New initiative to empower female coffee growers

Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade Africa have received £389,831 from The Big Lottery Fund to launch a three-year project that will encourage the transfer of coffee bush ownership to female coffee farmers, who, despite contributing up to 70% of the labour required to plant, grow and harvest the coffee, currently own very little of the land they work on.

India’s largest network of female social entrepreneurs to launch in Kerala

Sandesh One is a public-private partnership social enterprise that is being set up to develop a network of trained female entrepreneurs. The initiative is due to be launched by chief minister Oommen Chandy on 12 January and aims to empower over 1000 women with the entrepreneurial and management skills required to set up and run development initiatives across the country.

Trust in short supply in the UK – is social enterprise the answer?

A new survey commissioned by the Social Enterprise Mark CIC has found that just under two-thirds of those surveyed agreed with the statement that a lot of companies pretend to be ethical just to sell more products. Lucy Findlay, CEO of the Social Enterprise Mark, said: “Trust is in short supply. Social enterprises are all about accountability, transparency and fairly distributed profits."

Lucy Findlay. Photo credit: Social Enterprise Mark CIC

Jamaica to host its first Social Enterprise Summit

The Social Enterprise Boost Initiative, which was set up by the JN Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development, is to host the Caribbean nation’s first Social Enterprise Summit at the end of this month. The Summit’s keynote speaker is to be CEO of Social Enterprise UK Peter Holbrook. 

Record year for UK-based impact investor

Enterprise Ventures, an organisation that provides both venture capital and loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in England and Wales, completed a total of 220 deals with a value of £30m in 2014. This brings the total amount invested by the company in the past four years to over £100m.

Mobile phone company supports Ghana’s social entrepreneurs

Tigo – a mobile phone service provider that aims to provide affordable network services to people in emerging markets – has given laptops to three social entrepreneurs that are working to create opportunities for children in deprived communities. The entrepreneurs come from three organisations – Tech Needs Girls, IT4Teens and the Street Library Academy. 

Photo credit: Dirk Sebregts