eKutir’s mobile app Blooom is giving smallholder farmers access to information, finance, sustainable inputs, services and markets, helping them increase productivity.
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NEW DEHLI, India – Indian social enterprise eKutir has joined Business Call to Action with a commitment to improve the livelihoods of 1 million farmers in five countries by helping them access the tools they need to increase production – and thus profit – through its farmer-centric e-platform Blooom by 2022. It also aims to create 1,100 economic opportunities as Blooom Entrepreneurs for rural women and men.
By Justine Humbert, Biodiversity & Sustainable Ingredients Specialist, L’OCCITANE EN PROVENCE
Blog
It's quite something to be invited to New York to speak at the Business Call to Action Annual Forum. And it's a huge responsibility too, because I want to do justice to the women of Burkina Faso who work so hard to make shea butter for L'OCCITANE. Without them, I wouldn't have a success story to tell.
It was a humbling experience to meet these women in Burkina Faso and see how they live and work. From gathering the shea nuts through all the stages involved in making shea butter, it's a long, laborious process. I have nothing but respect for them.
Nazila Vali, Deputy Team Lead, Business Call to Action
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All companies starting an inclusive business want to reach scale, but how often do they examine their own management practices as a means of attaining it? Two years ago, we started our journey into inclusive business management practices by asking ourselves this precise question.
By Nazila Vali, Deputy Team Lead, Business Call to Action and Sahba Sobhani, Senior Private Sector Advisor at UNDP
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It’s only been 10 years since the concept of well-being and its measurement as a component of a country’s GDP was developed and discussed globally. Nobel Prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen were the pioneers who argued for the need for an array of carefully-chosen figures, with a better understanding of the role of each of those numbers.
The potential for multinational companies to tackle global issues such as poverty, climate change and gender inequality is immense. With their reach, they have the ability to transform low income markets through innovative business approaches and help lift millions – even billions – out of poverty. Inclusive business is one such model, but numerous internal barriers are preventing multinationals from adopting or scaling this approach.
NEW YORK, September 27, 2019 /3BL Media/ - Overcoming global challenges such as poverty and climate change demand a collective effort – no longer can tackling these issues be considered just the domain of development actors. Recognizing this, leading inclusive business actors gathered today to share their ideas on how innovation, collaboration and emerging models can bring new solutions to these intractable, yet urgent, issues at Business Call to Action’s 9th Annual Forum.
By Teresa Law, Mountain Hazelnuts Blog by Co-founder and CFO
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Peter Henry, Dean Emeritus of NYU’S Stern School of Business once said, “You can actually make a lot of money and do a lot of good in the world.”
That’s the motivation behind the business model of Mountain Hazelnuts. To make things even more interesting, we want to create a transformative model in a remarkable part of the world – the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
By Wilma Rodrigues, Saahas Zero Waste Founder and CEO
Blog
These days I am often introduced as a social entrepreneur. I am not sure this tag enthuses me: I believe that the original purpose for setting up an industry or business is public good and by that measure all businesses should be social businesses.
Unfortunately in the last century, shareholder value became the dominant narrative for a successful business. Consequently today the management and employees in companies are driven by profitability above everything else.
"I want to free myself from those who control the prices of our products." This is what Paco, an artisanal fisherman, told me one of the first times I spoke with him in the Pisco Cove, in southern Peru.
Every day Paco returns late after a long day at work at sea. But every time he arrives at port, he doesn't know how much he’ll receive for his valuable fish or seafood. Despite his hard work, he is often not paid as he deserves.
By Sahba Sobhani, acting Head of Business Call to Action (BCtA), Aimee Brown, BCtA Communications Lead, and Nazila Vali, Deputy Head of BCtA
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“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” said Sir Isaac Newton in 1675.
Over three centuries later, his recognition that nothing great is achieved in isolation is more relevant than ever. Would Steve Jobs have been able to transform his ideas into reality without a team around him? What relevance would Google have had without those who invented the internet?
