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Business UNusual

Business UNusual, a collaborative publication of the United Nations Global Compact Office and the Global Public Policy Institute, provides an overview of recent partnership activities in the United Nations, as well as the challenges the UN faces in its efforts to engage the private sector and...

WBCSD Annual Review 2010/2011

WBCSD’s 2010/2011 Annual Review looks back at the activities carried out in the past year and reflects on the challenges ahead. The review uses Vision 2050 as the red thread to show how the WBCSD’s work programme aligns with the pathway it describes, and the role of business in moving toward a...

Doing Business with the World: The New Role of Corporate Leadership in Global Development

Doing Business with the World, a publication of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), describes how companies can contribute to global sustainable development through their core businesses in a way that is profitable for the companies and good for development.

BBC micro enterprise article: "Tales of Africa's entrepreneurs"

BBC News Online says that while the world's leaders are "thrashing out strategies to improve the plight of the poor in Africa", many aid agencies are stressing that genuine progress must come from "small-scale projects as well as large international initiatives". The article then tells the tale of...

Harvard Business Page: Micro enterprise article

In this HBS Working Knowledge interview, Senior Research Fellow Jed Emerson, co-author of a new book on nonprofits, discusses the challenges of the community-based enterprise.

BBC article: So Afr-Eco Community Upliftment Project (SAECUP)

SAECUP is a non-profit organisation established a decade ago in South Africa to provide refuge for poor women and children. This BBC article explains the history behind SAECUP, and includes an interview with the founder. Over 130 woman are involved in a micro enterprise project, which transforms...

Promoting Small and Medium Enterprises for Sustainable Development

Promoting Small and Medium Enterprises for Sustainable Development, a paper published by the WCSD, discusses the way in which governments can help alleviate poverty by focusing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and how larger corporations can help themselves by including SMEs in their value...

Standards of Corporate Social Responsibility

Standards of Corporate Social Responsibility, established by the Social Venture Network, are defined in terms of nine interrelated topics. There are three general topics: ethics, accountability, and governance; and, six topics related to each stakeholder group: investors, employees, business...

Principles for Responsible Investment

The Principles for Responsible Investment provide the framework for investment professionals to incorporate environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues into the management of investment portfolios. Investors fulfilling their fiduciary (or equivalent) duty therefore need to give...

Code of Ethics of the South African NGO Coalition

Code of Ethics of the South African NGO Coalition is written to focus NGOs in redressing inequality and improving the lives of all people in South Africa. This code has six sections covering values, governance, accountability, management and human resources, finance and resources.

People at the heart of sustainable business - the IBLF Annual Review 2008-9

The IBLF annual review examines the way in which the Forum has been contributing to the development of sustainable business, arguing that the members of the Forum are leaders in this field, and that IBLF has a particular understanding of the way in which business solutions can contribute to...

Business and the millennium development goals: a framework for action

This report provides a framework for action on how companies and business coalitions can work with the UN system, governments, and civil society organisations to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at making globalisation a more positive force for more of the world's people.

Through an initiative of ASGN, micro-credit and tourism save giraffes in Niger

ASGN (the Association to Safeguard the Giraffes of Niger) used grants from the Wildlife Protection Foundation in the UK and from the Zoo de Doue in France to set up a successful micro-credit scheme.

Microcredit : a success-story from Nepal

Mahila Sahayogi Sahakari Sanstha (MSSS), a micro-credit provider in Nepal help the women in the country earn money by providing micro credit loans. The employees of the micro-finance institution come to their doorsteps to provide them credit and the borrowers do not have to offer their property as...

Fighting poverty through micro-credit

Mr Wolfonsohn said micro-finance had made a powerful impact on improving poor people's livelihood and was crucial in reducing poverty in poor countries.

Micro Credit or Dignity Funds in Tunisia

ENDA helped Mohsen, a young man in Tunisia, to start his business though micro-credit. ENDA was founded as a multi-sectoral development microfinance institution focusing on environment, health, education, and youth activities in Tunisia.

Extending women enterpreneurship in India

To reach populations in remote areas, Hindustan Unilever has recruited and trained women in rural areas to act as direct sales operators. This led to the creation of Project Shakti in India which is now being extended to other countries as well.

Freedom from Hunger’s Benkadi Tongorongo association provides micro loans and group support in Mali

In rural Mali, Miama sells rice to support her family, thanks to both a microloan and the group support she receives from Freedom from Hunger's Benkadi Tongorongo association.

A Ghanaian story about how a small loan can change lives

Sinapi Aba Trust helps Akosua, a housekeeper in Ghana, prosper in her business though microfinance. After years of knocking on doors to sell pastries, a small loan changed everything for Akosua.

Using Microcredit Loans to Help to Lift the Poor Out of Poverty

Many institutions around the world are turning to microfinance both as a strategy to help lift the poor out of the poverty trap and to make a decent return on investment.