Economic Development

Economic Development Strategies to Combat Global Poverty

Business and forest communities can work together – Kinari Webb

Communities and business can save forests explains Kinari Webb. Why stopping deforestation is about the people.
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The role of social procurement for inclusive value chains

By definition, social procurement leverages the purchasing power of companies to achieve broader social impact objectives. It goes beyond responsible sourcing which integrates and manages ESG criteria into the procurement process. Instead, it focuses on buying goods, materials, or services from social businesses with the explicit intention to create net positive impact.
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How cooperatives benefit smallholder farmers with Hileena Eshetu and Mark Blackett

Smallholder farmers and agribusiness are benefiting from market ecosystem alliances. Hileena Eshetu and Mark Blackett from AMEA explain how. Hear about cooperative farming, access to business supply chains and resilience.
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Investing in poverty reduction and global growth with Alicia Phillips Mandaville

How do you effectively spend billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to help fight global poverty? And how do you invest for climate resilience and account for the unknown such as the risks of pandemics? We hear from Alicia Phillips Mandaville who is the Vice President of the Department of Policy and Evaluation at The Millennium Challenge Corporation (the MCC)
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Why does so little funding go to women entrepreneurs, and what can we do about it?

According to the World Economic Forum, it will take over 250 years to achieve gender economic parity. Currently, only two per cent of venture capital goes to women-led startups. While investing in women entrepreneurs alone cannot fix the problem, it could help bridge this gap and reap benefits for men and women alike. What can bankers, entrepreneurs, and support organisations do to shift more capital to women entrepreneurs?
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Creating Economic Opportunity in the Northern Triangle: Breaking Down Barriers to Growth to Stimulate Recovery

The Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are among the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Fragility caused by poverty, violence and corruption are drivers of migration — exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and two back-to-back hurricanes in November 2020. A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recommends the U.S. government prioritize reforms and programs that will reduce the barriers to growth for small and medium enterprises.
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Let’s learn from local communities and step up more to create climate and social impact

An article from the latest edition of CLUED-iN, giving hands-on insights on how exactly inclusive businesses are already living up to climate and social impact expectations ahead of COP26, and what is needed to help other entrepreneurs to step up.
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Failing to Win: Lessons from an entrepreneur who went ‘all in’

After backpacking across Africa in search of changemakers building scalable, high-impact businesses, Canadian entrepreneur Mike Quinn convinced his retired parents to mortgage their house and lend him $100,000 to co-found Zoona, one of the continent’s earliest fintechs. That risk paid off big time, as Zoona went on to process $2.5 billion of transactions and generate $26 million in income for thousands of micro-entrepreneurs across Zambia and Malawi.
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The pandemic, supply chains and gendered impacts

Rita Mendez, impacts senior coordinator at ISEAL, shares the findings of a recent paper on gender and gender risks across the supply chain.
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Sustainability systems in the next decade of action on business and human rights

Vidya Rangan, impacts and evidence senior manager at ISEAL, discusses the role of sustainability systems in providing an enabling environment for the systemic change needed to holistically progress on human rights.
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Parag Khanna

Parag Khanna explores our future, providing us with a cutting-edge guide to the megatrends shaping humanity’s next decades. He dives into questions such as: where will we be living in 2050 and how will we get there?
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Addressing inequality is essential to building a sustainable food system

Sheila Senathirajah, innovations senior manager at ISEAL, discusses the importance of equality in building inclusive and fair value chains for producers.
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Active Adaptation – making progress in an uncertain world

A new report from Charities Aid Foundation and Forster Communications is urging sustainability leaders to adopt a new mindset of ‘active adaptation’ to make progress in this world of uncertainty. Building on the original ‘Bold Thinking, Brave Action’ report published in July 2020, the research highlights new enablers and inhibitors that are impacting organisational decision-making.
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Sharath Jeevan

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How to use the World Benchmarking Alliances’ social and just transition indicators

In this session, Charlotte and Sofía shared the goals of WBA’s Climate and Energy Benchmark and how companies can use WBA’s indicators to increase their ambition and action on addressing their social and climate impacts.
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How to harness partnerships to drive system-level change

Laís Higashi is President of Litre of Light Brazil and One Young World Ambassador. Litre of Light Brazil is a social organisation that provides solar solutions to low income communities without adequate access to electricity. In this session, Laís explained why partnerships are critical for the initiative she leads and shared the practical challenges of developing system-level change.
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COVID-19 recovery: Why childcare must be part of the plan

As countries struggle to address the economic and health costs of COVID-19, finding solutions for mothers in informal employent will be important. Governments, donors, and businesses will need to invest in care — and will need to know what works and what doesn’t in reaching the most vulnerable families.
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How to implement effective grievance mechanisms

Monica Romis is Private Sector Human Rights Advisor at Oxfam Business Advisory Service. In this session, Monica speaks about grievance mechanisms, and references good practices that can help companies move in the right direction.
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How businesses can – and must – step up to create just and regenerative food systems

As the global Food Systems Summit arrives, Lesley Mitchell, international non-profit Forum for the Future’s Associate Director for Sustainable Nutrition, explores what it will take to transform how we produce and consume food – and the role of business in stepping up to the challenge.
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Regenerative Agriculture: Growing Pains

Agriculture is not working for people or the planet. The statistics are startling. 78% of the world’s poorest people remain reliant on agriculture, 33% of the world’s soils are degraded (a figure that could rise to 90% by 2050) and agriculture contributes to about a quarter of global climate emissions (stats from the World Bank, the FAO and the IPCC respectively). There is an emerging consensus that we need to move to a more regenerative food system.
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What do we mean by "Economic Development"?

Explore how economic growth can significantly reduce poverty through innovative business initiatives and strategic planning. Join us in making a difference.

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