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Girl, Ineffective?

The idea that the fight against poverty needs to put women and girls at the top of the agenda has been gaining traction in recent years. This has been a long slog, boosted by the advocacy of people like Sheryl WuDunn and Nick Kristof, the authors of the terrific ‘Half The Sky’. Equally important has […]

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“Bah! Humbug!” in the Wall Street Journal

Two recent articles in the Wall Street Journal have taken shots at elements of philanthrocapitalism – the idea, endorsed by many of the most successful capitalists, that capitalism needs to make a more deliberate effort to improve society. Like Dickens’ Mr Scrooge, the writers’ response to the suggestion that firms and business leaders could do […]

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Do it different in Haiti

We have had the impressive spontaneous outpouring of generosity in response to the crisis in Haiti and the fine words about building back the small Caribbean nation better than it was before. The question now is ‘how’? That is going to be one of the hot topics for the leading brains of government, business and […]

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Don’t Just Do It

Some people question whether companies can really bring anything unique to solving society’s most difficult problems. An interesting example of how they can make a difference recently came to our attention. This involved Nike, a company that used to be regarded as a pariah by critics of multinationals because of its labour practices in developing […]