BCtA Newsletter | Innovations That Improve Lives
Read the full version and sign up to receive BCtA's quarterly Newsletter here.
IN BRIEF:
Watch: How Inclusive Business is improving lives in Kenya
What is inclusive business, and how does it work in the context of Kenya? BCtA members and inclusive business actors from SOLARKIOSK, Vava Coffee, Jacaranda Health, Equity Bank and Alternatives Africa answer these questions in this short video by Business Call to Action.
Mobisol Provides Off-grid Energy to 500,000 in East Africa
BCtA member Mobisol, a Germany-based provider of decentralized solar solutions, reached a milestone of providing off-grid electricity to over 500,000 people in East Africa to date. The company also fights global climate change by offsetting 50,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per year through smart rent-to-own solar systems, benefitting communities in Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya.
NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT:
UPCOMING EVENTS:
CBi Annual Event and Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week
BCTA IMPACT MEASUREMENT CASE STUDIES:
- Medtronic (India)
- Saraya East Africa (Uganda)
- ONergy Solar (India)
- Tolaro Global (Benin)
- L’OCCITANE (Burkina Faso)
- Akashganga (India)
- Centurion Systems (Kenya)
The latest studies arepart of a series of BIMS case studies, a BCtA initiative that demonstrates how inclusive businesses can measure and apply impact data. In 2016 and 2017, BIMS has provided 21 participating BCtA member companies with technical expertise and technology to design and implement survey-based data collection for assessing their operational and social performance. BIMS is implemented by BCtA with support from implementing providers Arthify and Echo Mobile.
More case studies are forthcoming. Read more on Impact Practice page.
NEW IMPACT MEASUREMENT SERVICES:
We are expanding our support on impact measurement to inclusive businesses by developing an online mediated impact measurement lab. The lab, which will be accessible to both member and non-member companies, is designed to guide companies throughout the impact measurement process based on four steps: assessing impact measurement readiness; designing an impact framework; monitoring impact data; and analysing data. Through this lab, we are aiming to help more businesses in the process of identifying the right tools for collecting and analysing data on their social and environmental performance to inform their business decisions.
The lab will be a mix of automated, self-driven modules, accompanied by an active service-based engagement with customized feedback and reinforcement provided by BCtA. Online modules will be accessible to any users for free of charge, but the hands-on services will be provided to a limited number of users.
The initial version of the Lab will be launched in early 2018. We will provide regular updates on our progress on our Impact Practice page on our website. Please check periodically!
BLOG: PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS
by Paula Pelaez, BCtA Programme Manager
The Sustainable Development Goals present a powerful universal framework to improve the lives of all the people on the planet. The goals provide ambitious targets across a range of themes, from women’s empowerment and climate change to reducing poverty. If they are achieved by their target year of 2030, we will have collectively succeeded in making the world a more equitable, stable and prosperous place.
While many of the SDGs represent the ‘what’ we will achieve – a reduction in poverty rates, improved gender equality, better access to quality healthcare and education – SDG 17 represents the ’how’. Without collaboration, ideas and skills sharing, and ‘sharing the load’, so to speak, individual actors striving to achieve any of the SDGs run the risk of operating in silos, becoming overburdened, and thus not being able to guarantee that their gains will be sustainable.
What SDG 17 does is open up opportunities for actors to have wider impact by working collaboratively with others, expanding reach, scale and influence. Nowhere is this more evident than in the private sector. Although not a traditional development actor, the potential for public-private partnerships to exponentially increase SDG impact is increasingly being recognised.
NEW FLAGSHIP REPORT: COLOMBIA
We launched the third in our country-focused inclusive business report series, New Horizons: Accelerating Sustainable Development through Inclusive Business in Colombia, in Bogota, Colombia to an audience of private sector actors, donors, government and UN agency representatives on 30 November 2017.
The new report, which joins previous reports published in Kenya and the Philippines this year, outlines the role that private sector can play in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and improving the lives of low income Colombians.
The report finds that with over a quarter of all Colombians living below the poverty line, efforts to tackle poverty and improve living, working and health conditions must be stepped up if Colombia is to achieve its SDG commitments by 2030. In his opening remarks, UNDP Colombia Country Director Pablo Ruiz highlighted the important role that companies can play – especially in their ability to innovate to address issues of poverty and social impact – as key players in achieving the SDGs in Colombia.
Read the full version and sign up to receive BCtA's quarterly Newsletter here.
