Why Corporation Tax will Never be Boring Again
At a roundtable discussion on responsible tax earlier this week, a senior tax executive wished out loud for the return of the days when corporation tax was boring. His comment was light-hearted, but neatly captures the current climate. Corporate tax avoidance is scarcely out of the news. As governments struggle to fund basic services, people […]
Donors’ New Role in the Fight Against Poverty
A remarkable thing happened over the past two decades: the world grew richer, freer, and more secure than ever before. The end of the Cold War in 1991 was a seminal event not least because it ushered in these trends. Democratic governance has flourished in many countries where a mere 20 years earlier repression and […]
Engage Your Supply Chain to Find the Mutual Benefits
Given that sugar is such a ubiquitous food ingredient and accounts for significant land use, it is heartening to see leading companies and development organizations prioritizing the sustainability of this ingredient. Global demand is projected to require an estimated 49% increase in land under cane production alone by 2050. The sector is facing serious and […]
An IFC Perspective on Sustainable Sugar Production
As mentioned in Business Fights Poverty and the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School’s recent report on building blocks for sustainable sugar production at scale, IFC has been engaged in sustainable sugar activities since the early 2000s, when we collaborated with WWF to develop better management practices for tropical commodities such as sugar. In […]
Embracing Emerging Market Entrepreneurship
Twice a year, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)convenes our Executive Committee—a group of fifteen international development leaders that guide ANDE’s strategy and provide operational oversight. At the most recent meeting, we opened with a “pop quiz” — What are the three biggest challenges facing small and growing businesses in emerging markets over the […]
Time to View Small-Scale Farming as a Business
How can we feed the world’s growing population? It’s an age-old question that has resurfaced following the economic shocks and environmental stresses of the past decade. According to the latest data, the global population is expected to surpass nine billion by 2050, and much of this growth will take place in developing countries. For instance, […]
30% of Businesses Back Human Rights Legal Requirement
It is a fiction that big business rejects all regulation as a burden. Recent Economist research indicates that nearly a third of business leaders see mandatory reporting on human rights for their companies as a good thing. The fact that companies such as Tesco and Marshalls have been lobbying for UK businesses to disclose the […]
The Unintended Consequences of Inclusive Business
Last week we hosted a two-day conference, Inclusion Inc., at The Fletcher School, where we tested the idea that “the only competitive business is an inclusive business.” Inclusive business, or business that pursues opportunities in traditionally unattractive market segments, ought to be a strategic imperative for corporations and investors. Foregoing such segments would open the […]
Celebrating World Health Day With Business Ideas
The base of the pyramid as we knew it ten years ago has changed tremendously. Latin America and the Caribbean’s economic growth between 2000 and 2013 benefitted everyone in the region, from top to bottom. Millions of people emerged from poverty, and the segment of those living on $4-10 grew considerably. As their earnings increase, […]
Women are the Crux of Africa’s Development
Recent estimates state that women provide approximately 70 per cent of agricultural labour and produce about 90 per cent of all food in Africa. At the same time, women and girls reinvest an average of 90 percent of their income in their families, compared to 30 to 40 percent for men. It is clear that […]
Joining Forces Vital for Resilient Communities
In 2014, the UN Climate Summit, the first ever U.S.-Africa Summit, dwindling natural resources, gaps between the rich and poor has propelled awareness of advancing solutions for our complex challenges. To be sure, the influence of climate change is fueling global economic volatility, posing threats to natural resources and wildlife habitats. What is certain is […]
Inclusive Value Chains in Plastic Waste Management
For a long time, waste management and recycling were primarily discussed in the context of environmental preservation. However with natural resources becoming scarcer and prices of raw materials increasing, it is no surprise that materials and energy recovered from recycling waste are gradually recognised as a valuable commodity, particularly by enterprises. In its Green Economy […]
Trader Standards Get a Make-over
Do you have a flattering angle that you prefer for photos? Do you turn your head slightly toward the camera, nose down? Do you like looking wistfully off to the right? Among Fairtrade campaigners, a worryingly large number of people seem to think their best angle is in a banana suit. But at Fairtrade, we […]
An EU Backed Sanitation Stimulus in Poor Countries?
This Sunday (22nd March) is World Water Day. But there is little cause to celebrate. As the twin-track Post-2015 Development Agenda rolls on towards hopeful denouement at the end of this year, it is Millennium Development Goal no.7c (halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation) that is the […]
Water Stewardship: Good for Business and Development
The United Nations is finalizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of international goals addressing a wide range of global challenges, including energy, agriculture, governance, and poverty reduction. The SDGs will be implemented when the Millennium Development Goals, the UN’s last set of development targets, expire at the end of 2015 and water-related issues […]
Towards Ethically and Sustainably Sourced Cotton
As we bring together buyers and suppliers, manufacturers and NGOs to discuss what is needed for a sustainable supply of cotton, it seems clear we need to address the economic equation of supply and demand. Experience from other sectors suggests that the business proposition for procuring ethically and sustainably sourced cotton will be driven by […]
Help Shape VSO's Work on Livelihoods
Caption: Barclays employee Anuradha Banerjee on placement in Zanzibar, Tanzania, supporting Nassor Salim Al-Miskiry , the Managing Director of Rans Building Company, one of the local SMEs she helped to maximise local benefits from the recent oil and gas investments in the country. Credit, Tim Maynard, 2014, © VSO Through programmes in 22 countries VSO […]
Help Shape VSO’s Work on Livelihoods
Caption: Barclays employee Anuradha Banerjee on placement in Zanzibar, Tanzania, supporting Nassor Salim Al-Miskiry , the Managing Director of Rans Building Company, one of the local SMEs she helped to maximise local benefits from the recent oil and gas investments in the country. Credit, Tim Maynard, 2014, © VSO Through programmes in 22 countries VSO […]
Launching the 2015 Intrapreneur Labs
So 2014 was a whirlwind of a year for The Intrapreneur Lab – the accelerator programme for social innovations inside large companies conceived by Leadership Laboratories, Accenture and Business Fight Poverty and now held in business schools across the world. At the bottom of this post are a few stats around the 4 Labs we’ve […]
10 Steps to Perfect Partnerships
I was recently set an interesting challenge, as part of a conversation on good collaboration: in under four hundred words to come up with 10 clear steps that organisations could follow to create the ‘perfect partnership’. Let’s get one thing clear. The Partnering Initiative has worked with hundreds of organisations and partnerships for over a […]