Tag: Insights

Waste Not Want Not: £240m on Unwanted Christmas Gifts

People in Britain will waste more than £240 million* on unwanted presents this Christmas with one in four people saying they panic buy presents, according to a survey commissioned by micro loan website lendwithcare.org. With each ‘panic buying’ adult spending an average of £46.25 on wasted gifts and almost three quarters of buyers (75%) unable […]

Remembering Graham Mackay

Graham Mackay, the visionary leader who drove the growth of SABMiller into the world’s second biggest brewer and the only African-originated multinational corporation, died yesterday aged 64. After joining South African Breweries 35 years ago, Graham moved quickly up through the business, ultimately to the position of Executive Chairman of SABMiller plc in July 2012, […]

“It´s Inclusive Business, stupid”

Of course, we do not know if Bill Clinton, provided he would run for president today, would frame his presidential campaign like this. But what we know is that today governments and donors would do good in promoting inclusive business and they have a number of policy options at hand to do so – as […]

Learning From Companies, Sourcing From Smallholders

A sustainable supply chain that sources from smallholder farmers – sounds easy. But it is common knowledge that long-standing problems like insufficient quantity and quality, side-selling of the harvest, rainfall, pests and prices, can often beset initiatives in practice. Two candid new case studies depict the innovative attempts of two businesses to set up smallholder […]

Investing in Agriculture in the DRC

Since the launch of CDC’s current strategy in 2012, our aim has been to invest where our job creation focus can have the greatest impact: in countries where the private sector is weak and jobs are scarce, and in sectors where growth leads to jobs. Our recently announced US$18.1m investment into Feronia, an agricultural production […]

ESG Integral to Approach of Emerging Market Fund Managers

CDC Group plc, the UK’s development finance institution and a leading emerging markets private equity fund investor, has announced the results of its first environmental, social and governance (ESG) survey of fund managers. The survey looks at fund managers’ evolving ESG support needs and the ways CDC can meet this current demand. Fifty-three individuals took […]

Business Perspectives on Mandela's Legacy

Millions of us around the world embraced him as our own, and many millions more will be inspired by him for generations to come. Yet perhaps Nelson Mandela’s most endearing trait was his humility. His humanity brought people together across traditional divides to build a better world. This week, as we collectively mourn the passing […]

Business Perspectives on Mandela’s Legacy

Millions of us around the world embraced him as our own, and many millions more will be inspired by him for generations to come. Yet perhaps Nelson Mandela’s most endearing trait was his humility. His humanity brought people together across traditional divides to build a better world. This week, as we collectively mourn the passing […]

Growing Changemaking Communities In Your Company

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the power of entourage. Not the Hollywood bros kind, not the rapper’s crew, but the often invisible communities of support that exist behind every great person. What I’ve come to notice is that the most successful social entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs have masterfully gone about creating communities of support for their […]

A Challenge to Both Business and Vulnerable Communities

In September, the IPCC published the Fifth Annual Report on the Physical Basis of Climate Change. It devotes little attention to the human and ecological impacts of global environmental and climatic change, topics that will be addressed by working group reports released in early 2014 . Nonetheless, the trajectory of climate and other environmental changes […]

Exploring the Boundaries of What a Business Can Achieve

Three innovative start-up companies are pushing the boundaries of what business can achieve in delivering social goals through a commercially sustainable model. Each is building a sustainable business model with dual social and commercial returns in a space previously assumed to be occupied by donors, NGOs or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments. A few years […]

Exploring The Boundaries Of What A Business Can Viably Achieve

Three innovative start-up companies are pushing the boundaries of what business can achieve in delivering social goals through a commercially sustainable model. Each is building a sustainable business model with dual social and commercial returns in a space previously assumed to be occupied by donors, NGOs or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments. A few years […]

Can A Non-Agricultural Company Transform The Agricultural Value Chain?

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Stanbic Bank IBTC are large, well-established international companies in India and Nigeria respectively. One is a technology provider and the other a bank – and yet both are aiming to transform agricultural value chains. But how, you may ask. And more importantly, why? These questions are explored in two new […]

A New Role for the World Trade Organisation

The future role of the WTO will become clearer once its membership returns to the drawing board after this week’s WTO Ministerial (MC9) and reflects on the core functions and capabilities of the WTO within a rapidly changing global economy. Even if agreement on the Bali Agenda is reached, there will be implementation challenges particularly […]

Aid for Trade – A Success Story?

Aid for trade constitutes the most successful initiative that has hitherto emerged from the multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda. Donor commitment to aid for trade remains strong, even as the Members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee face financial difficulties in the wake of the 2008/9 Great Recession. Over the past decade […]

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 […]

Aid for Trade and the Post-2015 Development Agenda

The Aid-for-Trade Initiative was launched at the 2005 Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference to address supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure constraints that can prevent developing countries from converting trade opportunities into trade flows. Eight years on, at the Ninth Ministerial Conference on 3-6 December 2013 in Bali, Indonesia, we expect stakeholders to recommit to this […]

What is at Stake at this Week’s WTO Negotiations?

The Doha round of WTO trade talks that began in 2001 was getting close to the finish line in 2008, before the global financial crisis grabbed everyone’s attention. The talks became deadlocked and, by 2011, it was clear that they were at a complete standstill. Once broad negotiations have since been narrowed down to just […]

Aid for Trade – Adding Value to the Post-2015 Development Agenda

The Aid-for-Trade Initiative was launched at the 2005 Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference to address supply-side capacity and trade-related infrastructure constraints that can prevent developing countries from converting trade opportunities into trade flows. Eight years on, at the Ninth Ministerial Conference on 3-6 December 2013 in Bali, Indonesia, we expect stakeholders to recommit to this […]