Here is an interesting summary of our joint workshop initiated by CARE Bangladesh, supported by iDE Bangladesh, Market Development Forum, BIF and organized by Renaissance Consultants Ltd. This article was published in the monthly news magazine called the Bangladesh Brand Forum.

In Bangladesh, BIF has worked with Agora, one of the large Retail Chain stores owned and managed by Rahimafrooz Group, a large renowned conglomerate. Details of that project can be seen in the link but briefly our intervention was targeted towards the capacity building of their SME suppliers to deliver better quality and more quantity of fresh produce to match the…

As we try and support commercial businesses to help them develop fortified biscuits for the retail market in Bangladesh - we are trying to draw on lessons learnt from various other nutrition related projects in Bangladesh. For example you can read a write up of the Grameen - Danone Joint Venture trying to produce and sell fortified yogurts to the…

An eminent Economist made a thought provoking comment today about the future of the Ready Made Garments (RMG) industry in Bangladesh, which earns us the majority of our foreign export income. He said that the Global Value Chains of RMG will soon squeeze the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) RMG factories out of…

Most poor households in the rural areas of Bangladesh do not have enough food to feed their children. That is why after the children reach a certain age (between 5 – 7); they are sent to work. Most of the times, they do not get any wages – but they get three meals a day. Gradually, they begin to get some money for their labor, as they go further and further away from any opportunity to go to school. They remain illiterate most of their lives and their income potential remains very low even…

Sometimes when you ask the right audience a hard question –you get honest and direct answers! We asked a pool of high ranking business officials, “Who was responsible for alleviating poverty in this country – the Government, NGOs or the private sector?” And they said that the private sector has an important role to play – but frankly they did not always know exactly what needs to be done!

Voluntary Services Organization (VSO) Bangladesh and BIF Bangladesh got together and organized a…

Bumper Crops - Good News or Bad?

A report on BDNews24 Warehouse packed with rice, import zero! says that Bangladesh does not need to import rice in 2012, the staple food of the 148 million population, for the next year, unless there is a natural disaster. But this is not necessarily good news for the farmers who grow rice.

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The following article talks about reviewing of the MDGs in 2015 - in a more inclusive manner than before. I want to draw everyone's attention to some people who are missing. Business men and women.

In the past decade a lot of the donors have come to the realization - that without linking development to sustainable businesses - the impact are not sustainable in the long run. I am not aware of any consultation with businesses for giving input to the revision of MDGs - but if anyone here…

The G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation is a global search for businesses with innovative, scalable, and commercially viable ways of working with low-income people in developing countries.

The Group of 20 and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, have launched this online competition to find the best examples worldwide of businesses in developing countries that provide critical goods, services, and livelihood opportunities in financially, environmentally, and socially…

Business Innovation Facility conducted a series of events in collaboration with the Responsible Business Promotion in Bangladesh (RBPB) project of CARE Bangladesh. The series began with two separate workshops for the business and development sector partners identifying the challenges of working with the other. More details can be found in my blog titled…

Those of you who have been lucky enough to work with both businesses firms and non-Government organizations – are aware I am sure, that they do not talk the same language. Sometimes they find that their value systems are so different and their ways of working are so far apart – they would never be able to work together as partners. Fortunately (some might say Unfortunately!) for us at Business Innovation Facility – we are trying to get these two types…

Source: M4P Hub Group News at LinkedIn

Engineers Without Borders (EWB) has taken a bold step in the development community and encouraged others to do the same: they admit failure.

In the…

A professional educator named James Patsalides posted in LinkedIn a question that has been on my mind since I joined BIF. My experience of working with large corporate in Bangladesh has shown me that employees get so set in their ways of work - that they cannot think outside of the box, create changes, innovate etc. In fact, they are particularly resistant to change!

So, James Patsalides rightly said "Companies struggle with this... how to stimulate innovation,…