Innovation in Inclusive Business
The World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation did a detailed study of the BOP around the world and estimated that the market is about $5trillion in purchasing power parity. Is this a large untapped market or a fuzzy mish mash of expectations that just cannot be profitably or sustainably exploited? Is the glass […]
Poverty-Focused Innovation: How to Foster Financial Innovation by Creating Agency for the Poor
Grameen Foundation has a proud heritage rooted in one of the most successful financial innovations of our time – microfinance – as pioneered by Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank. Since Grameen Foundation’s founding in 1997, we have continued to adapt to the needs and capabilities of the global poor, focusing on how financial inclusion […]
7 Trends Shaping Africa’s Youth Employment Challenge
In 2001, Charles Maisel started a social enterprise because he saw potential in the young men who sit on the roadside in South Africa’s townships waiting to be hired for a day’s labor. He then flipped the problem into a solution. Charles understood the barriers: the short-term and unreliable nature of employment in the informal […]
Innovating for Inclusive Business- Introducing the "Innovation Insider"
The World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation did a detailed study of the BOP around the world and estimated that the market is about $5trillion in purchasing power parity. Is this a large untapped market or a fuzzy mish mash of expectations that just cannot be profitably or sustainably exploited? Is the glass […]
Innovating for Inclusive Business- Introducing the “Innovation Insider”
The World Resources Institute and the International Finance Corporation did a detailed study of the BOP around the world and estimated that the market is about $5trillion in purchasing power parity. Is this a large untapped market or a fuzzy mish mash of expectations that just cannot be profitably or sustainably exploited? Is the glass […]
Partnerships: The Best Hope of Transforming the Future
Many companies, like those who attended the recent event in New York (watch the video below) on “A New Global Partnership with Business”, are actively thinking about their role in helping deliver the Post-2015 sustainable development agenda. And that contribution is huge. In his speech to the General Assembly, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, recognized […]
The Decade of Design: The Global Urban Solutions Challenge
To architects, it seems self-evident: good design can improve human well-being. But clients and communities are asking for more, including proof of the relationship of design, planning, and public health. In 2012, the American Institute of Architects and partners made a CGI Commitment to Action to establish the Decade of Design: Global Urban Solutions Challenge. […]
It is time for a learning revolution in Africa
Africa’s educational challenges are not fundamentally different from those of the rest of the world, although they are more basic and urgent – and they can, at times, feel more overwhelming. A recent study by the Brookings Institution revealed that more than half of the world’s out-of-school primary-aged children live in Sub-Saharan Africa and only […]
Financing the Missing Middle: Small Business Finance in Africa
which has established a specialised small business leasing institution in Tanzania. Madeleine was one of the winners of the G20 SME Finance Challenge. She previously worked in the UK venture capital industry, and is a former McKinsey consultant. She spoke at the recent Business Action for Africa, DFID, IDS event in London. The missing middle […]
Save the Children Looks to Scale Up its Business Partnerships
Save The Children has had a long standing relationship with a number of corporates since its inception. Historically that relationship was predominately a traditional CSR relationship where businesses gave us a grant to either to contribute to our core costs as an organisation, or to implement a project in a specific country around health, education, […]
How Farmer Producer Organisations Can Become a Recipe for Success
Besides some notable exceptions, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) are born prodded by someone else than the producers themselves having realised the need. These top down nature of formation of FPOs is necessary as otherwise these organisation may not come into being. The associated rationality of economy of scale, bargaining power to the producers and higher […]
From Money to Meaning and Three Themes in Between
The Future is Yours
Every day, when watching the news, we see pictures of famine and floods, droughts and demonstrations, confronting us with the effects of increasing resource scarcity, climate change, food security, civil unrest and poverty. We see the increasing numbers of people left behind. Many wonder how on earth we are going to address all these challenges. […]
Is Your Organisation Fit to Partner?
Solving today’s complex sustainable development challenges requires multi-sector collaboration and an all-of-society approach. However, whilst such shared value partnerships (simultaneously achieving business and societal benefits) are often hailed as “the answer,” practitioners can find them challenging and at times frustrating. One of the most widespread hidden barriers is a lack of internal institutional capacity for […]
Challenges and Lessons in Selling Nutritious Foods to the Poor
Following the Nutrition for Growth event in June and the expansion of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, there is more interest than ever in using markets to tackle undernutrition, especially the so-called ‘hidden hunger’ of micronutrient deficiencies. Some big businesses are trying to make low-cost products that are fortified with key nutrients, […]
Youth Unemployment in Sierra Leone
The high rate of youth unemployment is one of the challenges the Business Booster is designed to tackle. Now that my time in Sierra Leone is almost over, having spent 10 weeks surrounded by locals at home, in the office and during my free time, and inspired by the theft of my laptop two days […]
The Business Case for Scaling Up Nutrition: Seizing the Moment
The huge political momentum generated this year has elevated the involvement of business in scaling up nutrition towards the top of the global development agenda. Arguably, there’s never been a better time for business to scale up its efforts to combat undernutrition. The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has just welcomed the 41st country to […]
The 3 Most Common Misconceptions About Business and Human Rights
Human rights remains a topic that companies may reference perfunctorily in their codes of conduct, but few really seem to understand. In their defence, this is in part because, first, best practice standards on business and human rights are often nascent at best, and, second, human rights tend to expressed in a nearly impenetrable mass […]
5 Steps to Developing a More Efficient and Ethical Supply Chain
It has been less than three months since the most recent factory collapse occurred in Bangladesh, and the fashion community has taken many steps to prevent such future tragedies since the collapse. For those of you who are looking to become part of the solution, here’s a quick guide to building a healthy value-chain based […]
Need or Want? New BIF Insider on Creating Demand at the Base of the Pyramid
Understanding what poor people purchase with their very limited resources, and why, is notoriously difficult. Those of us reading or writing about this are unlikely to have ever experienced anything like the life situation that drives these decisions. We can enter a poor person’s home and wonder why they have a television, when they are […]