BSR Insight Articles About Community Engagement & Development

Partnership Innovation: It Takes a Supply Chain to Improve Women’s Health

Over the past six weeks, I have traveled from meeting to meeting in Washington, D.C., Bangkok, and Geneva to develop opportunities for BSR to partner with funders and others to provide resources to tackle challenges as diverse and broad as childhood nutrition, climate change adaptation, and energy efficiency. These discussions have gotten me thinking about the importance of innovative partnerships in addressing big challenges, and how business can be more effective in its work with government, civil society, and even private funders. Read more →

Posted: May 31, 2011 | Topics: Climate Change, Community Engagement & Development, Consumer Products, Financial Services, Human Rights, Labor Migration, Stakeholder Relations, Supply Chain

New Partnerships to Focus on Bringing Low-Cost Drugs to Africa

Mark Little, Director, Healthcare, Advisory Services

With more Chinese life sciences companies expanding their research and development capabilities, these firms have an opportunity to supply much-needed medicines at a reduced rate for people in the Global South. To date, Chinese companies have focused mainly on domestic markets because of government incentives. Read more →

Posted: May 31, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Health Care

The Human Face of Water-Related Risk Assessments

Linda Hwang, Former Manager, Research

At the CEO Water Mandate meeting in Copenhagen last week—which focused on corporate water disclosure—one participant reminded us of the connections between water, healthy populations, and corporate performance. Despite the growing number of  tools to help investors and companies assess water-related risks, companies will miss a critical factor when evaluating their long-term risks if the tools do not link physical-, regulatory-, and reputational-risk frameworks to people’s ability to participate in the growth of healthy economies. Read more →

Posted: May 24, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Economic Development, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Strategy & Integration, Supply Chain, Water

Coca-Cola Announces US$6 Million Investment in Clean Water Programs

According to the World Health Organization, African women and children spend up to 40 billion hours per year collecting water. Because they often travel long distances to retrieve clean water, women frequently resort to using unsafe water sources, putting themselves and their families at risk of life-threatening diseases. Read more →

Posted: April 5, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Water, Women & Sustainability

Building Effective Local Content Strategies

Jessica Davis Pluess, Manager, Research

BSR's new report highlights some of the challenges and opportunities extractives companies face in building local content programs that drive commercial value and deliver sustainable local development benefits in countries where they operate. Read more →

Posted: March 29, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Economic Development, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Energy, Human Rights, Mining, Stakeholder Relations, Strategy & Integration, Supply Chain