Publication database

This report describes the design of a Behavioural Change Communications (BCC) campaign to promote improved cooking stoves in Kakuma town, Kakuma refugee camp and Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, and the experiences and key learnings of the first six months of BCC campaign implementation (June to December 2021).

The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) launched the Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund (AWEF) in 2019 with support from the Visa Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The overall goal of AWEF-funded projects is to address the gender financing gap for women-owned small and growing businesses (SGBs) in developing economies. The first round of grantmaking, AWEF Asia, funded eight entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) in Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, Pakistan, and India, as well as programs serving the region as a whole. This report summarizes the lessons learned from these grants.

Between November 2018 and November 2019, Gates Foundation and Mars Edge discussed collaboration opportunities to accelerate the urban go-to-market strategy of Mars Edge’s nutritious savory snack GoMo™, specifically designed to help address nutritional deficiencies of 6-18 year olds in India, with a focus on reaching low-income consumers. The Growth for Growth (G4G) network of service providers set up by the Foundation’s PSP program co-designed this strategy to reach lower-income urban areas. In December 2019, the PSP approved a grant to assess and adapt the model during a market test. As part of the grant, the collaboration between G4G and Mars then continued until December 2020. This case study aims to share the lessons learned throughout this journey, in terms of public-private collaboration and innovation process.

Conexsus supports small farmers associations and cooperatives that work under a income-generating model that preserves standing forest and other biomes. It focuses on three lines of action: business model, market access, and impact finance.

Fomento Social Banamex is the philanthropic arm of Citibanamex Mexico, and its goal is to reduce inequality in Mexico. It promotes capacity-building for social organizations to better meet the needs of marginalized communities living in poverty. Under this scheme and through its strategic partners, it has supported Unión Majomut, a cooperative of coffee farmers from Chiapas, so that it partakes in the entire value chain and earns a higher income for partner families.

Argidius Foundation supports small and mediumsized enterprises to improve the quality of life of the population living in poverty by promoting entrepreneurship ecosystems that involve strategic partners. To this end, Argidius has supported Thriive (in Guatemala), an organization that provides institutional strengthening and equipment acquisition services to small and medium-sized enterprises, under a “repay the community” model.

What if world-leading organizations teamed up to develop, experiment with, and scale technology and business solutions to global poverty? This report is a reflection of the Practical Impact Alliance (PIA)’s journey and what MIT D-Lab learned from building and supporting the PIA network. The insights are also relevant for other intrapreneurs, practitioners, and network operators seeking to drive innovation, build capacity or foster collective action in the inclusive business or international development sectors.

A range of different partnership models are used in the Grow Asia network. The partnership model used in this case study, the Sustainable Cocoa Production Program (SCPP) presents a leading example of what can be achieved when different sectors work together. Whether you are working in Africa or Asia, on cocoa or rice, the SCPP model provides a useful framework, and some interesting insights into how to build a multi-stakeholder partnership. This study highlights seven key learnings from SCPP that Grow Asia believes are broadly applicable.

Cargill and CARE’s 50-year partnership offers insights and lessons for anyone looking to build an effective and long- term partnership. This Briefing Paper describes how the partnership has evolved from a primarily philanthropic relationship to one that, especially over the past 10 years, has genuinely drawn on the capabilities, skills and resources of the two partners.

This report reiterates the need for impact investors to raise and direct new capital to help meet the SDGs by 2030 and showcases how select impact investors are taking action. This compendium of five case studies describes how the goals can be woven into the various stages of the investment cycle, as well as investors’ motivations for doing so, advice for other investors, and outlook for the industry. Each case study also provides an example of an investment that contributes to the SDGs.