples manage more than 28% of the globe’s land surface. They continue to use traditional methods that have evolved over centuries that […]
Can We Leapfrog Once Again With Smart Solutions and Cross-Sector Partnerships?
The COVID-19 pandemic is imposing itself as the greatest crisis since the Great Depression. It is affecting – and revealing structural socio-economic weaknesses in – all regions of the world. Responding to COVID-19 is not only a question of preparedness, it is fundamentally a question of peace and security, and of political and financial decisions […]
Which supermarkets are doing the most to protect the rights of food workers?
As the Coronavirus pandemic drives home the importance of the frontline workers producing and supplying our food, Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign to improve the conditions of people in supermarket supply chains is more relevant than ever. And yet, the 2020 Supermarket Scorecard highlights that no supermarket is doing enough to combat human suffering in […]
To find out what ‘better’ looks like we must listen to those most affected
Plan International UK is responding to the global coronavirus crisis in over 50 countries; from delivering hygiene kits and life-saving public health information to vulnerable families and communities around the world, to ensuring children can continue their education when schools are closed. While the coronavirus crisis is having a devastating impact right across the world, […]
Financing impact start-ups: two solutions, two challenges
Way back at the dawn of the Internet age, a shiny new thing transformed start-up finance. Until then, entrepreneurs relied on friends, neighbours and family for loans, ideas, market research, help with a variety of tasks and first customers. Now you can do all these things by talking directly to 4.6 billion people who are […]