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Value Chains

Natural disasters cost corporations $400 billion in 2011, UN says

Environmental disasters not only cripple smallholder farmers, they also mean high costs for the corporations at the buying end of the supply chain. A forthcoming UN report will show just how detrimental those costs can be.

A Mexican weaver stands behind his loom. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28703188@N02/4204678905/">Knoxville Museum of Art</a>

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Value Chains

As youth artisans struggle, NGOs beef up business training

A new generation of artisans in the Global South are getting entrepreneurial training with their craft skills.

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Social Enterprise

Renewable energy gone wrong: a cautionary tale for impact investors

Acción Energía’s controversial wind farm on Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec shows the dark side of “positive social investments” that ignore their impact on the local community.

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Mobile Technology

Mobile money soars across borders, but not between banks

Over 12 billion dollars in remittances are sent each year via mobile phones. But mobile providers must embrace the next big innovation: interoperability.

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Quotable: Coca Cola CEO on cracking the code for growth

The key to solving the employment issues and, better still, the key to cracking the code for growth—because growth will bring employment to the world—will be generating new models, new models about business opportunities.

Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/abufaiqa/4434157815/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Salim Photography (Flickr)</a>

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Mobile Technology

From designer crops to social stocks: Our top five posts of 2012

It's holiday season here at Mercy Corps headquarters—time for the Global Envision team to look back on our work this year and look to what's next.

Rural Vietnamese hope to benefit from community latrines. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wanhoff/2684767918/sizes/z/in/photostream/"> Flickr </a>

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Value Chains

Unilever will train rural Vietnamese to build demand for toilets

Unilever is rejecting the latrine handout model in favor of a sanitation market sourced and supported wholly by local entrepreneurs.

Like this farmer in Kenya, the challenge in Tanzania is connecting smallholder farmers to larger markets. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5366702717/sizes/z/">CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture</a>

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Value Chains

How a Tanzania NGO scrapped grants to build markets that last

When it comes to solving poverty, sometimes the best way to get more done is to move out of the driver's seat.

Kenyan smallholder farmers. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/38476503@N08/5367334314/">Photo: CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Four ways to make contract farming work for the very poor

Will contract farming, done right, serve as the missing link between small farmers and markets?

The World Bank"/>

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Mobile Technology

Follow the [mobile?] money

According to a new World Bank report, most remittances are flowing to India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Nigeria, most of it in cold, hard cash.

Kevin Spencer (flickr)"/>

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Value Chains

Why the biggest brand sometimes isn't the best innovation partner

A new case study of the Ethiopian bean industry includes a depressing anecdote reminding us that innovation rarely starts at the top of the market.

Two Kenyan school boys play soccer. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/teachandlearn/2861273492/sizes/l/in/photostream/">Teachandlearn (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

UK retailer John Lewis is the latest to implemement a buy one, donate one program in Africa - with a twist

A small African company that got its seed money from a grant has just received a major endorsement. Alive & Kicking will now have their brand, Balls for Africa, sold by a major retailer in the UK.

World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)"/>

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Value Chains

As Chinese farming goes global, some see risks

The reorientation of Chinese agriculture to an export-centric model is creating unprecedented domestic growth, but there may be a hidden cost to developing nations.

Global companies like Ford are finding that social responsibility programs are key tools for building staff satisfaction, but it's just the start. Photo:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fordapa/3940121012/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Ford APA(flickr)</a>

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Social Enterprise

More than ever, CSR is a business advantage, not just charity: Nine

Corporate social responsibility used to be about improving a company’s image, but a fundamental shift is well underway. CSR is quickly becoming a major factor in companies' core business strategies—and a marketplace advantage.

Kenyan flower farmers are making more money thanks to a new middleman. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2629345354/">Photo: World Bank (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Your Walmart bouquet may have been grown by these Kenyan farmers

Flower growers in Kenya have plenty to sell, but no buyers. Meanwhile big-box retailers in the U.S. and UK want more flowers. New research reveals that a middleman connecting them could be profitable for both.