Browse by Theme: Private Sector

Many of our clothes here in the UK are made in Bangladesh, where the garment industry accounts for 78% of the economy. Those working in the industry, 85% of whom are women, are low paid, and have often had no access to education.

First grown by the British, in Sri Lanka in the 1800’s, tea remains one of the country’s primary export earners and employers. World renowned, ‘Ceylon Tea’
accounts for the third of the tea produced globally while it remains one of the largest exporters of tea in the world. Nationally tea is one of the primary export earners, while the industry employs 10% of the country’s labour force, mostly consisting of women. Despite its pivotal role in the country’s economy for two centuries, those who live and work on the tea plantations are some of the poorest and most marginalized in the country. This brief looks at how multi-faceted worker engagement can improve the development of the tea sector.

With support from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), CARE Zambia is using a market-based approach to develop a sustainable network of 500 rural agro dealers, which will provide 91,000 smallholder farmers with access to a range of high-quality, affordable agricultural inputs and improved technologies. This innovation brief highlights one unique strategy CARE has used to enable agrodealers to go the last kilomenter in input supply in Zambia – the introduction of pedaling power.

CARE's programme on the tea sector of Sri Lanka demonstrates how improving worker's lives makes sense for businesses.

In 2009, CARE invested USD 100,000 in Mobile Transactions Zambia, Ltd to create an e-voucher system to improve asset transfer programs targeting rural smallholders. The system has dramatically reduced costs, increased efficiency and transparency and is fostering the expansion of a network of over 500 enterprises dedicated to providing Zambian farmers with affordable access to quality inputs.

In rural Bangladesh artisans are using the traditional art of indigo cultivation in order to lift themselves out of poverty.

Global issues such as climate change, the financial crisis, food insecurity and conflict are converging at the expense of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. CARE International recognises that these complex issues cannot and should not be tackled by civil society, the state and donor community alone – the private sector has an important contribution to make. As an international development organisation CARE has a responsibility to find ways of maximising the positive impact the private sector has on poverty.