Development Crossing

IBM announced the Carbon Tradeoff Modeler, a first-of-a-kind tool that enables organizations to analyze and manage the climate impact of their supply chains. The tool allows organizations to understand the outcome of critical tradeoffs to make smarter energy choices and better economic decisions by optimizing on service levels, quality, cost, and carbon dioxide emissions. Developed by IBM Research an… Continue

Absa Group Limited, one of South Africa's largest financial services groups, took another positive step in its CSR agenda this week when its sourcing group launched the Supply Chain Corporate Responsibility (SCCR) initiative, a new framework for Absa and its suppliers to work together. All suppliers are required to complete a SCCR ques… Continue

Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think, by Vijay Mahajan, is availabe for pre-order on Amazon.… Continue

An article in Time this week suggests that as microfinance institutions look to access more capital, they are increasingly becoming regulated financial institutions, and worryingly, losing the number of females clients that they have. The findings are a result of a landmark study by Women's World Banking (WWB), a network of microfinance institutions in 29 countries, which found that over five years, the percentage of clients who were women moved from an average of 88% to 60%. This is troubling s… Continue

The nearly 100 environmentally and ethically screened funds, worth more than £9bn in total, have answered critics well over the past few years who claimed ethical investing meant lower returns. However, an article in the Daily Mail this week suggests that criticism is headed back with ethical funds losing 9.5% on average in the 12 months to April 1 this year. This… Continue

Ben & Jerry's and the ONE Campaign have teamed up to create a new channel of awareness to end extreme poverty and suffering with its newest flavor, "ONE Cheesecake Brownie." Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, said, “It’s inconceivable that one out of every six people in this day and age lives on less than one dollar a day and that 25,000 people die of hunger and malnutrition daily...We’re glad to be supporting ONE.org as they lead th… Continue

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands, known for its "sense and simplicity," has developed a Solar panel driven lighting system to serve some of the approximately 2 billion people world wide who have no access to electricity. The system, which is part of it's SMILE (Sustainable Model in Lighting Everywhere) initiative, will be distributed by a local NGO in Ghana called New Energy, and aims to prevent the need for people to use expensive and dangerous alternatives for lighting, such as ker… Continue

The man that seemingly can do no wrong has picked up yet another award. Muhammad Yunus has just been awarded the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award by the Tech Museum of Innovation for his contributions to technology. "Technology is making more changes in our way of life than ever in human history...The way the Internet and the mobile phone are spreading, you cannot compare with any technology of the past,"says Muhammad Yunus. His recent book promotes his hopes for "social business," in… Continue

ACCION International, a private, nonprofit organization that provides individuals with microenterprise loans, business training and other financial services recently announced that the number of active clients it reaches has surpassed 3 million. The organization, with its network of 35 partner organizations in 25 countries, made $3.72 billion worth of small loans to poor microentrepreneurs around the world in 2006, and expects its 2007 results to exceed this once results are released. Maria Ote… Continue

In a speech hosted by the Center for Global Development ahead of next week’s Spring meetings of the World Bank Group and the IMF, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick outlined a plan for sovereign wealth funds to invest 1% of their holdings in equity in sub-Saharan Africa as a way of tapping long-term global liquidity to boost investment opportunities and development. His speech: "Last October, shortly after joining the World Bank Group, I proposed a vision to guide our work: to help build a… Continue