Everything we do at Business Fights Poverty is driven by a belief in the power of purposeful collaboration – the simple idea that when you bring together the right people around a clear, shared challenge, with a focus on delivering a tangible, valuable output in a clear timeframe, you create the space for generating powerful insights and deeper relationships.
Since we started on our journey in 2005, we have learnt a great deal about collaboration. Most important is the understanding of the huge potential that lies in connecting practitioners and experts across sectors, organisations and geographies. We are grateful for the engagement of our network of over 20,000 professionals and close to 100 content partners.
We encourage you to get involved – whether that is sharing your insights and stories through an article for our website, creating a community profile to help others connect with you, joining one of our monthly online discussions, attending one of our many in-person gatherings, or joining one our collaborative Challenges.
Our Challenge approach brings together people from across our community and beyond who are passionate about tackling specific societal issues. Each Challenge starts by convening the best people from (and beyond) our global network; co-creating a solution through an interactive process of engagement and analysis that leads to a valuable output within a clear timeframe of 3 to 9 months; and communicating the outputs in a targeted way.
We have run nearly 20 Challenges in the last couple of years on a wide variety of topics ranging from farmer livelihoods to corporate social innovation, from advocacy partnerships to scaling inclusive distribution models.
I am excited to say that we are launching new Challenges focused on:
- What role can business play in tackling gender-based violence?
- What can large businesses do to strengthen SME ecosystems in frontier markets?
- How can we build transformational corporate-NGO partnerships?
- How can we embed purpose authentically into business?
I’ve included more detail on each of these below, with a link to “join” the Challenge to hear about opportunities to get involved and stay up-to-date with progress. Do you have practical tools, lessons or a case study that you would like to share? Please get in touch – we are looking for articles to publish over the course of the Challenges.
We are also exploring potential Challenges on ethical recruitment, gender equality across the value chain, farmer livelihoods, impact measurement, and inclusive business innovation. If you have a new idea, please get in touch!
If you work for a university, think tank or NGO, please consider joining us as a Content Partner. If you are looking to showcase the work you are doing or share your ideas with the business and sustainable development community, becoming a Content Partner is a unique opportunity to build a meaningful conversation with our audience of professionals.
If you work for a company, please get in touch to see whether we can help you access fresh solutions to complex implementation challenges, build meaningful relationships with peers and stakeholders, or develop new stand-out, thought leadership on a priority issue.
We look forward to collaborating over the coming weeks and months!
New Challenges and How to Get Involved
What role can business play in tackling gender-based violence?
It is widely recognised that gender-based violence (GBV) has numerous negative consequences on society, and involves a set of complex issues such as power relations, social norms and values, culture and access to education and healthcare. A wide variety of initiatives and campaigns have been launched in an attempt to reduce incidences of GBV and its effects. Companies have also responded by joining movements and introducing policies, but GBV still has a high prevalence.
This Challenge, in partnership with the International Finance Corporation and CARE International UK, will aim to deepen business understanding of the issue of GBV, and explore what more they can do, based on practical case studies and evidence. Ultimately, we aim to help companies develop and deliver commitments on GBV.
The output will be a business guide with actionable insights that companies can take into their business on why and how businesses can tackle GBV, with lessons from concrete examples and practical tools and resources. We will also mobilise business voices in support of wider action, including in the context of the proposed ILO Convention on ending violence and harassment. The Challenge will run until December.
Join the Challenge here for updates on opportunities to engage with others and share your insights.
Join the online written discussion on 28 March (3pm GMT / 10am EST) by clicking here.
What can large businesses do to strengthen MSME ecosystems in frontier markets?
Large businesses operating in frontier markets rely on many micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in their extended value chain: as direct suppliers, distributors, customers and providers of complementary products or services. As these small businesses can find it difficult to engage and/or deliver on time and at the quality needed, large businesses have an incentive to invest in strengthening their effectiveness and efficiency through, for example, training or finance. This Challenge, in partnership with Endeva, Bayer, Visa, Small Foundaton and Vitol Foundation, will explore how companies can increase the effectiveness of their support by taking an “ecosystems” approach to MSME development.
An ecosystems approach starts from an understanding of the multiple external constraints an MSMEs faces – such as difficulties in accessing finance, weak infrastructure, regulatory burdens, and capacity or information constraints – and then working, often in partnership, to tackle these. In some cases, the company may choose to go further and target MSMEs beyond their own value chains and/or focus on strengthening the wider system, such as the financial or regulatory system.
The output will be practical business guidance on why, when and how to take an ecosystems approach to MSME development Through the process we aim to identify specific partnering opportunities. The Challenge will run until October.
Join the Challenge here for updates on opportunities to engage with others and share your insights.
Join the online written discussion on 16 May (3pm GMT / 10am EST) by clicking here.
How can we build transformational corporate-NGO partnerships?
Cargill and CARE’s 50-year partnership offers insights and lessons for anyone looking to build an effective and long- term partnership. This Challenge, in partnership with Cargill and CARE USA, seeks to draw on how this and other corporate-NGO partnerships have evolved from primarily philanthropic relationships to ones that genuinely draw on the capabilities, skills and resources of the partners. The Challenge will include in-person and online events.
The output will pull together insights around a briefing paper that explores what the benefits (and challenges) have been and distils lessons for scaling and creating lasting impact through corporate-NGO partnerships. The Challenge will run until July.
Join the Challenge here for updates on opportunities to engage with others and share your insights.
Join the online written discussion on 21 February (3pm GMT / 10am EST) by clicking here.
How can we embed purpose authentically into business?
There is a clear and deepening frustration amongst some with the rhetoric of “purpose”, “sustainability” and the notion of “business as a force for good”. For those of us who believe in the power of business to do good, this is an opportunity for some honest self-reflection.
The common ground between those within the business and purpose world, and those who criticise it, is the desire for authenticity; the recognition that we need to move beyond the rhetoric of purpose and embed it meaningfully and consistently across business.
This Challenge will explore how we embed purpose authentically within business. The output will be practical guidance to business on how to embed purpose authentically into business. The Challenge will run until end of the July, and will be a central theme of Business Fights Poverty Oxford on 11 July.
Join the Challenge here for updates on opportunities to engage with others and share your insights.
Join the online written discussion on 11 July (all day, from 9am UK time) by clicking here.