The solution to improving food security and resilience in Africa is no secret: all sectors need to work together to scale up climate-smart agriculture. What's needed now is political will to make that happen.
After 17 months of debate, the UN Open Working Group has proposed a set of Sustainable Development Goals to succeed the Millennium Development Goals, which expire next year. These goals focus on eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.
How do these newly proposed goals square with this ambitious aim?
New Ventures India, part of WRI’s center for environmental entrepreneurship, and CDF-IFMR convened a workshop in Mumbai earlier this summer to address the barriers to the clean energy industry serving India’s rural poor. Representatives from every major clean energy company in India joined senior executives from corporations with rural marketing and distribution expertise, representatives from Indian regulatory bodies, and end-user consumer financing experts at the event.
Clean energy products, such as solar cookers, and services, such as renewable energy, have the potential to provide power to India’s rural poor without the negative environmental effects of traditional fuel sources. Tapping into India’s Base of the Pyramid (BoP) market can also create profits for companies providing these clean energy products and services. So why hasn’t this market taken off yet in India?
Skyrocketing food prices have triggered riots across the developing world and forced the world's largest food aid agency to confront a $500 million deficit. The media are focused on short-term consequences, but there are also concerns about the long-term forecast for global food security, poverty, and hunger.
"The Thinkers 50" biennial poll of the most influential business people in the world is topped by WRI board member C.K. Prahalad. The recognition speaks volumes about business-led approaches to sustainability around the world.
