challenges Archives

How Farmer Segmentation Can Strengthen Supply Chains and Better Support Smallholder Farmers

In a new report from the Farmer Income Lab and Business Fights Poverty, we provide more information about Farmer segmentation and how procuring companies and smallholder farmers can benefit from a segmentation approach.

Agriculture

November 30, 2022

Gender Equity with Rani and Deepika, IFC

What does gender equity mean? How far have we progressed towards gender equality? And how can we sensitively transfer learning from one region to another when tackling gender equity? These are just some of the questions this podcast tackles.

Corporate Impact, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Gender, Innovative Business Models, Sustainable Employment

October 19, 2022

Addressing the Future of Work for Young Africans in a Post-Covid World

This article aims to highlight the changing nature of work for young Africans that has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. This explores the state of youth unemployment on the continent and the potential for digitalisation to impact the future of work, calling on the business community and leaders to invest in skills development of youth, promoting entrepreneurial mindsets.

Youth

September 23, 2022

New Report: Women Champion Forest Conservation in Bale, Ethiopia

A new report outlines how Farm Africa and SOS Sahel Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains Eco-region REDD+ forest conservation programme in Oromia, Ethiopia has achieved impressive results in its priority objectives of reducing deforestation, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and increasing household incomes. It has also helped the community take significant strides towards advancing gender equality.

Agriculture, Climate & Environment, Climate Justice, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

September 20, 2022

Supporting Waitrose Workers in Kenya Through the Pandemic

Working with INGO Farm Africa, Waitrose & Partners Foundation provided a financial support package to give additional support to Waitrose suppliers in Kenya affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Support has included PPE, healthcare, childcare, food packages for workers on reduced earnings and helping smallholder farmers to restart the supply of vegetables.

Agriculture, Health

July 12, 2022

Boosting young Kenyan farmers’ incomes through climate-smart agriculture

A six-year partnership between Farm Africa and the supermarket Aldi UK has enabled hundreds of young farmers in western Kenya to develop thriving horticulture businesses and build their resilience to climate change. Focused on increasing production and developing value chains for young farmers, the project helped farmers increase their incomes and develop more sustainable livelihoods.

Agriculture, Climate Justice

June 13, 2022

Do procurement teams hold the key to living incomes for smallholder farmers?

Last year, Mars’ Farmer Income Lab estimated that up to 70% of the smallholder farmers in agri-food supply chains – more than 122 million people – may be living below the global poverty line of $3.20 per day. Mars, like any agri-business, relies on the work of these farmers around the world who produce the ingredients that go into our products, such as cocoa, rice and mint. This is why eradicating poverty in supply chains is a significant challenge that must be urgently addressed.

Agriculture

February 2, 2022

16 Days of Activism: Essential resources from the Business Fights Poverty resident gender expert

This year 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence kicked off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. We invited our resident Gender Expert, Alice Allan to share her top resources on how businesses can take the lead in tackling gender-based violence in the workplace.

Gender, Gender-Based Violence

November 26, 2021

16 Days of Activism: Essential resources from the Business Fights Poverty resident gender expert

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence kicked off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ran until 10 December, Human Rights Day. We invited our resident Gender Expert, Alice Allan to share her top resources on how businesses can take the lead in tackling gender-based violence in the workplace.

Gender, Gender-Based Violence

November 25, 2021

How COVID-19 has accelerated financial inclusion and reinforced the need for digitalisation

Two billion people across the globe lack access to formal financial services and approximately 90% of these live in developing countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated growth but also increased the danger that those at the very margins of society, could get left behind. A new study examines crucial lessons learned over the past 12 months from organisations striving to continue to support vulnerable people access finical services throughout the pandemic, to prevent vital progress from being undone.

Finance and Investment, Health, Technology

November 17, 2021

Refocus, retool, reset: insights from a COVID-19 rapid response & recovery programme

YBI today launches a new report ‘Refocus, Retool, Reset: Insights from Youth Business International’s COVID-19 Rapid Response & Recovery Programme’, sharing our learnings and insights from YBI’s Rapid Response and Recovery Programme, supported by Google.org and delivered by a total of 34 YBI network members and delivery partners across the EMEA, APAC and MENA regions.

Health, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Youth

November 15, 2021

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.

Climate & Environment, Health, Innovative Business Models

October 25, 2021

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.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

October 19, 2021

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.

Gender, Global Goals, Health

October 7, 2021

4 Pillars for Rebuilding Better

Over half of young people think that humanity is doomed, according to a new climate change survey. Since I was born just over 50 years ago, global surface temperatures have risen faster than in any other 50-year period over the past 2,000 years. Clearly, my generation has a lot to answer for. What is one to do in the face of such dire challenges? For business, the message from employees, customers and their other stakeholders is clear: do something.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Global Goals, Health

September 14, 2021

Gender equality and a human centric approach to the COVID-19 pandemic: Is there a link and is the fashion industry doing enough?

The World Benchmarking Alliance finds a link between major fashion brands that responded well to the COVID-19 pandemic and those that are committed to gender-equality; indicating that whilst the world is unpredictable, by moving the needle on gender equality companies can enable women to thrive in normal times, and endure the turbulent ones.

Gender

July 28, 2021

World Population and Gender Equality in the Post-Covid Era

The pandemic has caused international upheaval in terms of development aid and gender equality. At a time when especially girls and women in low- and middle-income countries need more support than ever before, it has been even more challenging to get the needed funding and assistance. What does the future hold? Experts from the UNFPA, The World Bank, and Bayer Pharmaceuticals came together to discuss.

Gender, Health

July 22, 2021

Community-based healthcare for COVID response: option or necessity?

A year into the onset of the pandemic, years of progress in health and nutrition are being upended. A community-driven response is key to delivering undisrupted, essential healthcare services to the most vulnerable across Bangladesh.

Health

July 22, 2021

Survivors of Domestic Violence Need More Than Sick Days; They Need Practical Tools to Break Free

Domestic violence is the hidden plague and it is getting worse. The impact of this violence is far reaching and can have serious consequences for both individuals and businesses alike. To combat this issue, Kona Connect has developed “Sophia”, the world’s first chatbot designed to empower domestic violence survivors globally.

Gender, Technology

July 21, 2021

Rethinking global primary healthcare worker education: the value of multi-directional learning

What does it mean to ‘build capacity’ of healthcare workers globally? We know that clinical expertise must be matched with knowledge and appreciation of context – politics, policy, economy, culture.

Health

July 21, 2021