Supply Chains

Excerpt

In the Middle With You

An excerpt from Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source on the failure of peer-to-peer lending.

Podcast

A Fair Deal for Coffee Growers

Hosted by Jonathan Levine 2

Vega Coffee lifts up struggling coffee growers in Latin America by enabling them to roast, package, and ship their own beans directly to US customers—and reinvents the supply chain in the process.

Turning Short-Term Crisis Relief Into Longer-Term Social Innovation

By Ralph Hamann, Jenny Soderbergh, Annika Surmeier, Christine Fyvie, Thanyani Ramarumo, Mandy Rapson, Nadia Sitas & Ashley Newell

How civil society responses to COVID-19 in South Africa are resisting the all-too-common return to pre-crisis “normal.”

Building Investor Appetite for Nutritious Food

By Stella Nordhagen & Sofía Condés

Increasing access to quality food worldwide requires money from investors for food-related enterprises. Blended finance can help boost their risk tolerance. A Viewpoint from the Summer 2020 issue.

Boosting Farmer Incomes in Agricultural Supply Chains

By Joost Guijt, Beth Jenkins, Uwe Gneiting & Heather Pfahl 1

Effectively tackling farmer poverty in global supply chains is not about repeating what others have tried in the past—it’s about doing business differently.

A Surgical Road Map for Global Prosperity

By Kristin A. Sonderman, Isabelle Citron, Alexander W. Peters & John G. Meara

Massive investment in surgical care is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and improving health equity. The surgical device industry should take the lead. Open access to this article is made possible by Harvard Medical School.

Business

How Blockchain Can Make Supply Chains More Humane

By Dean Pinkert, James Ton-that & Ravi Soopramanien

By making data easily verifiable, resistant to alteration, and instantly available to anyone within a network, the incorruptible digital ledgers known as blockchains can help ensure that commercial goods are ethically produced from mine to store.

Human Rights

Land Rights Pose Opportunities, Not Just Risks, to Companies and Social Justice

By Chris Jochnick 2

By focusing on four critical aspects of land rights, businesses can not only manage risks, but also do a great deal of global good while strengthening their bottom lines.

Podcast

Human Rights

Ending Slavery and Child Labor in Global Supply Chains

Featuring Siddharth Kara, Bama Athreya, Leslie Johnston, & Nina Smith

Human trafficking, modern slavery, and child labor remain pressing concerns in many industries’ global supply chains. Harvard’s Siddharth Kara leads a discussion on how each sector can play a role in finding solutions.