Education Poses an Existential Threat to Extremism
Afghan girls and boys may lack books, pens and laptops, but in their thirst for education, they have plenty to teach the world. Indeed, one of the few things the…
Muzoon Almellehan on the Moral Imperative of Equality of Education Opportunity
According the UNHCR, there are 25.4 million people currently registered as refugees, and over half of them are under the age of 18. These numbers will continue to grow as…
Fragile Futures for Hidden Workers When Consumers Stop Buying
With demand for toilet paper and other household items in the headlines, the COVID-19 crisis has made supply chains news, highlighting what disruptions mean to consumers, companies, and workers. This…
Sohini Battacharya on How Small Sparks of Change Turn the Tide on Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination
Sohini Bhattacharya is the CEO and President of Breakthrough, a global human rights organization working to drive culture change to build a world where all people live in dignity, equality,…
Levers to Unlock New Capital
What internal and external levers can social enterprises activate to finance impact at scale? Root Capital on the challenges of blending colors of money inside an organization: Willy Foote, the…
Evolving Your Talent
How do your talent needs evolve as you drive toward scale and how can you evolve with them? Health Leads on actively navigating talent through strategic shifts Alexandra Quinn, CEO…
Leveraging Government Partnerships
How can social enterprises prepare for and successfully partner with government to dramatically accelerate the scale of impact? Code for America on understanding the whole government ecosystem before engaging Jen…
Adolescent Girls and Young Women Are New Frontline of HIV/AIDS Epidemic: A Solution Lies Within Their Communities
Dimakatso, 23, lives in Soshanguve, South Africa. Her father passed away a little over a year ago, forcing her mother to relocate to a neighboring town for work, and leaving…
A Tech Bootcamp in Peru to Close the Gender Gap
When Mariana Costa Checa was bootstrapping a software development start-up with partners in Lima several years ago, finding the right talent for the team was a challenge. There simply weren’t…
How Social Entrepreneurs Brought Hope to 2018
Much of the news from 2018 doesn't paint a pretty picture of the world. But we won't dwell on that. Instead, we'd like to wrap up the year by turning…
Does Social Innovation Actually Drive Gender Equity?
The rapid development and diffusion of innovation, including digital technologies, is challenging the systems and capacity of traditional international development partners. Testing and scaling of innovation and technology require agile…
Safeena Husain on Breaking the Cycle of Illiteracy
Educate Girls, an Indian NGO working to enroll out-of-school girls and increase learning for girls and boys, recently reached a major milestone: completion of the world’s first Development Impact Bond…
Rural Women and Girls Catalyzing Change in the Climate Crisis
With World Environment Day this week, we're thinking a lot about the intersection of climate change and injustice, a place where many of our Awardees work daily. Climate change deepens…
A Seed of Maize: Kickstart on Storytelling for Impact
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 12 million people who rely on smallholder agriculture have improved their yields and income with the help of a single, simple piece of technology: a human-powered water…
The Far-Reaching Economic Impacts of Child Marriage
Every minute of every day, 28 girls under age 18 are married off against their will. Child marriage has broad and devastating impacts, and a new study from the World Bank…
World’s First Development Impact Bond for Education: What Educate Girls Has Learned
Two years into a pioneering three-year development impact bond (DIB), Educate Girls—which tackles gender inequality in India’s educational system, is showing promising results. With a DIB, a service provider receives…
Field Notes: Inside a Pratham Classroom in Karnataka
In rural India, half of village children can’t read or understand math at a level appropriate to their age and grade. This disparity in education creates ripples through society; it…
The Story of Gulafsa and Ruksar: Two Child Laborers Now Out of the Shadows
Millions of children are forced into labor each year. Consumers at the end of the supply chain often know nothing of the lives of those who made the product; it's…
What Next in a Global Labor Landscape in Flux?
“I see aspirations converging all over the world and I’m really worried about it because unless we move more quickly in fighting poverty, unless we move more quickly in creating…
Michael Franti and Bono Celebrate Our 2017 Skoll Awardees
Invest. Connect. Celebrate. This is the Skoll Foundation’s mission and deep commitment to the field of social entrepreneurship. The Skoll World Forum is one of our greatest opportunities for the 'celebrate'…
Highlights from the Social Progress Imperative 2017 Summit
“What if sociologists had as much influence as economists?” That’s the provocation with which Bjarni Benediktsson, Iceland’s 46-year-old Prime Minister of Iceland, set the tone for recent global summit of…
Highlights from Skoll World Forum 2017
The annual Skoll World Forum was, as always, an inspiring, energizing, and at times dizzying week of conversations and celebrations in the hallowed halls and cobblestoned streets of Oxford. Stephan Chambers…
Fear Doesn’t Live Here: Fighting Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa
By: Fiona Mavhinga, Founder, Camfed’s CAMA alumnae network “I have seen girls suffer,” Mary told me. “And I knew I had to speak for them.” Mary was born poor and grew…
#StandWithMe: Empathy Builds Gender-Inclusive Safe Spaces
I was moderating an open discussion at a program on “safety in public transport” in a college in the state of Haryana, India. The students had heard about how girls…
South Asia: Skoll Awardees Drive Change in Health and Gender Equality
Last month I traveled to Nepal and India to meet with Skoll Awardees and partners and learn about their progress in deploying mobile health solutions, fighting gender bias, and expanding…
Field Visit: Camfed Succeeds Through Community Solidarity
Raymond Guthrie and I are in Zimbabwe visiting Camfed, one of our early Skoll Award winners (class of 2005), to learn more about their work within rural communities to support…
The Lynchpin to Women and Girls’ Well-Being
Women and girls make up two-thirds of the world’s 774 million illiterate adults and more than two-thirds of the 130 million school-age children not enrolled in school. By missing out…
Malala Yousafzai: “Education Is Mightier than Guns”
Malala Yousafzai grew up in the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan. From the age of 10, she has campaigned for the rights of girls to receive an education. At 15,…
