Understanding Local Markets Can Create Green Jobs and Improved Livelihoods in African Cities
Understanding Local Markets Can Create Green Jobs and Improved Livelihoods in African Cities Halima Awol, a 30-year-old mother of two, is a hard worker and does everything she can to provide for her family. However, despite her best efforts and strong work ethic, the most she was able to earn was 2,800 Ethiopian birr–barely more […]
From Zero to Hero: Establishing the Commercial Mung Bean Sector in Indonesia
From Zero to Hero: Establishing the Commercial Mung Bean Sector in Indonesia The mighty mung beans generate a triple benefit for smallholder farmers — additional income, affordable nutrient-rich food, and increased soil fertility. They’re also low maintenance, have minimal production costs, and a short growing time. It’s no surprise that they’re a popular crop, with […]
Women Smallholders Will Drive Africa’s Transition to Regenerative Agriculture
An estimated 140 million people in Africa are facing acute food insecurity[1], yet, in Kenya alone, 50% of all productive soil is badly degraded. Worse still, because of record droughts, half of Kenyan farmers have harvested nothing in the last four seasons. Regenerative agriculture techniques offer the world’s poorest farmers a lifeline, restoring soils and […]
Millers Change the Game for Food Fortification
Food fortification has been recognized as a highly effective intervention to counter malnutrition, and it has been the subject of events and commitments at the Davos World Economic Forums before. But millers – shorthand for the food processors who produce fortified staples, including rice, flour and oil – have not historically been at the centre […]
Seafood’s Social Justice Problem: How to Better Share the Benefits of Aquatic Foods
The global fish and seafood sector – the world’s fastest growing food-producing industry – is at a crisis point. The narrow pursuit of profit has led not only to unsustainable growth but to the exclusion of entire communities, undermining social justice, mobility and progress. Three countries – China, Norway and Peru – account for almost a quarter of […]
Women Cotton Farmers and Climate Solutions
I was very happy to be a part of Business Fights Poverty’s Climate Justice Summit. The topic of conversation – gender equity and its role in combatting climate change – is one of the most pertinent subjects. And it got me seriously thinking about the work we’re doing at CottonConnect, and how we can boost […]
Walking for Climate Justice: Community Voices Share their Desperation and Sparks of Hope.
“My own state of mind synthesises these two feelings and transcends them: my mind is pessimistic, but my will is optimistic. Whatever the situation, I imagine the worst that could happen in order to summon up all my reserves and will power to overcome every obstacle.” Antonio Gramsci -From the Prison. I am a climate […]
How Farmer Segmentation Can Strengthen Supply Chains and Better Support Smallholder Farmers
Around the world, there are 35 million smallholder farming households participating in global supply chains. Yet, the contributions of smallholder farmers to the global economy are deeply undervalued. Despite playing a critical role in our daily lives and in our economy, as many as 24 million of those households, more than 122 million people in […]
Farmers Hold the Key to the Climate Crisis – If Only World Leaders at COP27 Would Listen
In many ways, the seaside resort town of Sharm El Sheikh is a compelling backdrop for a global climate change conference. Perched on the south-eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula, it is bordered by pristine coral reefs on one side and arid desert on the other – a perfect reminder of the delicate equilibrium that […]
Why Businesses Must Focus on Putting People at the Heart of Climate Action Strategies
We’ve heard many pledges by businesses and governments to go further, create real and lasting change in cocoa supply chains, and ensure a better future for farming communities and our climate. However, turning those promises into action remains a challenge. Across the world, cocoa-growing communities face daily struggles from low prices to climate fluctuations, resulting […]