Prioritise impact ahead of growth and get investors involved from day one. Mira Zaghbour shares insights from Oxfam’s work to support impact-driven small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the globe.
Profit and planet can go together – and impact-driven enterprises are showing us how
Thai Nguyen and Windy Massabni on three ways an Oxfam business development programme has supported hundreds of firms across the globe to boost their social and environmental impact
Challenges to Social Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in the MENA Region
Social entrepreneurship (SE) has gained significant interest and recognition in the past few years. Social entrepreneurs are tackling social and environmental challenges with innovative sustainable solutions, thus combining business with social impact. Social entrepreneurship in the southern Mediterranean region has the potential to invigorate local economies as well as to promote regional stability by activating positive synergies among economic sectors and …
Unlocking social entrepreneurship’s transformative potential for gender justice
On Social and Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, we celebrate the women who are innovating every day to respond to the problems they face in their communities, challenging a system that is stacked against them. Social entrepreneurship (SE), as a tool to drive inclusive growth and development, is a growing trend globally and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. …
Lessons in innovative financing for creating employment in the Middle East and North Africa
Background Emerging market economies face a significant credit gap and access to finance is considered the biggest obstacle for enterprises. Banks have been the traditional source of funding, but the financial crisis has led banks to be even more reluctant, which is creating an active debate about the importance of broadening the range of funding options available beyond banks. Such …
A fairer way to do business?
What if business could put people before profit? Oxfam’s Future of Business Initiative is promoting alternatives to the shareholder first model of business, as Alex Maitland explains. Oxfam has a long history of challenging the economic structures that keep people in poverty. Our Even It Up and Food and Climate campaigns demonstrate that inequality, in-work poverty and climate change are …
What alternative business models do we need to help beat poverty?
[buzzsprout episode=’2559217′ player=’true’] Erinch Sahan, Chief Executive of the World Fairtrade Organisation speaks to Sophi Tranchell, CEO of Divine Chocolate and Lisa Dacanay, President of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia. They share their experiences in social enterprises and alternative business models which are working right now to help make business fairer. This podcast was recorded ahead of Oxfam’s Future of …
Reimagining business to tackle inequality
Erinch Sahan explains why the current reality of mainstream business isn’t cutting the mustard when it comes to tackling inequality. Inequality is spiralling to absurd levels. Our economies are generating vast wealth but it is channelled to a tiny minority of people. Since the turn of the century, the poorest half of the world’s population has received just one percent of …